Cary, N.C. - Entering Friday, both the Stars and Stripes teams from each of the Northwest and Southwest regions remained in the chase for the 15U National Team Identification Series Champions Cup gold medal. By the end of the day, Northwest Stars and Southwest Stripes emerged after winning their respective semifinal matchups.
Led on the mound by starting pitcher Tyler Nordby, the Northwest Stars defeated the Southwest Stars 3-0 Friday afternoon at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
"I was pumped coming into this game," said Nordby. "I wanted to pitch so bad, and right when coach told me I was starting, I thought 'this is my game', and I was ready to come out and play."
Nordby set the tone on the bump for the Northwest Stars, tossing five shutout innings while allowing just three hits in the victory.
"Nordby was pretty gutsy," said Northwest Stars head coach Jake Valentine. "He gave us a really great start today. He had all three pitches working well and did a really good job of understanding what the other team was trying to do, and pitched against it."
Nordby was relieved out of the bullpen by Nathan Kojetin, who threw two innings, allowing no hits and no runs to record the save.
"[Kojetin] came in and shoved," said Nordby. "He threw two big innings and secured the shutout for us. He pitched really well."
Ethan Winslow led the offensive charge for Southwest Stars, hitting two sacrifice-fly balls for two RBIs, while Jonas Salk hit an RBI groundout, helping Southwest Stars to finish with the 3-0 victory.
"They have been playing with a lot of energy the entire weekend," said Valentine. "They have each other's backs and play for each other."
The Northwest Stars will face off against the Southwest Stripes in the gold medal game, who earned their spot after defeating Northwest Stripes, 5-1, in their semifinal game Friday afternoon.
Kaedon Mas and Andrew An were the key contributors for the Southwest Stripes in the semifinal victory. The duo combined to throw seven innings on the mound, holding Northwest Stripes to just one run on two hits.
"My curveball was moving very well for me today," said An. "I was nervous at first because when I was warming up, my stuff was not feeling that good, but once I was in the game I began to feel it and started to settle in. I started hitting my spots with it and I felt really good overall."
Southwest wasted no time getting on the board as Xaige Lancaster hit an RBI single in the bottom of the first to give his team the 1-0 lead. Mas knocked in a pair of RBIs in the bottom of the fourth to extend the Southwest Stripes lead to 3-0.
Southwest Stripes tacked onto their lead in the bottom of the fourth as two runs came around to score via a Northwest error, bringing the Southwest lead to 5-0. Northwest would score a run in the next half inning, but that's all the offense they would muster as Southwest Stripes went on to win 5-1.
"It was such an incredible atmosphere," said Mas. "The guys out here at the NTIS are extremely competitive and this is some of the most fun I have had playing baseball. It was a great win for us today and I am looking forward to the gold medal game."
The championship game will take place on Coleman Field at the USA Baseball National Training Complex at 11:00 am ET Sunday morning. It will be streamed live on USABaseball.com and Facebook Live.
Continue to follow @USABaseballNTIS on Twitter and visit USABaseball.com for the most up-to-date news about the National Team Identification Series.