EMERSON, Ga. – Forty-nine innings in less than thirty-six hours. That’s what it took for Team Elite 18’s Prime to capture the WWBA Southeast Qualifier #1 title and punch its automatic paid ticket to the prestigious PG WWBA World Championship October 23-27 in Jupiter, Fla.
It was anything but easy for the Georgia-based Team Elite squad, which had to overcome quite a few obstacles on its way to the title that ended in an extra-inning thriller over Excel Blue Wave. The very first obstacle presented itself before the team even took the field for its first tournament game.
“We did have 11 kids missing for ACT tests on Saturday morning and we barely had enough to play a few pool play games Saturday morning,” said Team Elite general manager Brad Bouras.
Team Elite 18’s Prime suffered an early tournament loss, dropping the second contest on Saturday, 3-2, to DawgPound and putting themselves in an early hole. It would be the first and last tournament loss the 18’s Prime would suffer on the weekend.
“The whole entire day on Sunday we played as the visiting side, but I had my full team by then,” Bouras said. “That was kind of a unique obstacle I’ve never had to deal with before.”
Bouras’ guys stepped up to the challenge and won back-to-back-to-back-to-back playoff games on Sunday, including the eight-inning title game in which team Elite found itself in an early 2-0 hole and would need to muster up enough energy to rise to the occasion just one more time.
Excel Blue Wave put up tallies in the runs column the first two frames before Team Elite quickly erased the 2-0 deficit and put up two runs in the top of the fourth to draw even.
The top of the fourth inning began with a single to centerfield off the bat of Tarez Miller. Four batters later, a sacrifice fly by Justin Dutka tied the game at 2-2, as it would remain until extra innings.
Right-handed pitcher Evan Rowlinson provided his team with just what Bouras had ordered: a lights-out performance on the mound to eat up four middle innings and keep Excel Blue Wave from scoring again. Rowlinson threw four shutout innings in middle relief, needing just 26 pitches to collect 12 outs while surrendering just two hits. Kevin Strohschein, a primary outfield, put his best foot forward and threw two shutout innings in the final frames to earn the win in the championship game.
“All of the guys that threw, threw great,” said Bouras. “They threw outstanding for that late in the tournament; everyone was a little worn out by the fourth game of the day, but their pitch count was low enough from the day before to allow them to perform at a high level in the championship game and the key to that game was our pitching was so good.”
The pitching held up just long enough for the hitters to come through and put up the winning run in the eighth inning. Catcher Michael Curry led the inning off with a line drive double down the left field line. After Curry’s pinch runner was thrown out at third trying to tag up on a fly out, Team Elite was left with two outs and the bases empty.
Bryce Denton, who had a 3-for-4 performance in the championship game, came through with a two-out triple to right field and scored when Miller collected his second single of the game which would prove to be the game winner.
“We got the key hits; we had a good rally in the last inning with a couple of extra-base hits,” Bouras said. “It’s really good to see, as far as everyone battling even though they were really tired. It was really cool to see everyone dig deep and play at a higher level without worrying about how tired they were or how worn out they were.”
Strohschein finished the eighth inning on the mound without much trouble and Team Elite 18’s Prime would be the new proud owners of a WWBA Southeast Qualifier #1 title and a free birth to the most highly anticipated tournament in travel baseball.
“Jupiter is the best event in all of travel baseball,” said Bouras. “It’s the biggest event and everyone tries to get there. We’ve been lucky enough to go the last five years and it means a lot to our guys to play.”
Bouras estimates it’s been about nine years Team Elite has participated in the Southeast Qualifier, winning somewhere between three to five of them along the way.
“It’s an event we take a lot of pride in and now, with the LakePoint facilities up and going, it’s an even better atmosphere,” Bouras said. “We play in all of the qualifying events so that our guys get preparation and practice so that when we go to Jupiter we’re used to that atmosphere in the fall.”
Team Elite 18’s Prime got some of that exposure to high-pressure situations over the weekend, starting the tournament at 1-1 before winning five straight games to capture the title, outscoring its opponents 33-12 along the way.
“We had some timely hitting; our guys had some really clutch hits in some pressure situations,” said Bouras. “Our pitchers were outstanding; we had a couple key outings on Sunday. Jonathan Gettys had a good outing, Aaron Schunk had a really good outing throwing a complete game against Homeplate in the semifinal, [and] Steven Bower had a really good game against East Cobb Baseball.”
“I think one of the keys is just that we’ve got a good group of kids and they’re all local and they work hard during the week at practice and they come in very prepared to do well in these events,” Bouras said. “I’d say the key to a deep tournament run is to have plenty of pitching.”
David Chabut, a primary shortstop, had a huge tournament at the plate with a 10-for-15 performance, collecting five RBI and scoring seven runs along the way. Unfortunately, Chabut suffered a knee injury sliding into the catcher in a playoff game and missed the last two games due to swelling of the knee, presenting Bouras with yet another obstacle.
None of the challenges Bouras’ team faced over the weekend kept them from being named champions, though, and he feels his team is well prepared for the big Jupiter stage.