Starting the morning early with semifinal action, ZT Alliance and Arizona Diamondbacks Scout took care of business through relentless offense. Both teams took different routes to earn a spot for gold, with one securing a masterclass win by mercy rule and the other through a huge comeback rally late in the game. This year's 15U Champs NC had it all with a spectacular day of semifinal and championship action.
ZT Alliance was able to advance comfortably with an 8-0 win in five innings by mercy rule, outhitting the Texas Twelve Red Sox 10 to two. Starting pitcher Henry Kuenstler went a complete game effort, surrendering no earned runs with three strikeouts. A pair of players picked up multi-hit games, being Christopher Woodson and Zain Valdivia, both going 2-for-3, with Woodson also tallying a pair of RBIs. With a complete performance on the offensive and defensive side of things, ZT Alliance advanced to the championship.
In a high-scoring contest between the Arizona Diamondbacks Scout and the Atlanta Braves Scout Team STB combined for 25 total runs in semifinal play. A late rally in the top of the seventh was the difference for the Arizona Diamondbacks Scout. Gael Zambrano helped the offense going 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Zambrano was a part of the nine-run top of the seventh for Arizona, giving it a five-run cushion trying to close it out – which they did. Two great performances out of the bullpen from Easton Holmes and Wesley Blair, going a combined two innings, only giving up one hit while striking out three on their way to the championship.
With those games wrapped up, the championship matchup of ZT Alliance and Arizona Diamondbacks Scout began play. In the tightest contest of the day, both teams recorded five hits apiece, trying to fight for their right to claim gold. ZT Alliance’s Logan Pascarella led the offense with two hits on the day and an RBI, driving in the opening run of the game in the top of the third. Being the first of three hits in the inning, Pascarella was followed by a pair of RBI singles from Valdivia and Woodson to help their side to a 3-0 lead. No more runs would score until the bottom of the fifth when back-to-back hits, capped off by an RBI double by Gavin Greene and Hunter Elmore’s RBI single gave the Arizona Diamondback Scout it's only two runs of the game.
Both squads scored their only runs of the game in one frame, leaving the pitchers to manage the game till the end. Following Pascarella’s 4.2 innings of two-run ball with a pair of strikeouts, Valdivia came out of the bullpen to close out the championship for ZT Alliance with two scoreless innings to propel ZT Alliance to the top of the podium.
Hear from Coach Frankie Rios on his thoughts on the championship win and the tournament experience.
“It was a lot of fun, we obviously didn’t come out hot with the bats in game one, but we weren’t worried because we’ve seen these boys play,” said Rios. “These guys got hot at the right time. This tournament is hard, a lot of great teams and players are here, so hats off to these guys and the competition as well.”
On the topic of what it took to get to this point, following a slow start to the tournament, it was a combined effort.
“It took the whole team. I told them it’s going to take everybody, every single one of them has a job,” echoed Rios. “Our pitching kept us in the game, we got cold for a little bit, and came out on top.”
While it took pitching to get the win in the championship, the bats won the first game with an eight-run cushion. Although anything can happen, the game was not over until it was over, and Rios echoed that.
“Even that game, you never want to take your foot off the gas pedal. You just can't give in, we saw the game right before [Arizona D-Backs comeback win], comebacks happen. It’s baseball, it was never one of those things where we thought we were just going to cruise,” Rios said.
With that in mind, his thoughts and decisions in the championship were a little more managerially-based due to some roadblocks.
“We had a few guys that couldn’t be here today, we put on our managerial hats as a staff,” stated Rios. “We just bounce ideas off of each other and at the end of the day, we make a call as a group, and we went with our gut and it worked out.”
ZT Alliance, behind some great coaching and an overall incredible performance in the championship, was crowned 15U National Team Championships champions.
