After two days of competition, one region ran the table at the 2019 12U NTIS Champions Cup as the Southwest Stripes and Southwest Stars will battle it out for the gold medal. 
The Southwest Stars were dominate on the mound and in the batter's box in the first semifinal of the day, as they defeated the South Stripes, 13-0. The Southwest Stars starting pitcher, Rookie Shepard (Las Vegas, Nev.), pitched five shutout innings for his squad, while Tyler Young (Simi Valley, Calif.), threw one scoreless inning on the bump before the game was called after the sixth inning. Shepard was satisfied with his team's performance and is eager to fight for a gold medal. 
"I feel pretty good about our performance, but of course there are always things to improve on. I am just excited because as a team, we did very well today. I am just ready to compete for a gold medal," Shepard said. "Winning a gold medal would be a dream come true. I have never won gold before, and I've competed in a lot of USA Baseball tournaments. So, it would be great to finally win gold."
The Southwest Stars head coach, Shane Schumaker, believes that his team is peaking at the right time and hopes they keep the momentum going into championship Sunday. 
"We need to not change anything going forward. In all three of our games we have swung the bat pretty well, played great defense and the pitching has been phenomenal. We are throwing strikes and not getting behind in the count. Hopefully we change nothing," said Schumaker.
The Southwest Stars will play in the gold medal game against the Southwest Stripes, who were locked in a stalemate for five innings before the they pulled away late to defeat the Northwest Stars 5-1. 
The Southwest Stripes relied heavily on their starting pitcher, Brek Benedict (Fort Collins, Colo.), who went the distance, giving up just one run.
"I felt like I was really consistent today. My curveball was working and I was pounding the zone. My defense did a great job of backing me up," said Benedict. "Tomorrow we are going to have a lot of energy and get hyped up before the game like we always do, and if we win gold, that will be a dream come true." 
Southwest Regional Director and Southwest Stripes Coach Andy Rojo is proud of both teams for making it this far, but points to Benedict and the rest of the pitching staff as one of the main reasons his team is still in contention for a gold medal.
"We have had great pitching over the last three games. Brek was very consistent and getting ahead in the count early. He was very efficient with his pitches today," Rojo said. "I challenged the kids yesterday and asked them if they thought they had played their best baseball. They all collectively said 'no.' The energy was really outstanding today. We are just going to keep doing what we did today and hopefully we get the same result."
The gold medal game will be played on Sunday at 11:00 ET on Field Five at Thomas Brooks Park. Continue to follow @USABaseballNTIS on Twitter and visit USABaseball.com for the most up-to-date news about the National Team Identification Series.