Alpha Prime 2028 10, Atlanta Braves Scout Team 2

After an incredible undefeated streak at the 16U North Carolina Championships, Alpha Prime capped their run off with a dominating gold medal performance, topping Atlanta Braves Scout Team 7-2. This win marked the second gold medal for Alpha Prime, with their previous championship coming in 2023.

The Atlanta Braves Scout Team finished pool play with a 2-1 record and landed the sixth seed entering bracket play. Their quarterfinals matchup against STIX 2028 Scout was nothing short of a shootout, as their 17 runs helped advance them to the semifinals where they bounced back and scored six unanswered to beat SBA Bolts National 7-3.

Alpha Prime 2028 entered bracket play as the first seed and faced off against Top Tier Select in the quarterfinals where they were in control the whole way. In the semifinals, they topped ZT National Prospects in a thrilling, extra-innings game via an Isaac Schroeder walk-off double.

The scoring got started early, the Atlanta Braves Scout Team’s Rylan Jenkins drew a walk to open the contest, then Tripp Sapp reached on a fielder’s choice before Daniel Biondo’s single advanced Sapp to third. The Atlanta Braves Scout Team took advantage of a wild pitch, and struck first to take a 1-0 lead early.

In the bottom half of the inning, Landon King was hit by a pitch and stole second base shortly after. Then, Jaxxon Tweedt’s RBI single brought home King to even the game at one apiece. Both squads went three-up, three-down in the second.

An inning later, the Atlanta Braves Scout Team regained the lead after Rylan Jenkins’ single resulted in him being brought home after a pair of defensive miscues.

Once again, Alpha Prime 2028 responded in the bottom half of the third frame. After their first two batters drew walks, then King came through with a big RBI double to even the score at two. The next at-bat, Jack Carpenter roped a two-RBI triple down the left field line to give his squad their first lead of the contest. Jaxxon Tweedt’s RBI sac-fly brought home Carpenter to cap off a massive four-run inning.

Momentum had fully swung to Alpha Prime 2028’s side, as in the fourth inning, they added two more runs. Mason Harris started the inning off strong with a double, and Miles Cornell reached safely on a defensive miscue. Quinn Melton brought home Harris with a sac fly RBI, then Maxim Rocheleau’s RBI single allowed Cornell to make a trip around the diamond.

With victory in sight, Alpha Prime 2028 strung together three consecutive singles to load the bases in the bottom of the sixth. Riley Salvemini was then hit by a pitch, bumping their lead to 8-2 with the bases remaining occupied and just one out. For the second consecutive game, Alpha Prime 2028 would win via walk-off after KJ Henrich’s two-RBI single secured the run-rule margin.

“We came a long way, everybody contributed,” Henrich said. “I had a lot of visualization on deck, then I got my pitch and came through. It’s a long tournament, the best one in the nation with lots of competition, and we had the chance to end it right there and we did. I couldn’t be happier.”