West Palm Beach, Fla. - A combined no-hitter and some hot bats helped BL101 Real Ballers secure a 12-0 win over CBA Texas in the first round of 14U games at the National Team Championships in Florida.
A leadoff single and CBA error put two runners on base for BL101 to start the first inning. A double from Esteban Garcia (2-for-3) scored Jesiah Carpenter (2-for-3) and an Aidan Paradine (1-for-3) single scored Justin Acevedo (2-for-3) to give BL101 an early 2-0 lead.
The top of the second inning brought in six more runs for BL101. Jason Prince (1-for-2) and Joey Tonnotti (0-for-2) came home off a double from Carpenter, who reached third when Avecedo hit a single, and scored when Garcia grounded out to second base to put BL101 up 5-0 with one out.
Jared Cohen (0-for-1) drew a walk to put runners on the corners for BL101. A CBA error allowed Paradine to reach first and Avecedo to score. Cohen scored next on a sacrifice fly from Gavin McBeath (1-for-2) and Paradine came home on a double from Nicholas Rodriguez (2-for-3) to crank the score up to 8-0.
BL101 kept it going, scoring three runs in the top of the third to increase their lead to 11-0. After drawing a one-out walk, Prince rounded the bases and scored on two different CBA errors. A double and a single from Acevedo and Garcia, respectively, brought in Tonnotti and Acevedo to score the next two.
The final run came in for BL101 in the top of the fourth inning after McBeath hit a one-out double, advanced on a Rodriguez single and scored while Sean Collins (0-for-0) was up to bat. The game ended after four innings due to the tournament's mercy rule.
Connor Dong (1-0) got the win for BL101 Real Ballers, leading the combined no-hitter with no runs on no hits and three strikeouts during 3.2 of the four innings played. Zigen Kodama helped complete the feat, throwing the final nine pitches of the game. The loss went to CBA Texas's Ruben Peres (0-1) for six runs on six hits and one strikeout in his 1.1 innings on the mound.
BL101 Real Ballers starts the tournament 1-0 and CBA Texas, 0-1, heading into Thursday's round of doubleheaders.