Over the last three days, based only on what was happening out on the field, the three-peat seemed imminent if not totally guaranteed. This time, however, winning the championship at the Perfect Game High School Showdown-Academies would take a little more sweat, a little more perseverance, a little more heart and a whole lot more Faith than the two previous conquests.
Faith Baptist Christian Academy out of Ludowici, Ga., watched the two-run lead it held over the Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Academy from Calgary, Alberta, Canada disappear in the top of the seventh of the inning, but brought home the winning run in walk-off style with one out in the bottom of the seventh to escape with a 5-4 victory at warm and windy PG Park South-LakePoint Saturday afternoon.
The championship was the Crusaders’ third straight in the three-year history of the PGHS Showdown-Academies and was simultaneously their most challenging and their most satisfying. The tournament has grown from eight teams in 2014 to 18 this year with academy teams coming from seven states, Puerto Rico and Canada, and the competition has strengthened proportionately.
The first year the Academies event was held – in 2014 in Fort Myers, Fla. – the Crusaders (then the Eagles) lost their second pool-play game and won the event with a 3-1 record after beating Salisbury School (Conn.) in the championship game. They finished 4-0 while winning a second straight event championship in 2015 and with the 4-0 cruise again this year, they have now won 10 straight PGHS Showdown-Academies games in three years.
“It’s a big thing for us and we really like coming here,” Faith Academy head coach Gene Reynolds said after an inspired championship celebration from his players. “Obviously, with the atmosphere and the scouts and the (college) coaches and playing (in a) Perfect Game (event), it’s a big deal for our guys. We knew people would be coming for us this year and it’s definitely been the hardest championship game of the times that we’ve been here.”
The Okotoks Dawgs led the title game 2-0 after 2½ innings and at that point five of their pitchers had combined to throw 22 scoreless innings at the tournament. But Faith Baptist scored four runs in the bottom of the third on two singles, three walks, a sacrifice fly and a Dawgs’ error to take a 4-2 lead. It stayed that way until the seventh.
And then, in a span of less than a half-hour, Faith Baptist senior shortstop Irvin Cespedes went from goat to hero. The Dawgs to within 4-3 on a two-out, RBI double off the bat of Ashton Roy in the top of the frame and then tied the game at 4 on a Cespedes error.
Undeterred, Cespedes hit the first pitch he saw to lead off the bottom of the seventh and lined it up the middle for a base-hit. A single, a fielder’s choice out and an intentional walk later, Jason Delora delivered a sacrifice fly that scored Cespedes with the winning run.
“I think this (win) says a lot about our kids,” Reynolds said. “This speaks to the character of the guys and what they’re all about. No matter the circumstances, they just keep playing the game hard.”
Cespedes finished 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, Delora was 2-for-2 with two RBI and Adrian Marin doubled, singled and drove in a run to lead the Crusaders’ eight-hit attack. They ended up hitting .429 as a team led by senior, switch-hitting outfielder Chavez Young at 9-for-15 (.600) with a double, three triples, eight RBI and six runs scored.
Faith Baptist outscored its three opponents by a combined 39-4, including wins of 13-0 and 18-0 in their first two games against NewBaldy/Team Elite (P.R.) and North Metro GA Baseball (Ga.) respectively. The Crusaders hit .472 as a team – 22 of their 28 hits were singles – and Young went into the championship game 8-for-11 (.727) with a double, two triples, eight RBI and five runs.
“We were playing really, really well and the guys were just swinging it and were really focused,” Reynolds said. “Our arms threw really well the first few days and kept us in it today. We were running on fumes a little bit towards the end but we’re glad we finished it off and didn’t have to go extras, for sure.”
The Okotoks Dawgs came into the championship game having outscored their previous three opponents by a combined 23-0. Four pitchers combined to throw 20 shutout innings on eight hits, with 26 strikeouts and five walks.
Senior right-hander Zack Demchenko threw a complete-game no-hitter with nine strikeouts and one walk in a 9-0 victory over Brunswick School (Conn.); senior right-hander Ben Thompson threw a complete-game three-hitter with six strikeouts and senior lefty Jared Spearing delivered five-inning four-hitter with 10 strikeouts in the other two wins.
By the conclusion of the championship game, the Dawgs (3-1) had used eight pitchers who combined to allow three earned runs over 26 2/3 innings (0.79 ERA) on 16 hits with 31 strikeouts and 10 walks. Okotoks struggled at times at the plate hitting .279 (31-for-111) as a team, but did count nine doubles and three triples among those 31 hits.
There is no rest for this Faith Baptist team. They were scheduled to make the long, 280-mile drive back to Ludowici Saturday night, get a little rest on Sunday and then head for St. Petersburg, Fla., for another tournament on Monday. Reynolds felt like this championship win was a good way to start the rest of a season that run well into May.
“Obviously, you don’t want it to be that much of a nail-biter but there’s really no better way to win then in your last at-bat and then walk-off,” he said. “We don’t have much rest coming up but I think that should really propel us.”
2016 PG High School Showdown-Academies runner-up: Okotoks Dawgs Baseball
