CARY, N.C. - Day three of the 2018 Tournament of Stars featured everything from a ninth inning rally that fell just short to a pitcher's duel and the first home run of this year's event.
Brave withstood a rally from United to start the day off with a 4-3 win and finish the first half of the tournament with a 1-1 record.
Pride remains the only unbeaten team at the halfway point of this year's TOS after the team came out on top of a pitcher's duel with a 5-1 defeat of Free. Pride's Jerrion Ealy (Carthage, Miss.) was the first player of the year to leave Coleman Field, smacking a dinger over the left field wall.
BRAVE 4, UNITED 3
An eighth and ninth inning rally wasn't enough for United as Brave held on to claim a 4-3 win in the first game of day three's TOS doubleheader.
After falling in its first game of the tournament on Tuesday, Brave took control of the contest immediately on Wednesday.
Corbin Carroll (Seattle, Wash.) got things started for the squad in the bottom of the first with a leadoff ground-rule double. A wild pitch brought him across before a Joe Naranjo (Chino, Calif.) RBI single made it 2-0 in Brave's favor.
The team strung together a double, triple and single to add two more in the bottom of the fifth and take a commanding 4-0 lead, which they held onto until the eighth.
Down to its last six outs, United finally broke through in the eighth inning, using two singles and a fielder's choice to score the team's first run of the day. And it kept that momentum going into the ninth.
A leadoff walk to Riley Greene (Oviedo, Fla.) came around to score and a Kurtis Bryne (Chesterfield, Mo.) RBI single plated one more to make it a one-run game. But that's all they would manage as Brave's Logan Tanner (Lucedale, Miss.) got two strikeouts to end the rally and seal Brave's victory.
PRIDE 5, FREE 1
The second game of the day started out as a pitcher's duel with both Pride and Free's starters going five strong innings. It also featured the first homerun of the 2018 Tournament of Stars.
In Avery Short's (Indianapolis, Ind.) five innings for Free, he gave up just one hit, no runs and no walks while racking up eight strikeouts. On the other side, Jacob Meador (Burleson, Texas) did not allow a single hit or run through his five innings.
The offense finally took over in the sixth though with Free breaking through for the first run of the game. But Pride turned in an immediate answer to tie things up in the seventh.
Pride then added two more in each of the next two innings to secure the 5-1 victory. One of those runs came courtesy of a solo shot from Ealy that went over the left field wall and marked the only homerun of the event so far.
CJ Abrams (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Coleman Brigman (San Jose, Calif.) led the offense for the Pride team on Wednesday. Both players tallied a RBI and a run scored and Abrams finished 2-for-5, while Brigman went 2-for-4.
Sammy Faltine (Richmond, Texas) had a day at the plate for Free, racking up two hits and a RBI.
The 2018 Tournament of Stars continues on Thursday with another doubleheader on Coleman Field at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina. The first game of the day will feature Brave and Free at 10 a.m. ET, followed by Pride vs. United at 2 p.m. ET.