17U Champs Arizona brought highlight reel games from start to finish, but there were none better than the grand finale between CBA Victus and GBG Arizona 2026 on Sunday at Surprise Stadium.
The two sides battled back-and-forth all afternoon, but this game encapsulated the textbook definition of a pitchers duel. Both starting pitchers went not just the standard seven innings, but dug even deeper to toe the rubber in extras.
Jordan Mejico (CBA Victus) and Justice Yanke (GBG Arizona) turned in some of the gutsiest outings that you could possibly ask for on the biggest stage.
Mejico posted an incredible 8.0 innings of work, allowing just four hits to one walk and totaled six strikeouts to blank GBG Arizona.
“The eight innings were definitely a career-high, but the biggest thing was living in the zone and letting my defense work,” Mejico said. “There were a lot of pitches working, but the one that I kept going for was my slider. My slider was able to help me find the zone a lot, and it gave me the least amount of contact possible,” he added.
Mejico did everything his team could ask and more, especially given the circumstances of the eighth inning where he worked out of a bases-loaded jam to put his team in the driver's seat.
“To get out of that was incredible. You just gotta rely and trust in your guys behind you with the heat out here. These guys just play baseball and do all the fundamentals correctly, now here we are,” Mejico said.
However, the work Yanke can’t go unnoticed. The GBG ace’s final stat line showed 7.0 innings pitched, six hits allowed, one walk, and seven punchouts.
The heroics of Yanke came up just short, as CBA Victus took full advantage of the international extra-inning rule, which places runners on first and second base with zero outs.
GBG decided to roll the dice and issue an intentional walk to Lucas Hernandez, placing him on first base and loading up the bags with no one out.
With the GBG infield looking for a play at the plate, Landen Roellig had different thoughts.
Roellig dug into the batters box and absolutely smoked a line drive to left field on the very first pitch he saw to break open the score. Roellig’s shining moment unlocked core memories for him and his teammates, but for him personally, it was a lifetime in the making.
“This is so surreal. Ever since I was like 11-12 years old, I'd come out here to watch my older brother play all the time. Now with me coming here to play and to win it, it's a dream come true,” Roellig said.
The clutch gene for Roellig was on full display all week. Back in the quarterfinals, he wound up scoring the winning run to secure a spot in the semifinals before carrying his team to gold.
The path to gold may be one of the road’s less traveled, but CBA Victus head coach Joe Spears knows his team's accomplishment was not given, but completely earned.
“As far as competition is concerned out here, it’s been so elite, especially this year. We didn't run into any team that wasn't good. We faced some of the best pitchers in the entire country at this age division,” Spears said.
“Our guys rose to the occasion. They came out with discipline. They had fun from top to bottom. Starting with our leadoff guy, down to our third catcher, they came in when we needed it and these guys just showed up everyday,” Spears closed with.
Staying within the CBA family, CBA Marucci began the day with a bronze medal win, bolting down a 5-3 win earlier in the morning over fourth place TB SoCal.
The CBA program has now tallied its eighth and ninth medals overall, including the third CBA gold in the history of Champs Arizona. The championship secured Victus’s first-ever medal. It’s the first gold since CBA Marucci won back-to-back golds in the 17U age division from 2015-2016.
