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Super25  | Championship  | 6/19/2016

Two champs claim GA Regional

Vincent Cervino     
Photo: Perfect Game


643 Cougars take down NSTA Naturals in 15u championship final

EMERSON, Ga. – 643 DP Cougars Montgomery faced off with the NSTA Naturals in the championship game of the 15u Perfect Game Super 25 Georgia Regional. Both teams came into the game with an undefeated record and a place in the Super25 National Championship.

The Naturals started off the scoring in the top of the first inning. Nate Wilmot had a clutch two-out RBI single to give the Naturals the early lead. The Cougars would respond in the bottom of the frame by putting up four runs to counter the Naturals. Andrew Jenkins and John Giesler each added RBI singles and Luke Hughes roped a two-run double to give the Cougars the lead heading into the second inning.

John Giesler started on the mound for the Cougars and delivered three solid innings to start off the game. He scattered seven hits and allowed five runs to score, but three of those were unearned. John Smith opposed Giesler on the mound for the Naturals. Smith was unable to make it out of the third inning as he gave up seven earned runs in only two innings pitched.

After Giesler held the Naturals scoreless in the second inning, the Cougars were able to pounce on Smith’s pitching again. Sebastian Thomas, the No. 5 righthanded pitcher in the state of Georgia for the class of 2019, added an RBI double and Luke DePiero delivered a sacrifice fly to build the lead to 6-1.

Coming into this game the Cougars had only allowed four runs in the entire tournament and the Naturals struck for four runs in the third inning alone. Shane Lussier and Michael Borah added consecutive RBI singles and the Naturals pushed two more runs across on an error by the shortstop.

After the third inning, Scott Strickland came into the game to pitch for the Cougars and he shut down the Naturals offense the rest of the game. Over four scoreless innings, he allowed only one hit the rest of the way and helped lead the Cougars to victory.

The offense for the Cougars kept on rolling and built up a big lead. They scored in the first five innings of the game, including a four-spot in the bottom of the fifth, and kept piling on runs until the lead was insurmountable. The Cougars finished off the Naturals with a 1-2-3 seventh inning and clinched the victory.

Coach Jerry Slutzky credited this tournament victory to his team’s ability to make adjustments from game-to-game. He was proud of his team’s effort and ability to win close games.

“The biggest thing for us coming from last week’s tournament was making adjustments,” said Slutzky. “At the plate we weren’t taking too many pitches, we were pretty aggressive. We were driving the baseball, we were throwing strikes on the mound, and we were making plays defensively. If you do those three things you’re going to win games. We did all three really well throughout this tournament and we ended up winning the whole thing.”

After the Naturals’ four-run third inning the score was brought to a 6-5 Cougars lead. Slutzky made sure his team kept their composure and assured them that if they continued to play hard that they would be able to win the game.

“They were getting some bleeders, and sometimes in baseball balls find holes,” said Slutzky. “Especially with metal bats. We still had the momentum and we were swinging the bat really well, the pitching was fine. So we weren’t down, we just knew if we kept to our game we would be fine. After that inning we came in and just put runs on the board and after that the game was put away pretty quickly.”

After exploding for twelve runs in the championship game, Slutzky expanded on his offensive philosophy. He preaches what he calls a “aggressively patient” approach at the plate and to crush fastballs.

“I like to call it (offensive strategy) aggressively patient,” said Slutzky. “If you get a good pitch to hit early then you have to hit it. Last tournament we played in we took too many pitches. Today it was more about hitting fastballs, driving baseballs, and hitting gaps. We’re still hitting too many pop-ups, but we were driving the ball today.”

The Cougars are looking ahead to the WWBA National Championships and are hoping to take what they learned about themselves up to this point and learn from their mistakes.

“The biggest tournaments are the WWBAs and we build up to get ready for those,” said Slutzky. “Every tournament before those are about improvement whether it be pitching, offense, or defense. It’s about building confidence, having fun, and getting closer as a team. If we can do all those things going forward we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

The MVP of the tournament was Andrew Jenkins of the Cougars. He hit .700 for the tournament with two doubles, one triple, seven RBI, and seven runs scored. The MV-Pitcher of the tournament was Cole Hamel of the Naturals. Hamel was 1-0 for the tournament with seven innings pitched, seven strikeouts, and only two earned runs.

The Naturals advanced to the championship game after defeating the Big Stix Gamer 3-2. Cole Hamel dominated on the mound as he threw a complete game and only allowed two runs to score. Offensively, Shane Lussier and Michael Borah each contributed RBI singles. The Gamers scored one run in the bottom of the seventh and had the game-winning run up to bat but they could not tie the game and the Naturals went on to the final game.

The Cougars advanced through the semifinal round after defeating the Game On Yankees 4-3. Andrew Jenkins was the two-way star of this game as he went 2-for-3 with a run scored at the plate and also tossed three scoreless innings on the mound while striking out six. The Cougars were down 3-0 after four innings but they came back to score two runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings to advance.


2016 PG Super25 15u Georgia Regional champions: 643 DP Cougars Montgomery



2016 PG Super25 15u Georgia Regional runner-up: NSTA Naturals



2016 PG Super25 15u Georgia Regional MVP: Andrew Jenkins



2016 PG Super25 15u Georgia Regional MV-Pitcher: Cole Hamel

 



Georgia Bombers outlast Game On Spartans in 16u championship final

EMERSON, Ga. – The Georgia Bombers defeated the Game On Spartans 3-1 in the championship game of the 16u Perfect Game Super25 Georgia Regional. The game was close the entire way and both teams impressed with crisp defense and pitching depth.

Matthew Bollenbacher, the No. 20 righthanded pitcher in the state of Georgia for the class of 2018, started on the mound for the Bombers and controlled the game from the onset. He fired six innings, only surrendering a run in the bottom of the seventh, and struck out four while only allowing four hits all afternoon.

Stanford Townsend, the No. 11 righthanded pitcher in the state of Georgia for the class of 2018, opposed Bollenbacher for the Spartans. Townsend allowed only two runs to score over the course of three solid innings.

After two scoreless innings from both sides, the Bombers broke through for the first two runs of the afternoon in the third inning. Matthew Gravely brought in a run on an RBI groundout and Ryan Bliss, the No. 6 shortstop nationally for the class of 2018 and committed to Auburn, brought home another run on an RBI single.

The Spartans had opportunities to score in the fourth and fifth innings but failed to capitalize. After getting runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth, Bollenbacher induced a double play ball and then got the final out on a fly out. In the fifth the two-out rally was cut short after a pick-off.

The Bombers added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Houston Mullinix brought in a run on an RBI groundout. The Bombers headed to the top of the seventh with a 3-0 lead.

Bollenbacher was removed after allowing a double and two consecutive hit-by-pitches to load the bases for the Spartans with no outs. The Spartans were able to push a run across on a run-scoring double play. After a fly out to left, the rally had been ended and the Bombers sealed the 3-1 victory.

Manager West Rynders noted that coming up short in recent Perfect Game events only fueled the fire for his team. They came into this weekend looking to close the deal on a tournament victory and they succeeded.

“We finished runner-up in our first tournament, the Memorial Day tournament,” said Rynders. “And we were looking to close the deal. We had a few hiccups over the past few events, but I thought we did a good job of sealing the deal. Pitching and defense was amazing, I don’t know how many runs we gave up but it wasn’t many. Pitching and defense was incredible and we had some good timely hitting.”

The Bombers played a lot of close games throughout this tournament. Rynders credited his pitching and defense as major factors in pulling out close games and noted that the offense needed to improve.

“We have to continue to get better offensively,” said Rynders. “We had a lot of close games but we pulled them out thanks to our pitching. We’ll be in the 17u WWBA coming up and so to beat the big boys we’re going to have to hit the ball a little bit and continue to pitch and play defense the way we have. It will be a huge challenge for us but we’re up to the challenge.”

Rynders will look to work with his team, on an individual basis, in between tournaments in order to tweak and tinker with mechanics to get the best swings out of his players that he can.

“Practice is about development and making each kid better at what they do,” said Rynders. “Obviously with hitting it’s very individualistic, we have a team approach to get guys over and get them in. We have to get better at it and give each individual a little more confidence and get ready to play against some primetime pitching.”

The summer circuit can be tough for some teams. Rynders expects the best out of his players and makes sure to train and prepare them for the rigors of a long tournament season. He knows that once they get into the groove of the summer schedule that he will be able to expect top performances out of all his players.

“It’s (summer tournament schedule) been pretty constant,” said Rynders. “Thanks to the Junior National we had three guys down there so it was kind of an off weekend for us so that was good to recover from a lot of baseball early. We’ll be ready. We continue to play every day, we practice almost every day, but I give them a day off every now and again. It’s an everyday sport, that’s why the pros play 162. It’s a short season but it’s a lot of games, so we take a one-game approach and hopefully that will make us better.

The MVP of the tournament was Dawson Dyal of the Spartans. Dyal finished the tournament hitting .636 with four doubles, four RBI, and eight runs scored. Matthew Bollenbacher of the Bombers was named MV-Pitcher for the tournament. Bollenbacher finished 2-0 with nine innings pitched, six strikeouts, and only one earned run. Bollenbacher was focused on utilizing a quick tempo on the mound today and to live in the strike zone.

“I knew this team could hit pretty well so I focused on pounding the zone,” said Bollenbacher. “Establishing strike one and keeping them off balance.”

The Spartans advanced to the championship game after defeating the Big Stix Gamers 8-0. The game only lasted five innings and there were contributions from everyone. Offensively, seven starters had either a run scored or an RBI and on the mound Chance Lichtfield and Matthew Deloach combined to only allow two hits over five shutout innings.

The Bombers defeated the Homeplate Chilidogs 3-0 in the semifinal round. The Bombers received a stellar pitching performance from starter Jared Staples. In only 69 pitches, Staples tossed a complete game shutout while striking out seven and only allowing three hits.

2016 PG Super25 16u Georgia Regional champions: Georgia Bombers



2016 PG Super25 16u Georgia Regional runner-up: Game On Spartans



2016 PG Super25 16u Georgia Regional MVP: Dawson Dyal



2016 PG Super25 16u Georgia Regional MV-Pitcher: Matthew Bollenbacher
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