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Tournaments  | Story  | 10/8/2022

MBA Winning Every Pitch Into Bracket Play

Blake Dowson     
Photo: Brayden Harris (Perfect Game)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The goal for MBA 2026 Scout Team coming into the WWBA Freshman World Championship was to get into the playoff bracket.

With a convincing 7-0 win over Mid-Atlantic Red Sox on Saturday morning to move them to 3-0 in pool play, it’s mission accomplished.



“You always want to get into the bracket,” MBA coach John Murphy said. “These tournaments are so tough just to get out of your pool. We were trying to preach one pitch at a time and we’d see where we would end up at the end of this thing. If we keep winning pitches, I think good things will happen.”

In its matchup against the Mid-Atlantic Red Sox, MBA starting pitcher Ethan Trivison won plenty of pitches.

Over his 5 1/3 innings, the lanky left-hander only gave up two hits while striking out 11 and issuing just one walk. The No. 32 left-handed pitcher in the 2026 class was in control from the start, and gave his team plenty of length which enables them to save other pitchers for bracket play starting tomorrow.

“[Ethan] is unbelievable,” Murphy said. “You’ve got a 6-foot-3 lefty at 15 years old. He’s commanding three pitches out there at an unbelievably tough angle, just attacking hitters all day. He was really dominant. It was fun to get to watch him compete out there.”

Trivison looked capable of providing innings for a team over in Jupiter this weekend at the WWBA World Championship. As his coach stated, he worked three different pitches, all to equal amounts of success. His first strikeout was on the fastball, second on a curveball, and third on a changeup.

The lineup for MBA was just as impressive as its starting pitcher, and backed him up with three runs right away in the first inning.

It’s a lineup that included Tyler Ellis (No. 79 overall in the 2026 class) leading off, Brady Harris (No. 12) hitting second, Brayden Harris (No. 23) hitting third, Aiden Arnett (No. 13) is the man in charge of cleaning things up in the four-hole, and it doesn’t get any easier from there.

Four more runs from the lineup in the third inning put away any questions on who might come away with a victory in this one.

Brayden Harris, hitting out of that three-hole for MBA, was 2-for-3 in the contest with a double and an RBI. He now has five hits through his three pool play games and looks to be one of the more dangerous hitters heading into bracket play.

“When Brayden gets rolling like that, it’s fun,” Murphy said. “He always has such great at-bats, even when he’s not going great. He grinds out at-bats. When he gets locked in like this, it’s a scary thing, and it’s loud.”

Gage Petrutz had a base hit and a run scored in the game, giving him four hits in three games thus far. In total, seven MBA hitters collected a base knock against Mid-Atlantic.

The man driving in a majority of those run was Lucas Cannady, the No. 104 prospect in the 2026 class. The uncommitted outfielder drove in four runs on Saturday and now has six RBI for the tournament.

There are plenty of arms left for MBA heading into bracket play, and several bats in the lineup are currently on a hot streak.

That seems to be a good formula for making a deep run. Murphy wants it to be a pitch-by-pitch approach the rest of the way.

“Win every pitch,” he said. “That’s it. Just compete every pitch and show up tomorrow and bring energy and play for each other, which these guys do such a great job of.”