CF Gators rally to win 16u PG World Series title

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – The Central Florida Gators came into this week’s 16u Perfect Game World Series hungry for bear, and by late afternoon Saturday, they were finally feeling gloriously satiated.

Perhaps feeling like eight innings was enough to play on a cloudy, hot and humid summer afternoon in the north Atlanta suburbs, top class of 2018 prospect Nolan Gorman delivered a two-out, walk-off single in the bottom of the frame that led the No. 2-seeded Gators to a 3-2 victory over the No. 4 Dirtbags in the championship game played on Field 12 at PG Park South-LakePoint.

The PG national championship title was well-earned by the Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Gators (7-0-0), who had to fight for everything they got this week. The Sedina, N.C.-based Dirtbags (5-2-0) also battled tirelessly to reach the championship, only to come up short by just the narrowest of margins.

It wasn’t by any stretch a championship that was gift-wrapped for the Gators. The ‘Bags struck first, pushing a run across in the top of the first inning on an RBI fielder’s choice groundout from Sam Zayicek. Central Florida tied it in bottom of the third on an RBI double from Grayson Kicklighter, and the score remained knotted at 1-1 after seven innings of play.

The Dirtbags regained the upper-hand in the top of the eighth when Hunter Christopher came through with an RBI double, but couldn’t build on that 2-1 advantage. The Gators’ Mason Denaburg delivered a one-out RBI single to tie the score at 2 in the bottom of the frame and one out later Denaburg scored on Gorman’s walk-off smash that sailed over the right-fielder’s outstretched glove.

“You always have to feel good with him at the plate,” Gators’ head coach Joe Mercadante said of Gorman, a U. of Arizona commit from Glendale ranked No. 38 nationally. “But their guy who had come in at the end (Ryder Giles) had done a good job of sinking the ball and staying away from guys, and Nolan put a really good swing on the pitch. We talk to him all the time about just putting a good swing a good pitch and he stayed within himself and didn’t let the moment get too big.”

Both teams’ inability to put runs on the board was a direct reflection of both teams’ pitching prowess. Gators’ starter Carter Stewart, a 2018 right-hander, allowed the one earned run on four hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in 6 2/3 innings of work before departing. The ‘Bags 2017 left-hander Angel Zarrate scattered five hits over five innings, allowing one earned run while striking out five and walking two.

There were offensive highlights on both sides, however. Gorman finished 2-for-4 with the RBI and Joseph Charles, a top-40 ranked 2019, was 2-for-3 with two runs scored for the Gators; Giles finished with a pair of singles and scored a pair of runs for the Dirtbags.

“This was kind of what we’ve come to expect,” Mercadante said of the championship game. “The guys came out and battled and we faced a great arm – Angel (Zarrate) did an outstanding job for the Dirtbags early on and that made it made it tough for us. That’s kind of been the hallmark of our team. When we get down a run or two, our guys stay composed and just really get back out there and do their thing.

“There’s no panic in these guys, there’s no pressure they put on each other, and everybody does their job out there,” he continued. “It worked out again for us but we were fortunate to get out with a win against a really good team today.”

As reported earlier this week, the Gators finished 7-1-0 and as runner-up at the 2015 15u PG World Series after a 3-1 championship game loss to the Houston Banditos last July; they were 8-1-0 after a loss in the third-round of the playoffs at the 2016 17u PG WWBA National Championship early this July; and they went 8-1-1 after a loss in the quarterfinals at the 16u PG WWBA National Championship a couple of weeks later. That amounted to a combined record of 23-3-1 without a title to talk about.

“This experience has been unreal,” the Gators’ Andrew Roberts, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, said after Saturday’s walk-off win. “We fought really hard for all we’ve accomplished and it feels really good to have it finally pay off. … We executed and we never gave up, and this time we found it inside of us to finally get ourselves a championship.”

Roberts, a 6 foot-1, 170-pound 2019 third baseman/right-hander from Altamonte Springs, was named MVP after a week in which he went a team-high 11-for-23 (.478) with 11 singles, three RBI and five runs scored. He knows he didn’t do this alone:

“You know everyone’s got your back the whole time,” Roberts said of his teammates. “If you don’t get the job done, the guy behind you is going to get it done, and that’s a great feeling.”

Stewart, a 6-foot-5, 190-pounder from Melbourne, Fla., was named the Most Valuable Pitcher based on his strong championship game effort. He had made a start earlier in the week and wasn’t nearly as effective, and finished the week having worked 9 2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs (2.17 ERA) on 10 hits with 11 strikeouts and two walks.

The 16u PG World Series semifinal games were played Friday night when the Dirtbags surprised No. 1 Game On Stealth (5-1-0) from Georgia, 7-0, and the Gators topped No. 3 U.S. Elite/Team Majestic (5-1-0) out of Pennsylvania, 6-2.

Six Dirtbags had two hits apiece in the relative rout of the Stealth, with the ‘Bags scoring single runs in each of the first and fifth innings, two in the third and finally three in sixth to salt it away.

Zayicek and Christopher each singled twice and drove in a pair of runs, the leadoff hitter Giles singled twice and scored three runs and No. 436-ranked Aaron Beasley counted a double among his two hits. No. 79-ranked 2018 right-hander Logan Jarosz delivered a complete-game, three-hit shutout with three strikeouts and one walk.

Gorman hit a one-out, two-run double that erased the Majestic’s 2-1 lead and Alexander Ramos added a two-run single as part of a five-run bottom of the sixth inning that carried the Gators to their semifinal win; No. 30-ranked Denaburg led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run.

Central Florida 2018 left-hander Matthew Liberatore, ranked No. 65 nationally, worked five innings without giving up an earned run on two hits, striking out three and walking four; No. 89 2018 righty Conner Thurman threw the last two innings and was touched for an earned run on one hit. U.S. Elite’s Justin Williams, ranked No. 448 nationally, had an RBI single in the top of the sixth that gave Majestic its 2-1 lead.

“This whole tournament, I thought they did an outstanding job of handling pressure,” Mercadante said. “Obviously, we’re expected to win a lot of ballgames – we have a great ball club – and it’s good when a team can handle those expectations and handle those pressures and still go out there and perform.

“They did a great job this whole tournament and hopefully that’s something they go forward with,” he concluded. “They’re going to face adversity at every level they play at from here on out, and to handle that they have to be patient and get through things like they did today.”


2016 16u Perfect Game World Series champions: Central Florida Gators



2016 16u Perfect Game World Series runner-up: Dirtbags



2016 16u Perfect Game World Series MVP: Andrew Roberts



2016 16u Perfect Game World Series MV-Pitcher: Carter Stewart

Cherry pickers: Banditos roll to 15u PGWS championship

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – It will go down as one of the greatest single-day performances in Perfect Game World Series history, regardless of age-group.

2018 middle-infielder/right-handed pitcher Derrick Cherry joined the 15u Banditos Elite team on Saturday after playing for the 16u Banditos Elite team earlier in the week, and put on a head-spinning offensive show that led the Banditos Elite to the championship at the 15u Perfect Game World Series.

Cherry, a University of Houston commit from Baytown, Texas, who is ranked No. 203 nationally, dropped a pair of three-run bombs and finished 3-for-3 with the six RBI and three runs scored as the No. 4-seeded Banditos Elite (5-2-0) from Tomball, Texas, pounded their way past the No. 3 East Cobb Colt .45’s (4-2-1) from Marietta, Ga., 15-4 in five innings, in the championship game, played on Field 16 at PG Park South-LakePoint.

In the two games Cherry played with the 15u Banditos Elite Saturday, he went 5-for-5 with two home runs, a double, nine RBI and four runs scored. He was also the winning pitcher in Saturday morning’s semifinal game, throwing 3 2/3 one-hit, two-strikeout shutout innings with a fastball that touched 91 mph. He was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for his one-day, two-game effort.

“I was just trying to wait (on the pitches) and hit the ball the other way; that’s all I really did,” said Cherry, a man of few words. “I like playing with my age-group a lot but I also like playing ‘up’ for the better competition, better pitching, to get ready for college. But it is fun playing with my age-group.”

The championship game seemed to be over before fans had a chance to settle into their stadium seats. The Banditos plated four runs in the top of the first and added six in the top of the second – the frame in which Cherry hit the first of his two three-run shots –and the score was 10-2 when lightning delayed the game for well over an hour in the middle of the second; it was 10-4 heading into the third.

Cherry hit his second three-run home run as part of a five-run fourth, which gave the Banditos its final 15-4 margin, enough to end the game by run-rule after five. And make no mistake, Cherry did not do this all by himself.

Tristan McDonough hit for the cycle, sans a home run, and drove in two runs and scored three; Cameron Godfrey tripled and singled, had two RBI and scored a run – Cherry, McDonough and Godfrey accounted for eight of the Banditos Elite’s 12 hits. The Colt .45’s totaled five hits, with Jonathan French contributing a triple, an RBI and a run scored.

Godfrey enjoyed a fine week, hitting .471 (8-for-17) with a triple, five RBI and four runs scored, but at the end of the day Cherry’s contributions couldn’t be ignored in terms of the MVP ballot.

“Derrick is a great all-around kid,” Banditos Elite head coach Sanson Faltine said. “He’s been with the Banditos since he was 5 years old … and he’s just been an outstanding athlete and an even better kid off the field. I’m not surprised what he did today; he’s capable of that and more.”

The East Cobb Colt .45’s right-hander/infielder/outfielder Gavin Lee was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher thanks to an outstanding effort in his team’s semifinal victory earlier in the day (see below); he was also 5-for-15 (.333) with a double, four RBI and five runs scored at the plate.

The road to the championship wasn’t an easy one for the Banditos Elite. They dropped their first two pool-play games of the tournament – 4-0 to the St. Louis Pirates and 5-2 to the Georgia Jackets – and at a 24-team tournament in which only the four pool champions advance to the playoffs, that’s a huge hole to dig out of.

But they rallied to win their next three games while the other five teams experienced struggles of their own, and when pool-play was completed, four of the six teams sported identical 3-2-0 records; the Banditos were awarded the championship.

“It wasn’t really just about today,” Faltine said. “We lost both of our games on the first day and most of the people, I guess, just counted us out. It’s a long climb getting to bracket-play and I told them, hey, we’ve got to go out there and battle; that’s what the Banditos organization prepares you for.

“I told them we’re here to see it all the way through and I wanted to see 110-percent from everybody and they bought in and started to do what they’re supposed to do,” he said. “And here we are with the championship”

In a pair of semifinal games played Saturday morning, the Colt .45’s decked No. 2 Hunter Pence Baseball Academy (3-1-2) out of Texas, 10-1 in five innings, and the Banditos broke open a scoreless tie with six runs in the top of the eighth to upset No. 1 Team GA Elite (5-1-0) from Georgia, 6-0 in eight innings.

Eight East Cobb batters combined for 12 hits in the rout of HPBA; the Colt .45’s led 4-1 at the end of four innings and won it by the run-rule with six-run top of the fifth. Mason Kearney stroked three singles and drove in three runs; Antonio Jareno doubled, singled, drove in a run and scored two; and Isaac Bouton had a pair of singles, an RBI and a run scored. The 2018 right-hander Lee tossed a five-inning one-hitter without allowing an earned run, striking out four without a walk.

Michael Fitzpatrick smacked a one-out, two-run double and two batters later No. 203-ranked and Cherry topped him with a three-run two-bagger to lead the Banditos’ surge in the eighth inning of their win over Team GA; No. 100-ranked Mississippi State recruit Jared Payne added an RBI single.

2019 left-hander Bryson Lucas (TCU), 2019 right-hander Jack Kochanowicz and Cherry, a 2018 righty, combined on an eight-inning, four-hit shutout, with six strikeouts and four walks. Team GA Elite 2018 right-hander Daulton Cummings did his part, throwing seven, three-hit, eight-strikeout shutout innings with issuing a walk.

A team from the Banditos’ organization, the Houston Banditos, won last year’s 15u PG World Series and the MVP Banditos were the 2015 13u PG World Series winner; a Houston Banditos upper-class team won the 2014 17u PG World Series championship. This is also the same team that won last week’s 15u PG WWBA National Championship here at LakePoint.

“That’s what we want our athletes to do. Believe in themselves and go out there and leave it all on the field,” Faltine said of the week past. “I couldn’t be more proud of this group this weekend. I think the Banditos organization might have set some sort of record with the back-to-back championships in the WWBA and now the World Series. What else can we ask for.”


2016 15u Perfect Game World Series champions: Banditos Elite



2016 15u Perfect Game World Series runnerup: East Cobb Colt .45's



2016 15u Perfect Game World Series MVP: Derek Cherry



2016 15u Perfect Game World Series MV-Pitcher: Gavin Lee

Elite Squad wears 14u PGWS crown with pride

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – The last time this 14u Elite Squad team was spotted at a Perfect Game national championship event was back on July 10 when it was getting ready to face the Texas Bombers Elite in a semifinal game at the 14u PG BCS  Finals at jetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Fla.

That one didn’t work out so well for the Squad, as they suffered a 9-4 setback to the Bombers and left Southwest Florida with a 7-1-0 record, two wins short of reaching their goal to capture the national championship. But there weren’t any heads hanging low as the team members headed back towards their homes on the Atlantic side of the Florida peninsula. They knew there would be other opportunities and they capitalized on one them late Saturday afternoon.

The No. 3-seeded Elite Squad pushed across three runs in the bottom of the third inning that proved to be a little more than enough, received some pretty effective pitching from a couple of 2019 hurlers and managed to get past the No. 4 SGV Hustle, 3-1, in the championship game of the 14u Perfect Game World Series, played on Field 14 at PG Park South-LakePoint.

The Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Elite Squad finished 6-1-0 at the elite 24-team event after picking up wins in their semifinal and championship games Saturday. The Glendora, Calif.-based SGV Hustle also suffered a setback during pool-play earlier in the week and finished 5-2-0.

This is a fundamentally sound Elite Squad team that won the championship game almost exactly the same way it won five of its six previous games coming in. They scored their three third-inning runs on singles from Eduardo Diaz, Mason Gates, Enrique Bradfield and Chase Chatman and then let the pitching take over.

2019 right-hander William Silva and 2019 lefty Isaiah Hood combined on a one-hitter without allowing an earned run, striking out seven and uncharacteristically walking five – Elite Squad pitchers had walked only 16 in the previous six games.

“These kids have the heart of a lion,” veteran Elite Squad head coach John Calabrese said shortly after being doused with a cooler of ice water after the championship game vicotory “This is the toughest tournament in the United States! It’s the World Series! My kids have big hearts – they have everything – and I’m so proud of them. I really don’t know what else to say.”

Over the course of the four-day, intimate and elite 24-team tournament there really only two aberrations when it came to the way the Squad did its business. The first was in their pool-play opener when they handed the Dirtbags an 8-1 setback and that was unusual only because of the number of runs they scored.

The other was an 11-4 loss to the Georgia Jackets in the fourth pool-play game on their schedule, unusual because of the number of runs they gave up and because, well, it was a loss. The scores of their other games here read: 1-0, 3-2, 1-0, 3-0 and 3-1, each an Elite Squad victory.

They hit just .241 as a team and averaged just a hair over three runs per game. But 11 pitchers combined to allow only 15 runs in those same seven games (just a notch above 2 per game), and gave up just 11 earned runs in 46 innings (1.67 ERA) with 41 strikeouts.

“Our pitching is outstanding,” Calabrese said. “We had one bad game and you’re going to have that, but other than that (they were very good). We were lights-out with pitching and great defense – it was a team effort. This is a grueling tournament with the best teams in the country.”

Nicholas Thomas, a 6-foot, 1895-pound 2019 right-hander from Miami, worked 8 1/3 innings in three appearances, didn’t allow any runs on just three hits, and struck-out 10 while walking three; he was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher. Roberto Moya, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound 2020 catcher/first baseman from Miami, was about the only Squader who hit, going 7-for-14 (.500) with a double, one RBI and one run scored; he was the Most Valuable Player.

“These kids are just champions, and you know what? They’ll be champions for life and they’ll remember this their entire life, and we shared it together,” Calabrese said. “I’ve got kids who can play … and they’ll continue to play at high level. And the Elite Squad, they’ll make sure these kids go beyond here. It’s not about here, it’s about developing and going beyond.”

The SGV Hustle also didn’t hit particularly well at the event, averaging about 4 ½ runs per game while hitting .283 as a team. Eight players shared the team lead with three RBI, including hits leader Paul Myro (a double and six singles) and Trevor Caton (two doubles, fur singles; Lucas Gordon matched Caton’s six hits but all of his were singles, and he drove in one run.

The Hustle’s 11 pitchers combined on a 3.28 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 47 innings; SGV’s seven opponents averaged just under 4 runs per game.

Both teams won semifinal games Saturday afternoon that pretty much foretold what was going to happen in the championship game: The Elite Squad got past No. 2 Stix Baseball Club 2020 (4-1-1) from Dallas, 3-0, and the Hustle slipped by the No. 1 Texas Bombers Elite (5-1-0) from Cleburne, 3-1.

The Squad’s 2020 right-hander Jordan Carrion threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout at Stix, striking out eight and walking one; the Hustle’s 2020 left-hander Gordon and 2020 righty Myro combined on a five-hitter, allowing the one earned run on five hits with nine strikeouts and three walks. Gordon worked the first six innings and allowed the run and all the hits and walks while striking out seven; Myro pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, striking out two.

Before Calabrese said anything on Saturday afternoon in regard to the way his team played here this week, he repeated a couple of things he had told a PG note-taker down in Fort Myers back on July 10. One was a tip of his cap to his longtime assistant coach, Hector Corpas, whom he called, “One of the finest gentlemen you’ll ever meet. He’s one of my dearest friends that I’ve ever met in the game of baseball, and I just want to thank him.”

And then he spoke about the program that is dearest to his heart: “It’s important that we thank the Elite Squad organization,” he said. “(Founder) Richie Palmer is the real deal; there’s no phony stuff out there, he’s the real deal. He means it for the kids, he protects the kids and he works for the kids to get them their scholarships and beyond.”


2016 14u Perfect Game World Series champions: Elite Squad



2016 14u Perfect Game World Series runnerup: SGV Hustle



2016 14u Perfect Game World Series MV-Pitch: Nicholas Thompson



2016 14u Perfect Game World Series MVP: Robert Moya