EMERSON, Ga.—The 15u PG World Series has come down to four teams heading into the semifinals Saturday. After a back-and-forth battle between two of the most talented rosters at the tournament, Team Elite came out on top, knocking off back-to-back champions, Houston Banditos, 6-5, in a come-from-behind win.
It was a battle of arms for the first two innings, with both Elite’s Liam Norris and Banditos’ Joseph Cruz shutting down both offenses until the third came around.
Starting with a walk from Cruz, the Banditos bats came alive by way of a single from Jorge Figueroa, to bring in Samuel Infante, who reached base on a throwing error, which brought in Cruz. With Yanis Ortiz’s patience at the plate, he drew a walk and stole second to be in scoring position for a timely RBI single to right from Andrew Fernandez to make it a 4-0 game.
As the Banditos tacked on another run in the top of the fourth, it looked like a there was not let up in the lineup, as Cruz continued to dominate with a fastball, curveball mix. The primary catcher threw three quality innings before the wheels came off in the fourth when Elite answered back with a six-run fourth to pull ahead.
The Elite comeback started with Jack Bulger’s free pass on a hit-by-pitch. Kellum Clark followed suit on an eight-pitch at-bat where he eventually drew a walk for Hunter Marsh and Robert Moore to hit a back-to-back double and single to drive in two runs.
Carter Sanford continued the merry-go-round by roping a RBI single to score Moore. Both Wyatt Crowell and Austin Hendrick contributed with RBI singles to make it a tie game at 5-5. With Elite batting around in the fourth, Clark came up and replicated his first at-bat of the inning to walk in the go-ahead run.
As the time limit neared, the Banditos were unable to manufacture a comeback in the top of the fifth, leading to another productive and long inning for Team Elite in the bottom of the fifth, as the game ended after five innings.
Team Elite’s resiliency will be a much-needed factor as they head into the semifinals Saturday, where they face Top Tier Americans, who won its quarterfinal game against Elite Squad 3-2. Elite is keeping its efforts focused on tomorrow’s game, with superstition leading to a decline to comment about today’s win, which seemed to work for them in Fort Myers, where they were crowned 15u BCS Champions.
“I know it never happens, I’ve done a lot of these, we’ve done a lot of these, our guys are superstitious and want to focus on baseball,” said head coach Brooke Richards. “We gotta do 'us' at this point.”
As they keep to their game plane, the other two teams joining Elite and Top Tier are the Georgia Jackets and Orlando Scorpions, who both shutout the Roadrunners and 6-4-3 DP Cougars, respectively.
The Jackets’ duo of Hayde Key and Hudson Sapp teamed up to allow just two hits in the game, with Key's line of 6 1/3 innings with four walks and six strikeouts leading to the only two hits on the day. Sapp closed out the seventh with two strikeouts.
The offense was equally dominant on the day, with Sapp playing both sides of the baseball strong, going 2-for-2 with two walks. Catcher Corey Collins drove in two off a triple in the first to set the tone, while also being the only run production in the game until the fifth.
A strong set of arms seemed to be the recipe for success, as the Scorpions’ C.J. Kayfus pitched a complete-game, two-hit shutout with four strikes to send the Scorps into the last day of the tournament.
Left fielder Corey Robinson had the best day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a RBI single up the middle, which was part of a two-run fifth for the Scorpions, with Bryan Muniz fielder’s choice scoring the second run.
As for Elite’s competition, Top Tier, it was a game of whoever could execute situational hitting. Elite Squad seemed to make the most of their three hits on the day, scoring two runs in the fifth to tie up the game 2-2. Top Tier’s righthanded pitcher, Tanner Mink broke the tie in the sixth off a sac fly to center to bring in Jalen Greer, who hit a single to center to lead-off the inning.
As tomorrow’s semifinals start at 8:00 a.m., it will be anyone’s game. But the one certainty will be a team of new faces taking home the honors at the end of the day at sixth-annual 15u PG World Series.