FORT MYERS, Fla. – The annual summer rainy season in Southwest Florida was the undisputed champion for a third straight day Friday at the 17u Perfect Game BCS Finals, forcing PG officials to extend the PG national championship event into Saturday.
Unfortunately, only four teams still alive in the playoffs were able to stick around an extra day and compete for the championship. The two lowest seeds that were still alive when play was stopped Friday won’t be in attendance Saturday but will be named co-champion and co-runner-up.
The No. 7-seeded Xtreme Tornadoes 17u (5-1-0) from West Coast, Fla., will face No. 11 Elite Squad Select 17u (4-1-1) out of Pembroke Pines, Fla., in one of the 9 a.m. semifinals at the CenturyLink Sports Complex; the other semifinal pits the No. 12 Team Elite Roadrunners 17u (7-1-0) from Alpharetta, Ga., against No. 16 IBAHS 2016 (5-1-1) out of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico.
The semifinal winners will meet in the championship game, also at CenturyLink. That winner will share the championship with the No. 2-seeded GSBA Rays 17u (6-0-0) from Lithonia, Ga., while the championship game loser will be named co-runner-up with No. 3 Next Level Baseball 17u (6-0-0).
Daylong rain showers and thunderstorms both Wednesday and Thursday created chaos with the tournament schedule even before Friday morning dawned. The entire playoff schedule – save for one first-round game that was somehow completed early Thursday morning – was condensed into a Friday slate consisting – on paper – of 18 five-inning games.
Only 19 of the original 28 teams that qualified for bracket-play were still in attendance Friday morning. One of the nine that was absent had been eliminated Thursday and the other eight were forced to leave because the extended schedule interfered with unalterable travel plans. The Banditos of Austin (5-0-0), seeded No. 3 in the original bracket, were among the teams that – regrettably – had to get on the road.
Once play got underway at the stroke of 8, it was fast and furious. Five the eight quarterfinalists had been determined by 10 a.m., and the other three fell into place shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, looking north from the Player Development 5-Plex towards the Caloosahatchee River, ominous storm clouds began to build. The first lightning warning siren sounded at the 5-Plex at 11 a.m. and the schedule there never resumed.
Play continued at venerable old Terry Park for at least a couple more hours, however, and the hard-charging Team Elite Roadrunners 17u won their quarterfinal matchup against No. 13 Old Dominion Hitters Baseball 17u (5-2-0) to earn a spot in the semifinals. No other quarterfinal game was complete when play was halted for the day.
The Roadrunners were actually the team that won their first-round game on Thursday and were able to pick up a second-round upset win over No. 5 Chain Select and its quarterfinal win over Old Dominion Friday morning. Other first-round winners were IBAHS 2016, No. 18 Scorpions South Purple 17u (4-2-1 after a second-round loss) and No. 19 D-Bat Wilson (4-3-0 after a second-round loss).
IBAHS 2016 became the day’s must-see team – during the limited opportunity that viewing was possible – after upsetting the No. 1 East Cobb Astros, 10-2, in an early second-round game.
Other teams that posted second-round wins and joined the Team Elite Roadrunners, Old Dominion and IBAHS 2016 in the quarters were the GBSA Rays 17u; Next Level Baseball 17u (6-0-0), the Xtreme Tornadoes 16u; No. 8 Team Elite TPX 17u (5-1-0) and Elite Squad Select 17u.
On a personal note, this weather-weary, ink-stained wretch is off to Phoenix to help provide coverage of the star-studded 17u Perfect Game World Series. Four or five days spent in the desert never sounded so good …