PBR Junior Fall Championships: Futures Scout Team snags the 14U title from Indiana Bulls Black
October 7, 2018
The 14U PBR Junior Fall Championships came down to a contest between the local No. 3-ranked Indiana Bulls Black squad and No. 5 Futures Scout Team, an Ohio-based baseball program with prospects from the Midwest. Neither team came into bracket play as a top seed, but they did, however, roster two of the standout players throughout this tournament.
Bulls Black’s OF Max Clark (2023) stole the show on Day One with a 7-for-7 performance and it carried over to Day Two, helping his team to wins over the No. 7-ranked Elite 2023 and the No. 2-ranked Pro Player Hurricanes.
As for Futures, they’ve been lifted by an assortment of players, but none more threatening on offense than C/3B/RHP Sebastian Jameis (2023). He tallied a handful of clutch hits for a Futures team that needed them, especially since they were pitted against the Midwest Astros, the team that took down the top-ranked Hitters Baseball squad in the quarterfinals.
In the championship though, Bulls Black’s OF Alex Pandoff (2023) is the one who opened the scoring.
Each team had their chance to score in the first frame, but it was the Bulls who took advantage in the bottom half when Pandoff doubled sharply into the right-center gap.
To answer, Futures were vying to tie in the top of the second after a dropped third strike, hit by pitch, and wild pitch put runners on second and third with but a groundout quelled the threat.
Futures held Bulls in the following half inning which must have energized the bats. Futures got a one-out double from INF Carter Hanson (2023), who came around to score on a clutch two-out double off the bat of INF Joey Helms (2023) that tied the game at one.
After scoring the tying run, Hanson took to the mound and wiggled out of trouble. The Bulls’ star Clark got the chance to respond to Futures, with runners on second and third and two away, but he grounded out to first base to keep the game knotted up.
OF Cameron Gilkerson (2023) sliced a double into the left-center gap to start the fourth, and Futures looked poised to take their first lead of the game, but Bulls’ RHP Charlie Schebler (2023) navigated over the trouble and it remained 1-1.
In his next at-bat, to lead off the bottom of the fourth, Pandoff blooped a single that landed in the middle of a converging shortstop, left fielder, and center fielder and he got to second base in the very next at-bat after a hit by pitch. A single by INF Nick Kallen (2023) loaded the bases with no outs setting up the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch. A walk re-loaded the bags but a 6-4-3 double play prevented an explosive half inning; still, Bulls Black took a hold of a 3-1 lead after four.
CIF Cole Cahill (2023) singled through the right side of the infield to start the fifth inning. A walk and an infield single loaded the bases with no outs, for Futures this time. Schebler earned a clutch K to tally the first out but Futures grabbed the lead, their first one of the game, on C/3B Brice Estep’s (2023) single into shallow right-center, scoring a pair, and making it a 4-3 game. With the bases loaded again, Schebler hit Gilkerson to force home Futures’ fifth run, thus prompting a pitching change.
Unlike Futures, Bulls couldn’t contain the damage. RHP/OF Tanner Hudspeth (2023) pulled a liner through the left side of the infield to make it 6-3. Another bases loaded hit by pitch and walk in the frame made it 8-3 Futures. Cahill, again, shoved a double into the right-center gap which pulled two more runs home to blow the game totally open, 10-3.
After Hanson pitched over a couple free passes, Futures applied the pressure for a final time in the sixth when Estep singled home his team’s 11th run with two outs, to give the Ohio program a late eight-run lead.
Hanson and Futures were just three outs away from capturing the 14U championship. Two quick pop outs brought Pandoff to the plate, who had been the Bulls’ most productive hitter in this game, flew out to center to end it with the 11-3 final.
The Futures Scout Team dropped their first game in pool play at the tournament against Bulls White and won five straight to capture the Junior Fall Championships trophy.
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