EMERSON, Ga. – Team Elite defeated the Orlando Scorpions 5-3
in a comeback win on Saturday morning at LakePoint, etching their name as the 15u Perfect
Game World Series Champions.
“Man, they’re resilient,” said head coach Brooke Richards. “This
group all summer we’ve seen it, they get down, they come back, they fight. The
fight never quits in these guys, they’re just a resilient bunch and they don’t
know how to lose, and I think that’s important for young guys in the
development process and also for building confidence for them down the road. They
don’t know what it’s like to lose. They lost one game all year, and that’s just
the type of team they are.”
Team Elite came in with a perfect record, winning their four
pool play games and taking the top spot in their pool. A bypass in the first
round awaited the No. 2-seeded Team Elite in the playoffs, who proceeded to
take down the Banditos Scout Team 6-5 in five innings, running out the clock.
The Winder, Ga.-based team was down 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the
seventh and would score one on a passed ball, the other coming on a walk-off
single by Kellum Clark to send them to the championship game.
“The fight, the fight. We’re missing a couple people and
[the team] stepped up,” Austin Hendrick said. “[That game] we won on a walkoff,
showed a lot of character, we fought and it was fun to play with.”
A 3-1 record was the case for the Scorpions in pool play,
finishing second to Team Elite in pool A. They broke into the playoffs at the
No. 8 seed and took down the BigStix Gamers to move on to the quarterfinals
against the No. 1-seeded 643 DP Cougars. C.J. Kayfus took the mound for the
Scorpions in that one, throwing a complete game, two-hit shutout to pick up the
win, and his performance led him to be named the MV-Pitcher of the tournament.
A 4-0 semifinal win over the Georgia Jackets placed the Scorpions in the final
game of the World Series.
A rematch between the two teams emerged in the finale, with both
having previously matched up in a 9-7 Team Elite win on Thursday afternoon. The
scoring was early and often in that game, but that was not the case on Saturday
morning, totaling a combined four hits through the game’s first three innings.
Cade Udell, who threw five innings, giving up one earned run
and three hits against Team California in pool play, toed the rubber for the
Scorpions, while Team Elite sent lefty Hendrick to the mound. The No. 3 player
in the class of 2020 closed out the quarterfinal game against the Banditos and
came into the championship game well rested.
The Scorpions reached base in two straight at-bats to start
the top of the fourth, and a single to left field by Michael Brooks looked to
be good enough to score a run. That run was cut down at the plate on a strong
throw by Allan Del Castillo, and Hendrick would retire the next two hitters to
escape the threat.
A one-out triple by Kellum Clark in the bottom half of the
fourth kept the momentum going for Team Elite, but Udell would induce a
strikeout and a groundout to keep the game scoreless.
Jared Wingo smashed a two-out, RBI double down the left
field line in the fifth to give the Scorpions a 1-0 lead. That hit would knock
the hard-throwing Hendrick out of the game after he tossed 4 2/3 innings, giving
up five hits, one run and one walk, fanning one.
Udell would exit soon after, giving up a hit and two walks
to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Cole Burgess would come in, but would give
up an RBI single to surrender the lead. That brought up Hendrick with the bases
loaded, launching a grand slam 382 feet to right center field that cleared the
scoreboard.
“So first at-bat I took a fastball down, a really good pitch
to hit, got out in front of a changeup and rolled over, and I knew I had to get
the first pitch,” Hendrick said. “In my third at-bat he threw me a first pitch
up, I knew I couldn’t miss it, learned from my mistake, took the barrel to it
and drove it out of the park.”
The Scorpions would attempt a comeback, scoring two runs in
the top of the sixth, but it was enough to overcome the deficit. Richards
tipped his cap to the Scorpions, knowing how good of a team they are.
“We have a ton of respect for the Scorpions,” Richards said.
“That’s a tremendous organization, we know those guys, we’re friends with those
guys. We know they get the most out of their kids, so we knew, even going up
5-1 this game, that it wasn’t going to be over, and of course they scored two
runs and started chipping away at it. Tremendous organization, class act group.”
The difference in the game ended up being the long home run
by Hendrick that backed his performance on the mound. The lefthanded hitting
outfielder dominated at the plate, hitting .450 (9-for-20) with three doubles,
two home runs, four stolen bases and 11 RBIs, and his heroics would earn him
MVP honors for the tournament.
“He’s a total package,” Richards said. “Everybody can see
the physical tools. What people don’t understand and what people don’t see is
how great of a teammate he is, what he brings to a team and the value he brings
to a team. We talk it about it all the time about us being a family and us
playing the game together, he’s one of those guys that keeps it together and he’s
just a tremendous kid. There’s not many kids like him in the country as far as
the mental makeup goes.”
Team Elite 15u Prime had a lot of success this summer in Perfect
Game events, winning the 15u BCS National Championship, finishing third in the
Perfect Game East Cobb Invitational and making it to the quarterfinals in the
15u WWBA. Richards said that being able to win the final event of their season
was a testament to their family atmosphere, faith and hard work throughout the
year, saying that it could not happen without those three elements.
“Well I said it in the BCS when we won that, I felt like we
were the No. 1 team in the country and I felt like our kids wanted to be the
No. 1 team in the country, and I hope we proved that today. To finish off the year
with a W, that rarely happens, and I couldn’t be more proud of our coaching
staff, it’s a tremendous coaching staff from Brad Bouras, down to our youth
director Mike Gearhart, my assistants Daniel, Zath Merry and Mark Nellist and
Juan, I just have a tremendous staff.
"This takes a group of a bunch of people,
not just one team, it’s a collective effort from the top to the bottom in our
program. We all work hard in the recruiting, we all work hard in the
development and it’s cool to see it all come together.”
2017 15u PG World Series runner-up: Orlando Scorpions
2017 15u PG World Series MVP: Austin Hendrick
2017 15u PG World Series MV-Pitcher: C.J. Kayfus
