FORT MYERS, Fla. – Two teams that found themselves in the same pool to start off the 14u Super25 National Championship forged their way to the championship game to battle for 14u supremacy. EvoShield Canes-Pate blew open a tight semifinal contest by scoring six runs in the sixth inning to defeat FTB Kudagra Royal 10-3, while IBAHS used a walk-off hit to outlast the Rebels 2-1 in a classic pitcher’s duel.
The Canes and IBAHS faced off in the third game of pool play for each side on Wednesday, and the Canes ran out to a 5-0 lead after four innings before hanging on to win 8-5. That victory earned the Canes the top seed amongst that pool, and would send each team to different sides of the playoff bracket.
With the Canes and IBAHS taking their quarterfinals matchups 13-1 and 6-3 respectively, Friday’s semifinals saw each team having to navigate tight games for most of the morning, with each team finding different ways to come out on top.
The Canes fell behind 2-0 to FTB after two innings, but responded with two runs in the third to even the score up. In the fifth, the Canes jumped ahead with another two-run inning, with a run coming in on a wild pitch and an RBI single coming off the bat of Jack Howell (2020, Fuquay Varina, N.C.).
FTB got a run back in the bottom half thanks to an RBI single from Manuel Beltre (2022, Miami, Fla.) to close the margin to 4-3.
Payton Green (2021, Cary, N.C.) led off the sixth for the Canes with a double down the left field line and would come around to score on an error. The bottom of the Canes order would continue to contribute as Tyler Christmas (2021, Summerville, S.C.) drove in two runs with a single up the middle. Jaxon Masterson (2021, Raleigh, N.C.) doubled home another run, and the Canes would add on two more runs with more defensive miscues plaguing FTB as the game quickly got out of hand.
Cyle Phelan (2021, Fuquay Varina, N.C) (4IP, 5K) and Marlowe Iorio (2020, Chapel Hill, N.C) (3 innings, 4 strikeouts), limited a potent FTB lineup to only three base hits on the mound as the Canes stamped their place in the championship game.
The other semifinal saw IBAHS have their hands full trying to figure out Rebels’ starter Ryan Waldschmidt (2021, Bradenton, Fla.).
The righthander stymied IBAHS to just three hits through five innings and was staked to a 1-0 lead after an RBI double from Caden Chamberlain (2021, Bradenton, Fla.) in the fourth.
In the sixth, IBAHS finally broke through. An unsuccessful squeeze play wiped out a potential tying run, but with a two-out RBI single from Mario Zabala (2020, San Juan, P.R.) salvaged the IBAHS threat to even the game at one.
In the seventh, IBAHS got a leadoff single from Jodian Gonzalez (2020, Fajardo, P.R.), and he was promptly moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, a passed ball allowed Gonzalez to reach third. On a 2-1 count, Edwin Oquendo (2020, Trujillo Alto, P.R.) bounced a ball that eluded the third baseman and brought home Gonzalez to send IBAHS to the title game.
Saturday’s championship game will take place at 8:00 a.m., and will be played at the stadium at JetBlue Park.