The action-packed week concluded with an ultra-competitive championship matchup. A scoreless affair until the fifth inning saw ZT National Prospects go back-to-back at the 14U level. The gold medal win marks ZT’s second gold medal of the summer, also taking home gold for the three-peat at the 13U level.
ZT National Prospects cruised through pool play with a perfect 3-0 record, advancing to the quarterfinals with no issues. Continuing the program's dominance at the 14U level, racking up another quarterfinal win, beating SBA Bolts National 5-3. Reaching the semifinals in back-to-back 14U Champs North Carolina tournaments, ZT advanced to the gold medal game for the second time in as many years by beating PRD in shutout fashion.
Canes National mirrored the results of ZT, also going a perfect 3-0 during pool play. Winning in a one-run contest over TBT Phillies Scout, Canes National earned a 7-6 walk-off win to advance to the semifinals. Their quarterfinal win was highlighted by a game-tying home run, with the winning run coming home off a defensive miscue. Canes National went on to face USA Prime National in the semifinals and took home a 9-3 dominating win, outhitting USA Prime National 10-to-four. With the win, Canes National booked their second trip to the championship at the 14U level, having their last appearance in 2022.
Both starting pitchers came to play in the winner-take-all contest with ZT National Prospects' Trevor Lujan and Canes National’s Carlos Linares controlling the game. ZT’s Lujan worked through five shutout innings, only allowing four hits and striking out four. Linares of Canes National tossed four and two-thirds innings of work, allowing three hits and one run, while striking out three.
The bats finally came alive in the fifth frame with back-to-back doubles from Mark Thompson and Christopher Cabrera, which led to ZT taking a 1-0 lead. After holding Canes National scoreless in the top of the sixth, ZT extended its lead. After a leadoff triple by Quintin Blackwell, followed by Bryant Ju drawing a walk, ZT quickly had traffic on the bases with no outs.
Landen Davis came up to the plate looking to extend the lead, and that is exactly what he did, hitting a line drive to left field for an RBI single that scored Blackwell. The third and final run of the contest came off a sac-fly by Eiden O’Farrill that scored Ju.
Completing two innings of work to close out the championship win was Blackwell. Traffic from back-to-back hits from Canes National led to a late rally that ultimately got stopped after back-to-back strikeouts and a ground out clinched ZT’s championship win.
ZT National Prospects head coach Omar Avila had some thoughts after the long week and how special it was to go back-to-back.
“I challenged the boys at the beginning of the tournament to go out here and win this thing, for them to put it all together, have good pitching, you know, executing timely hitting. Honestly, it was very special for us to win this.”
