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Tournaments  | Story  | 7/6/2021

USA Prime Wins 17u Elite Championship

Photo: USA Prime National 17u (Perfect Game)
HOOVER, Ala. -- The 2021 17U PG National Elite Championship brought some of the best 2022 players in the country to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, where 77 teams competed for the right to be crowned champions. USA Prime National 17u was the team left standing when the dust settled, taking down 5 Star National 17u Black, 12-1, in the title game.
 
The first semifinal game featured USA Prime National and FTB Tucci 2022. The matchup featured Nolan Foster of USA Prime and Ryan Combs of FTB Tucci on the mound for their teams, and FTB Tucci would score first in the bottom of the third thanks to a powerful line drive from Cadmiel Pompa. Nolan Foster did not let up, and kept the FTB Tucci offense under control to keep USA Prime in the game. On the other side, Combs was having a spectacular outing, shutting down USA Prime's offense and keeping the 1-0 lead with FTB Tucci up until the fifth inning, when Brandon Middleton came in for FTB to complete the shutout and send his team to the finals. 
 
However, the USA Prime offense rallied in the top of the sixth and finally overcame the FTB defense. With runners on second and third, Reese Chapman hit a line drive to center field, driving in Ty Kennedy and ending Prime's scoring drought. With the game tied 1-1, Dallas Macias hit a ground ball to second, bringing in Antonelli Savattere and taking the lead from FTB Tucci, 2-1. The FTB Tucci offense failed to mount a comeback in the bottom of the sixth, and with the defense keeping USA Prime scoreless in the top of the seventh, it was up to Nolan Foster to complete his exceptional outing with a win. After pitching yet another scoreless inning, Foster would do just that. He finished the contest pitching all seven innings and racking up 10 strikeouts, sealing the deal for USA Prime and advancing them to the championship.
 
USA Prime picked up right where they left off in the championship game and came out firing on offense to start the game. In the top of the second, Kaden Carpenter hit a ground ball that drove in Aidan Kuni for the first run of the game. The offense continued rolling, and two more RBI from Savattere and Chapman would give USA Prime a comfortable 3-0 lead early.

Similar to the first game, USA Prime was stellar on defense thanks to another fantastic start on the mound, this time from Daniel Farrow. Farrow kept the 5 Star offense scoreless, allowing USA Prime to increase their lead further after another RBI from Savattere to put Prime up 4-0.
 
From there, USA Prime showed no signs of slowing down, and the gap between the two teams continued to grow. In the top of the fifth, Savattere would deliver a line drive single to left field, bringing in Jake Dempsey and Aidan Kuni to increase the Prime lead to 7-0.
 
However, the elite offense of USA Prime was not finished. In the top of the sixth, Prime scored an incredible five runs. Savattere had fueled the offense all day, but he wasn’t done yet. He would step up to the plate and send a ball deep to left field for a double, driving in his sixth run of the game and giving Prime an insurmountable 12-0 lead. Despite numerous attempts to get the offense going, the deficit proved to be too much to overcome. Once again, the dominant USA Prime National defense secured the shutout victory, this time to cement their title as the champions of the 2021 17U National Elite Tournament Champions.
 
For his exceptional performance at the plate, Antonelli Savattere was rightfully declared the MVP. For pitching an incredible seven innings and securing his team a trip to the championship, Nolan Foster was declared the MV-Pitcher.




Maxwell Gault