17U National Team Championships NC // Homepage // Schedule & Results (GameChanger)

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            <td align="center"><a href="https://gc.com/game-5f1661b18a14a9a139449e69/stats" target="_blank">Box Score</a></td>
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CARY, N.C. - Florida Burn punched its ticket to the 17U National Team Championships North Carolina championship game with a 7-3 victory over Elite Squad on Thursday morning at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina. The team used a five-run fourth inning and clutch hitting to jump ahead early and seal the win.

With the loss, Elite Squad finished the 17U National Team Championships with a 2-3-1 record, while Florida Burn moves to 4-1-1 and will take on the East Cobb Astros in the event's championship game on Thursday, July 30, at 10:45 a.m. on Coleman Field at the National Training Complex.

Florida Burn struck first in the semifinal matchup, pushing across a run in the bottom of the first to open the scoring. BJ Graham kicked things off with a leadoff double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt before Tommy White brought him in with a sacrifice fly to give Florida Burn a 1-0 lead.

Just one inning later, Florida Burn took advantage of an Elite Squad error and another leadoff hit and sacrifice fly combination to take a 2-0 advantage. A leadoff single put Satchell Norman on base and a sacrifice bunt moved him over before Marcus Brodil's sac fly brought him home.

Elite Squad threatened in the top of the fourth thanks to some clutch hitting from Hector Mangual and Giovanny Cueto. The pair strung together back-to-back two-out singles to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, but Florida Burn's Landon Kiefer quickly shut down the threat with his fourth strikeout of the day. Kiefer allowed four hits and no runs in his first four innings of work on the bump and finished with five strikeouts.

Florida Burn's offense immediately responded with some clutch hitting of its own to break the game wide open in the bottom half of the fourth. The squad loaded the bases twice with two outs and brought in runs both times for a 7-0 lead when both Graham and White hit bases-loaded two-RBI singles.

In the top of the fifth, Elite Squad finally broke through for its first runs of the game to cut Florida Burn's lead by three. A leadoff walk to Renzo Gonzalez got Elite Squad's offense started and Jonah Diaz followed with a single to put runners at first and second for Dorian Gonzalez Jr., who came through with an RBI single. Two batters later, after a groundout put runners on second and third, Bryan Loriga got in on the action and cleared the bases with his own two-RBI single to make it a 7-3 game.

That was all Elite Squad would be able to get though, as Aidan Troy took over on the mound for Florida Burn and tossed 2.1 scoreless innings to finish the game and secure the 7-3 victory.

Graham led the Florida Burn offense, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Norman (2-for-3) and Brodil (2-for-2) also collected multiple hits in the game, while White led the team in RBIs with three.

Nicholas Fraginals suffered the loss in the contest after allowing six earned runs on seven hits in the game. Jorge DeGoti (2-for-4) and Diaz (2-for-3) led Elite Squad at the plate with the team's only multi-hit games.

First pitch of the championship game is slated for 10:45 a.m. on Coleman Field at the USA Baseball National Training Complex on Thursday. Because the playoff is a double-elimination format, an if-necessary championship game is tentatively scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Both games will be streamed on PlaySight.com.