2015 WWBA World Championship: Canes pitch way to Jupiter 3-peat | Matt Manning feature

It's good to go out on top. That's exactly what six 2015 Perfect Game All-Americans did a little over a week ago when as members of the EvoShield Canes they won the WWBA World Championship. That championship marks the third straight in Jupiter, Fla. for the Canes, a program that appears to be building a dynasty on the travel baseball circuit.

And while the Canes entered the event as one of, if not the favorite to win it all, they still managed to do so in impressive fashion.

They finished the tournament with a perfect 8-0 record. Seven of those games were shutouts as they outscored their opponents 51 to 1. Sixteen of the players on the 25-man roster were named to the All-Tournament Team, which includes Brandon Martarano, named the event's Most Valuable Player, and Most Valuable Pitcher Matt Manning.

The roster was about as star-studded as they come, with 23 players committed to a major Division I university and one more committed to one of the best junior colleges in the nation.

As noted above, six of those players – Grant Bodison, Khalil Lee, Nicholas Quintana, Joe Rizzo, Avery Tuck and Manning – participated in the Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park in mid-August. That group, along with several others, also took part in numerous high-level tournament and showcase events during the course of the summer, including the PG National Showcase held in Fort Myers, Fla. in mid-June.

“This is definitely my favorite baseball (memory),” Joe Rizzo, a native of Oak Hill, Va. and the 11th ranked player overall in the high school class of 2016 player rankings, told Perfect Game after winning the 2015 WWBA World Championship. “Especially given the summer that we had. We didn't play (as strong as) we could have in our past tournaments. Now coming out on top in the fall has been huge for us and this is probably my favorite moment in my baseball career so far.”

Rizzo had a particularly busy summer, playing at almost every major notable showcase event, including the PG National Showcase and the East Coast Professional Showcase. He also participated in the 17u PG WWBA National Championship in Emerson, Ga., and the 17u PG World Series in Goodyear, Ariz., prior to his performance in the PG All-American Classic.

In Jupiter, Rizzo was named to the all-tournament team for the second year in a row – the sixth all-tournament team he was named to out of the 10 PG tournaments he has attended – by hitting .364 (8-for-22) with five RBI and seven runs scored.

“Playing with the EvoShield Canes you're playing with some of the best players in the country,” he said. “I feel that's made me a better ballplayer because I know that everyone around me is just as strong as I could potentially be, and that I should play to my full potential because I know those guys will as well.”

Last year, Rizzo played for the EvoShield Canes younger team, Team EvoShield, which is effectively the junior varsity version of the Canes. Bodison, Martorano, Michael Bielien, Matthew Cronin and Austin Langworthy were among Rizzo's teammates both years and represent a program that points to many more years of future success.

Joe Rizzo went 1-for-1 with two walks in the 2015 Perfect Game All-American Classic