ZT National Prospects 4, USA Prime National 1

Another great year of 13U Champs NC brought the same excitement, action, and energy seen in years past. In the final game of the week, ZT National Prospects defeated USA Prime National 4-1 to secure their third-straight championship.

USA Prime National finished pool play with a 2-1 record and secured the fifth seed in the bracket. The squad rolled through bracket play, topping SC Panthers 2031 Marucci 11-3 on Friday before cruising to an 11-1 win over Wildcatters Baseball to advance to the championship game.

On the other hand, ZT National Prospects took the Pool D crown, going 2-0-1 and earning the third seed in bracket play. In the quarterfinals, ZT National Prospects rallied past PRD, defeating them 5-2 highlighted by Joshua Abikarram, who smacked the first homer of the tournament. Early Saturday morning, the squad posted a shutout against the FTB Phillies to advance to their third consecutive 13U Champs NC gold medal game.

Leading off for ZT National, Joshua Park hit the first of his two triples on the day to put the pressure on in the bottom of the first. Lucca Giano brought him home on a sacrifice fly to center field to give ZT National an early 1-0 lead. In the third inning, Julian Arenas singled on a liner to left field before Park hit his second triple, driving in Arenas and boosting the lead to 2-0.

USA Prime National responded in the top of the fourth, stringing together three consecutive on-base appearances which set up Dekker Barnett’s RBI sacrifice fly to bring his squad back within one run.

In the bottom half of the frame, ZT National Prospects added another two runs to their advantage. Capitalizing on a defensive miscue, Joshua Abikarram reached first and Cash Tellez doubled, putting the pressure on with no outs. Adrian Marquez hit a sacrifice fly to left field, bringing home both runners and putting ZT National up 4-1.

The final three frames went scoreless as USA Prime National was unable to rally, finalizing ZT National’s 4-1 victory to achieve the three-peat. ZT National only surrendered one run and two hits in the game, backed by starting pitcher Francisco Garcia and relief pitcher DJ Ford’s excellent performances on the mound. Ford struck out two and didn’t allow a hit or run across 1.2 innings in relief, while Garcia tossed 5.1 innings and struck out three. At the plate, both Park and Tellez went 2-for-3 with a run while Park added on an RBI as well.

“It was a dogfight all the way through,” ZT National Prospects head coach Rick Martinez said. “Our pitching really came through, defense kept us in it, and the bats got hot today. It was a total team effort, and to do it three times in a row is pretty impressive so I’m just really proud of this group.”