With Sunday’s games in the books and day four of the 2026 11U Futures Invitational now complete, here’s a look at how the gold medal, bronze medal and consolation action played out. This concludes the 10th Futures Invitational hosted by USA Baseball, which proved to be yet another exciting display of amateur baseball's best.
Gold Medal Game
MVP Hustle 3, Knights Knation 2
The 11U Futures championship pitted Northern California’s MVP Hustle against Southern California’s Knights Knation in a heavyweight matchup for the gold medal. With two 11U titles under the program’s belt (2018, 2019), MVP Hustle entered the game as slight favorites and looking to go 6-0 on the tournament. Meanwhile, the Knights carried a 5-1 record into their first Futures championship contest, along with a huge wave of momentum after knocking off SBA National in the semifinals on Saturday in come-from-behind fashion.
MVP Hustle took the field to begin the title game, with head coach Rudy Casillas handing the ball to Sebastian Vazquez for the start. The young southpaw gave up a leadoff single to Jaylen Carpenter, before settling in and inducing a double play groundball and a fly out to end the inning. The Knights turned to Caleb McDaniel on the bump, and he too pitched a clean frame to leave the game tied at 0-0 after the first inning.
Vazquez hit his groove in the next inning, striking out two Knights batters, and the MVP hitters stepped to the plate in the bottom of the second with energy. Clean-up hitter Kai Rios slugged a double to deep center to kick things off, followed by a single from Andrew Alexander and then a hit-by-pitch to load the bases. With Saturday’s semifinal hero Landon McKennon at the plate, MVP benefitted from a rare catcher’s inference call that sent McKennon to first and the first run of the ballgame around to score. Andrew Magallanes then drove home the second run with a groundout to short, giving MVP a 2-0 lead. The Knights’ McDaniel clutched up for an inning-ending strikeout, but the damage was done.
For the next two frames, the teams traded tough at-bats but failed to generate any offense. Vazquez continued to shine on the mound for MVP, as he racked up his third strikeout in a scoreless third inning and followed up with a clean fourth. Carter Hilvert entered in relief for the Knights and looked equally sharp, as the right-hander stranded three runners on base over his first two innings.
Finally, with Vazquez getting tired and the MVP Hustle defense looking out of form, the Knights capitalized in the fifth inning. Declan Silverstein led off the inning with a single to left, and Hilvert followed by earning a walk. MVP then turned to the bullpen, replacing Vazquez with reliever Noah Dent, and Dent promptly struck out the first batter he faced. With one out and runners on first and second, Knights hitter Carter Regoli laced a grounder to left to score Silverstein. Hilvert, racing to third, then scored on an errant throw, and suddenly the score was knotted at 2-2.
After Dent escaped the inning with a double play, the championship game reached a new level of intensity. Players, coaches and fans alike locked in with the awareness that each pitch could deliver the tiebreaking play. Hilvert was brilliant on the mound in the bottom of the fifth, and Dent was equally unhittable in the top of the sixth. The game entered the bottom of the sixth still tied at 2-2.
As MVP shortstop Taz Tulowitzki entered the batter’s box to lead off the next inning, there was a sense that something big was about to happen. Sure enough, on the third pitch of the at bat, Tulowitzki hit a rocket towards the left field fence and raced around the bags for a leadoff triple. Three batters later, Andrew Alexander delivered the knockout blow, an opposite-field line drive single to send Tulowitzki home and the MVP Hustle crowd into a frenzy. The game entered the last inning with MVP up 3-2.
Knights Knation was not going down without a fight though, as Aiden Izquierdo led off the top of the seventh with a gutsy six-pitch walk against Dent. Representing the tying run, Izquierdo dashed for second a few pitches later, testing the MVP catcher Alexander. As the throw reached the bag and Izquierdo’s slide sent a cloud of dust in the air, the crowd at Thomas Brooks Park awaited the outcome. Out was the call, and Alexander was the hero once again.
Still not finished, Knights Knation got a single from Madden Weeda to put the tying run on base once more. With a 3-2 count on Declan Silverstein and the Knights dugout at full volume, Dent delivered the pitch. Silverstein hit a groundball to Tulowitski, who flipped the ball to Magallanes, who gunned the ball from second to first. As the ball beat Silverstein to the bag to complete the victory, the MVP players erupted into celebration. The double play secured MVP Hustle’s third 11U Futures Invitational victory, the most of any program.
All told, Alexander led the game with his two base-knocks, while Dent’s three scoreless relief innings stood out as the pitching performance of the day. Vazquez also finished with zero earned runs, as he and Dent combined to allow only four hits. MVP Hustle now heads home to California with gold medals in hand, while Knights Knation will return with silver medals and the best Futures finish in its program history.
Bronze Medal Game
SBA National 14, East Cobb Astros 6
The first medal game of the day featured a battle of southeastern powerhouses, with North Carolina’s SBA National taking on Georgia’s East Cobb Astros. SBA National entered the game at 4-1 on the weekend after narrowly losing in the semifinals on Saturday, while the Astros carried a 3-2 record into the bronze matchup. East Cobb took an early lead in the top of the first to go up 1-0, but from then on it was all SBA. The home team rattled off four runs in the bottom of the first on seven hits, including three straight RBI singles from Kannon Kane, Jaxson Simon and Jake Epping. Kane struck again in the second inning on an RBI groundout to push SBA’s lead to 5-1.
East Cobb would not go away easily, however, as the Astros started a rally in the top of the third that made things interesting. Walter Blackmon IV and Jayden Holmes smacked back-to-back RBI singles to close the gap before Kohen Davis roped a triple over the centerfielder’s head to cut SBA’s lead to 5-4. True to the team’s form all weekend, SBA National responded in the bottom half with a five-run barrage, highlighted by Jayden Rodriguez’s two-run triple. With the lead firmly in hand, SBA cruised the rest of the way to a 14-6 victory. Eppling and Langston Broome paced the North Carolinians with three hits apiece, and SBA finished the day with a whopping 18 hits to claim the third place trophy.
Consolation Games
Scottsdale Dirtbags 4, DG29 Baseball Academy 2
Tennessee Elite 9, Wildcatters Baseball 5
Devine Baseball 17, ZT National Prospects 7
USA Prime National 2, The Future Elite 0
Canes Midwest National 6, SBA Southeast 1
New Level National 3, Top Tier 2
Canes Southwest National 6, Easley Baseball Club 1
Original Florida Pokers of Parkland 7, Stacked 6
Team Elite 8, Ghost National 7
Premier Banditos 10, San Diego Show 0
