On April 18, the Southern Elite 12U baseball team traveled to Waycross and participated in the Gatorfest 2015 Tournament hosted by Peach State Diamond Sports. Southern Elite completed the tournament with a perfect 4-0 record to claim the championship as the tournament’s top team.
In pool play, Southern Elite won their opening game by a final score of 4-3 behind the strong pitching of Hayden Weems, Trey Wright and Tra’Vonte Williams. Combined, the trio only allowed three hits over five innings while striking out five batters. Offensively, Hamp Hayes and Trey Wright both homered while Jarrett Dopson, Will Berryhill, Logan Miller and Ty’Quez Rowles all collected hits.
In their second pool game, Southern Elite came from behind to pull out a 5-4 victory. Will Berryhill, Ty Taylor and Hamp Hayes provided the pitching, as they only allowed three hits while striking out two batters. At the plate, Hayden Weems delivered a two hit performance and scored the go ahead run to go along with hits by Tra’Vonte Williams and Ty Taylor. Ty’Quez Rowles turned in the web-gem of the game in the top of the 3rd inning when he completely laid out in leftfield to make a full-body diving catch on a scorching line drive in the gap. Rowles’ tremendous catch secured the 2nd out of the inning, took away a sure double and prevented a rally. With the win, Southern Elite completed pool play with a 2-0 record and entered the tournament as the #2 seed based on the tie breaker rules.
In the Semi-Final game, Southern Elite faced the tournament’s #3 seeded team and earned another one-run victory by a score of 7-6. Tra’Vonte Williams drew the start on the mound and went three solid innings collecting four strikeouts and scattering five hits along the way. Jarrett Dopson would pitch an inning in relief and record a strikeout. At the plate, Williams drew three walks, stole three bases and scored two runs. Hayden Weems, Trey Wright and Logan Miller all added hits to the offensive attack as well. A pivotal moment in the game occurred in the top of the 3rd inning with Southern Elite in the field. There were two men on base and two out in the inning when the opposing batter ripped a deep fly ball to left centerfield where Logan Miller raced back to his right and on a dead sprint, leaped high into the air to snare the ball just as he crashed into the fence with all of his momentum. Miller hung onto the ball saving two runs from scoring and ending the inning. He would then come to bat in the bottom half of that inning with two men on base and deliver a two out, two-run double to tie the game at 6-6.
Southern Elite would win the game in the bottom of the 4th when Tra’Vonte Williams drew a leadoff walk, stole 2nd base, stole 3rd base and scored the winning run on an RBI grounder by Hamp Hayes.
In the Championship game, Southern Elite cruised to a comfortable 14-1 victory behind the dominant play of Jarrett Dopson. Dopson took the mound for Southern Elite and over 3 & 2/3 innings, allowed just one hit, one unearned run and racked up seven strikeouts. Ty’Quez Rowles came on in relief and struckout the final batter of the game. At the plate, it was Dopson again who lead the way by slamming two homers and scoring three runs. Tra’Vonte Williams had a two hit game to go along with hits by Will Berryhill, Hayden Weems, Ty Taylor and Ty’Quez Rowles.
Southern Elite is now riding a six game winning streak having won the Silver Bracket Championship in their previous tournament in Jesup, GA. The young men of Southern Elite will now head to Gainesville, FL to play in the GA vs. FL Border War tournament at beautiful Nations Park in Newberry, FL.
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