LIVE: From the USA 16U Baseball Championships part 2

Dave Lax: We're There

A winning trend has started for the Baseball Factory team! Baseball Factory took out the 2006 USA 16U Baseball Champion All-American Prospects Red. The Baseball Factory came away with their third victory in a row at the USA 16U Baseball Championships East. As the visiting team, the offense wasted no time as they loaded the bases in the 1st inning. With two outs, Joe D'Annunzio (Scotch Plains, NJ) came through with a 2-RBI single to left. Two batters later, Mike Ford (Belle Meade, NJ) scored the 3rd run on a passed ball.

After shutting down the Prospects in the bottom of the inning, Baseball Factory's offense got back to work in the 2nd. Patrick Martin (Bassett, VA) started things off with a double. He eventually would score after an overthrown pick-off attempt and a fielder's choice. With a runner on 1st, Denzel Campbell (College Park, GA) hit an RBI double down the left field line, putting the Factory up 5-0.

For the rest of the game, Baseball Factory continued to get on base, but were unable to get anyone across the plate. However, the story continues to be Baseball Factory’s pitching. Mark Williams (Vienna, VA) and Harrison Musgrave (Notter Fort, WV) pitched four innings and three innings respectively. Both shut down the Prospects throughout the game, scattering hits while striking out seven batters (Williams 2, Harrison 5). Our defense was also solid behind them, with only one error throughout the entire game. There were also two outstanding plays made in the field - a diving catch in left field by Campbell and a heads up double play by Sean Hagen (Reading, PA) behind the dish. The Factory won the game by a final score of 5-1.

Baseball Factory will take on the 7th overall seeded Virginia Mavericks at 8 AM on Thursday.

THIS JUST IN: Baseball Factory upended the #7 Mavericks 8-2 in the first game of the day. A full recap will come in later today. Our next game is at 5 PM.

Update: (3:00PM)
Same Old Story

Once again, the bats came alive and the pitching stayed strong as Baseball Factory beat the 7th seeded Virginia Mavericks, 8-2. Michael Bradshaw (Crestwood, NY) pitched a solid 3 innings, giving up just one run and recording two strikeouts.

The offense got going in the 4th, when Joseph McCrary (Stone Mountain, GA) led off the inning with a double to right. The next batter, Mike Ford (Belle Mead, NJ) reached first base on a throwing error by the second baseman, which would also score McCrary. After a single by Denzel Campbell (College Park, GA), Anthony Bowman (Damascus, MD) hit a sacrifice fly to score Ford and Baseball Factory went up 2-1.

Andrew Chin (Newton, MA) came into pitch in the top of the 4th inning. The Mavericks came up with a tying run, but stranded two to keep the game tied at 2-2.

Andrew Green (Mt. Juliet, TN) terrorized the base paths to start off the 5th inning. He reached 1st and advanced to second on a throwing error and would later take 3rd on a passed ball. After a walk by Chad Miller (Angleton, TX), McCrary beat out an infield hit and scored Green from 3rd. Miller would later score from 3rd when Mike Ford hit into a double play. After the 5th inning, Baseball Factory had a 4-2 lead.

Chin came back with two more great innings. He ended his day pitching three innings, giving up one run and striking out three.

Still leading 4-2 at the top of the 7th inning, the Baseball Factory team took advantage of some Mavericks errors and had some timely hitting. Baseball Factory added 4 runs in part by McCrary's RBI single to center, Ford's RBI triple to the right center gap and Trevor Larson's (Northbridge, MA) RBI single to left.

With the score 8-2 going into the bottom of the 7th, Mike Ford came in to close the game. After a couple harmless hits, Ford shut out the Mavericks to give Baseball Factory its 4th victory in a row, 8-2.

Baseball Factory is now 1 out of 16 teams still fighting for the championship. Remember this tournament started with 72 teams! Wish us luck as we play again today at 5pm!

LIVE: From the USA 16U Baseball Championships

Dave Lax: We're There

Greetings from Florida!

The Baseball Factory has brought together 16 top players from 11 different states to compete in the USA Baseball 16U Championships in Jupiter, Florida. After our Friday afternoon practice was rained out (a reoccurring theme as you will see), our first game began the following morning versus South Florida Baseball Blue. After spending only a few hours together, the Baseball Factory was down 6-0 after 5 innings. After persistent rain, our game was officially called and we took our first loss of the tournament.

Game 2 versus the Southwest Florida Underclassmen began Sunday afternoon after a brief lightening delay. With the game tied 2-2 at the top of the 5th inning, a lightening bolt struck VERY close to our field and was followed by another heavy downpour. Our game was suspended for the day and we resumed play early Monday morning. Losing some of the momentum we had from the day before, Baseball Factory took its second loss of the tournament, giving up a winning run in the bottom of the 7th inning.

But it was evident that this team was starting to gel. Later that day, the bats came alive versus the Proway Colt 45’s. Along with strong pitching performances, the team earned its first victory, 8-2. They kept the offense going Tuesday morning, as they beat the Florida Bombers 8-6.

The Baseball Factory team is now at .500 and looking to win their third straight. With more time together on the field this team is only getting better. Timely hitting and overpowering pitching has kept us in every game.

Check back for more updates from Jupiter and the USA 16U Baseball Championships.

LIVE: From the Under Armour Southeast Regional Wood Bat Tournament - Day 4

Dave Lax: We're There

Elimination Day is here and some teams as expected moved onto the final day of play while other teams had some surprises for the entire tournament. Upset was the name of the game in the first set of games. Although the teams that were playing were only a few seeds apart it seemed that the team with the lower seed kept on winning. The Florida Pokers took out the always dangerous Atlanta Blue Jays 3-2 in a great game. The Florida Pokers went on to beat the #2 overall seed All American Prospects Red team 4-2.

Most of the big names in the tournament held true to form as they moved easily into Day 2 of elimination. Chet Lemon’s Juice beat a stingy Treasure Coast Young Guns squad 3-0 to advance. The All American Prospects Navy avenged an early pool play loss to the Broward Mavericks to move into the final eight. Line Drive Baseball had the most convincing win blanking the Pirates Prospects. The Palm Beach PAL dispatched of the Baseball Factory Red team 10-2 after the Baseball Factory Red edged out their counterpart Baseball Factory Navy in the first round of games.

The big surprise of the day was the upset of #1 overall seed DiamondVision Elite. The Palm Beach Clippers who were a #17 seed took out the top seed in the tournament with a 3-2 win. So as it turned out both teams that were undefeated lost their opening game and were eliminated from the tournament along with 14 other teams.

We look forward to our final day of the 2008 Under Armour Southeast Regional Tournament. Who will be playing at the stadium at the Roger Dean Sports Complex? Who will take home the crown? Will it be a top seed or one of the many underdogs?

Check back tomorrow for a recap of the entire event.

LIVE: From the Under Armour Southeast Tournament - Day 3

Dave Lax: We're There

The stage has been set. The seeds have been assigned. It is now time for the elimination portion of the Under Armour Southeast Regional Wood Bat Tournament. After another intense day of baseball all 24 teams now know who they will face in the first round or if their hard work was enough to earn a first round bye.

We finished the round robin portion of the tournament with three undefeated teams. The top two seeds going into the single elimination bracket are the DiamondVision Elite and the All American Prospects – Red. They enter the next round as the #1 and #2 seeds respectively with 3-0-1 records. DiamondVision kept their perfect record intact by coming back in the last inning to tie the Line Drive Baseball team. The All American Prospects – Red finished the round robin play by winning three straight games after tying their first.

After tying DiamondVision Elite in their first game of the day, the Line Drive Baseball team sent a message to the rest of the field in the second game by dismantling the #23 seeded Hitaway Prospects 11-3. At 2-0-2, Line Drive Baseball earned themselves the #3 seed edging out the four 3-1 teams.

The three “powerhouses” of the tournament Freshwater Storm, Chet Lemon’s Juice and All American Prospects – Navy all finished 3-1. The Storm lost its bid for a perfect 4-0 record at the hands of the All American Prospects – Navy in the days’ first round of games. The Prospects came out on all cylinders winning easily 7-0.

Only time will tell who will become this year’s champion. Will it be the #1 seeded Elite team? Will the Juice prevail to capture their second straight title or will one of the other 22 teams get hot and bring home the championship. We will soon find out as elimination play starts tomorrow morning.

Check back for all the updated tournament information.

Click Here to check out the elimination bracket.

LIVE: From the Under Armour Southeast Tournament: Day Two

Dave Lax: We're There

Sunday has always meant big time sporting event finals. Golf has its championships for most tournaments on Sundays. Tennis’ Grand Slams have their fortnight of action conclude with the championship on Sunday. Football is played on Sunday. However for the second day of play at the Under Armour Southeast Regional Wood Bat Tournament Sunday only meant the second of three days of round robin play. This was an important day for teams looking to fortify their standing in the tournament. 16 more games took place today as the field started to take form heading into Tuesday’s elimination portion of the tournament.

Going into Day Three there will be three undefeated teams. Team DeMarini out of Texas fought hard with the Miami Pokers to win 6-4 and improve to 2-0. They were fuelled by back to back homeruns by catcher Drew Benefield and shortstop Victor Guerra. However, Team DeMarini will have its hands full tomorrow with a double header including match-ups with the Hitaway Prospects and the Miami Fat Cats.

The Freshwater Storm still stand as the team to beat with a 3-0 record. Today the Storm took down the 2007 Under Armour Southeast Regional Wood Bat Champion, Chet Lemon’s Juice. The game was the most exciting one of the day coming down to the final half inning. Both teams showed that they had offense putting up 15 total runs, but it wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh that the Storm’s true character appeared. Faced with a two run deficit the Storm came up with the determination and “never say die” attitude to push across three runs and take the win to stay perfect in the tournament.

The final undefeated team is Line Drive Baseball which went into their day with a 0-0-1 record. They took out the Florida Pokers in the first round of games today to improve to 1-0-1.

With hundreds of spectators in attendance and over 40 college coaches and pro scouts scouring the fields every play and every game is important. As we get closer to the elimination round and the seedings start to take shape, we look forward to what Day Three has in store.

Click here to see the full updated scores.

Check back tomorrow for a Day Three update and the bracket for the elimination round.

LIVE: From the Under Armour Southeast Tournament

Dave Lax: We're There

With temperatures hitting the mid 90s and high humidity in the air it can only mean one thing: Jupiter, FL. It is that time of year again when the top travel teams come from all over the southeastern part of the United States to compete for the title of Under Armour Southeast Regional Wood Bat Champion. 24 teams take the stage at the Roger Dean Sports Complex in Jupiter, the spring training home of the St. Louis Cardinals. In only its second year, the event has already made a name and reputation for itself. There was a 15 team waiting list to even enter this year’s tournament.

Scouts and college coaches were out in force to hopefully find the next Tim Beckham, 2008 #1 overall draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in this years Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. Tim dazzled at this very same tournament one year ago and his team the Atlanta Blue Jays are back. The Blue Jays bring a strong team again this year with standout players like Braxton Lane who will be competing in this year’s Under Armour All-America Game, powered by Baseball Factory, held on August 17 at Wrigley Field. With each team playing four games in the first three days of this tournament, which is also the round robin portion of the event, teams were looking to get off to a quick start.

The Freshwater Storm made the first noise of the day with an 11-2 victory over the Broward Mavericks. They later went on to win their second game of the day improving to 2-0 with a win against the Columbus Explorers. However, the Storm was not the only hot team on this day. The Baseball Factory Red team proved to be a force in this tournament. Baseball Factory Red won their first game with a 4-1 margin over the Palm Beach PAL. In their second contest of the day a close game was broken wide open in the top half of the last inning when the Baseball Factory Red put up eight runs against the Pompano Beach Post 142 to cruise in with their second victory.

In one of the highly anticipated match-ups of the tournament the Atlanta Blue Jays took on the All-American Prospects Navy. With three Under Armour All-Americans between the two competing teams and a former Cape Cod High School Classic participant there was no shortage of talent on the field. The game did not live up to the hype as a pitching and defensive battle took center stage until the Prospects pushed a few runs across in back to back innings taking the win 7-0. However, the game must have taken its toll because the very next game the Prospects played they lost to the Broward Mavericks.

As we look forward to Day 2 we can only hope that there is more great baseball to come from Jupiter. Check back in tomorrow as we continue to recap the highlights from the tournament.