SANFORD, Fla. – Not long after his Indiana Bulls 2024 Black squad had topped Team Elite 14U National in a sweet 1-0 pitchers’ duel during Friday’s first round of the playoffs at the Perfect Game 14U World Series, Bulls head coach Rick Stiner took the opportunity to assess his team’s play up to that point.
“Unfortunately, we have not hit very well this tournament but we’ve pitched really well and played really good defense,” Stiner told PG. “And as one of our players stated just now after that game, defense wins championships. So, hopefully we can carry on.”
It was true that the Bulls 2024 Black had not scored a lot of runs during pool-play and had, in fact, won their pool championship with a 2-1-0 record despite being outscored 14-9 in those three games. They were named the champs and awarded the playoffs’ No. 7 seed because of their head-to-head win over the Elite Squad 14U, the only other team in the pool to finish 2-1-0.
But when Stiner most needed his guys to start swinging the bats they came through big-time, rapping out nine hits en route to beating the No. 2-seeded Kangaroo Court Roos 14U American, 8-3, during quarterfinal round play Friday afternoon at the BOOMBAH Sports Complex.
With the win, the Indiana Bulls 2024 Black (4-1-0) advanced to Saturday’s Championship Day at the PG 14U World Series where they will meet the No. 11 Motor City Hit Dogs 14U Scout Team (4-1-0) in one of the semifinals; the No. 5 Hurricanes 14U Scout Team (4-0-1) face the No. 1 Banditos Scout Team 14U (4-0-0) in the other semi.
The one-sided win over the Roos 14U American in the quarters had to make Stiner and his coaches exhale with a huge sigh of relief. The Bulls Black had scored exactly 10 runs in their previous four games so to nearly match that total in just one game – a quarterfinal contest against the playoffs’ No. 2 seed, no less – was almost aberrational.
And the Bulls were on it from the get-go. They scored three runs in the top of the first, came right back with two in the second and a single run in the fourth before finishing it off with two in the sixth. The Roos 14U American never got closer than the three-run deficit they faced in the first inning.
All nine of the Bulls 2024 Black’s hits were singles but, hey, you take what you can get. Nash Wagner, a 6-4, 185 pound 2024 first baseman, accounted for three of those safeties and used them to drive in four runs. Hogan Denny and Jt Stiner, also from the class of 2024 as are all the other rostered Bulls, each contributed a pair of singles and a pair of RBI.
Indiana Bulls righthander Joshua Burton came through with six solid innings, allowing three runs on five hits while striking out four and walking two. At this juncture in bracket play, with the possibility of playing as many as 14 innings, if not more, on Saturday, Burton’s biggest contribution was that of an innings eater.
After two games on Friday and looking down the barrel of two more on Saturday, Stiner was most pleased with the way his youngsters were able to maintain their focus during a long and hot day of playoff baseball.
“Just like with any 14-year-olds it comes and goes; it’s a roller coaster ride sometimes,” he said with a laugh. “Some days they act like they don’t want to play and sometimes they act like they do. When you’re playing the best teams from across the country and it’s bracket play, you better bring your ‘A’ game.”
It’s been a pretty good ride for the Bulls Black, who are playing in their first Perfect Game tournament of this coronavirus pandemic-plagued summer of 2020. They kicked off pool play on Tuesday with a 3-1 win over the US Elite 14U National and followed that up on Wednesday with what proved to be an important 6-5 win over the Elite Squad 14U.
They got whipped 8-0 by the MVP Hustle to conclude pool play on Thursday, but if that loss left any kind of hangover, it wasn’t evident Friday morning. That’s when they faced No. 10 Team Elite 14U National in the first round of the playoffs and pitchers on both sides dominated.
The Bulls’ Chase Wagner and Jack Brown – both 2024 righties – combined on a five-hit shutout in the 1-0 win. Wagner pitched the first four scoreless innings, allowing four hits, striking out one and walking three before giving way to Brown, who gave up just one more hit, struck out two and walked one in three innings.
Team Elite14u National 2024 lefthander Jackson Sanders was pretty good himself, allowing just the one run on four hits and striking out six in five innings of work.
That one run, by the way, came in the bottom of the first inning. The Bulls’ Ahmaad Duff led off the frame by connecting the first pitch he saw from Sanders for a line-drive single into centerfield. Noah Coy then walked and one out later Brown delivered a single of his own, chasing Duff home.
This was actually a pretty good run for the Kangaroo Court Roos Baseball Club 14U Watson, too, although they too had trouble scoring runs at the event. They went 3-0-0 during pool-play but outscored their three opponents only by a combined count of 10-2 but the 2 runs against was good enough to earn them the No. 2 seed; they beat Easley Baseball Club 14U Watson, 3-1, in Friday’s first round.
The KC Roos American 14U head coach Steve Sharts explained that this was the first tournament of the summer that he had this group together intact. Several of the top 2023 and 2024 ‘High Follow’ prospects like righthanders/position players Thomas Bly, Anthony Gualemi, Adan Longoria, Cameron Mallo and Liam Peterson were moved up to play with the Top Tier Roos National 2023 squad at select PG tournaments.
“This group has been playing together but on a different team all summer,” Sharts told PG Friday. “So getting them together like this, they have a great time. They’re a good group of kids, they’ve been together a long time and they’re a joy to coach.”
Here in the summer of 2020, Perfect Game lists only a top 10 in the class of 2024 prospect rankings, and it’s certainly worth noting that three of the top five were here this week: No. 1 Cade Arrambide from the Banditos Scout Team 14U, No. 2 Theodore Gillen from Lonestar Baseball Club 2024 Sanders and No. 5 Anthony Tralongo from the Hurricanes 14U Scout Team; Arrambide and Tralongo will both be playing in the semifinals Saturday.
PG does hand out a lot of “High Follows” to other 2024s and while several teams here this week had their share of those on their rosters, the Indiana Bulls 2024 Black did not. And at the end of the day, it made no difference at all.
“This team is made up of only Indiana players … (and) our team is our team for the whole season,” Stiner said. “… We just have a group of guys that work really hard and we practice all winter indoors, and we play a limited baseball schedule due to where we’re from.”
And now here they are, playing on Championship Day at the PG 14U World Series, one of the most prestigious event’s on the national 14U calendar.
“We’re going to count on the other team to make mistakes and try to take advantage of it,” Stiner said of the opportunity that lies ahead. “And then we need to go out and play defense and pitch really well. Pitching is the name of the game and it always has been.”