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High School  | General | 3/10/2018

2 kings crowned at Showdown

Jeff Dahn
Photo: Perfect Game

Blessed Trinity wins Red Division title in championship game rematch

EMERSON, Ga. – It seems hard to believe that it’s already been 12 months since Blessed Trinity High School (Roswell, Ga.) and Providence High School (Jacksonville, Fla.) got together at Perfect Game Park-LakePoint to see which team would take home the championship at the 2017 PG High School Showdown.

On that March afternoon just one year ago, it was the Providence Stallions that left north Georgia wearing the single-division, PG HS Showdown crown. The two proud programs had so much fun going toe-to-toe on the PGP-LP all-turf fields that fate determined they should give it another go on Saturday. And this time, things turned out differently.

The Blessed Trinity Titans used 10 hits and took advantage of eight walks issued by the Providence Titans' pitchers and two errors from their defense to post a back-and-forth 11-8 victory in the PG HS Showdown Red Division championship game played Saturday afternoon under a steady rain.

“These guys are just resilient,” Blessed Trinity head coach Andy Harlin said after watching his team go 4-0 at the Showdown and improve to 12-1 overall this season. “We graduated nine seniors who played a lot last year, so starting the season out, there were just a lot of new guys in new roles, and that kind of thing.

“What’s been resilient about them is that anytime somebody throws a punch at us we come out and throw one right back at them. … I’m just very, very proud of how they had to keep fighting.”

This one was a battle. The Titans led 4-0 after 2½ innings, 4-3 after three and 5-3 after 3½; Providence (3-1 Showdown, 7-1 overall) was up 6-5 after five. But Blessed Trinity let loose during a five-run fifth and added a single run in the seventh, and although Providence countered with two in the bottom of the seventh, it still fell three runs short.

Several Blessed Trinity hitters contributed to the win. Junior Jake Smith doubled, singled, drove in a run and scored two others; junior CJ Abrams – an Alabama commit ranked No. 14 nationally (class of 2019) – singled twice and scored a pair of runs; junior Steele Chambers singled, drove in three and scored three; freshman DJ Radke tripled and picked up a pair of RBI and senior Mickey Skole singled and also drove in two.

The uncommitted Smith (2019 No. 461) went 7-for-12 (.583) with a double, triple and five RBI in the Titans’ four games and was named the Most Valuable Player.

The Stallions totaled 12 hits in the loss and were walked five times by Titans’ pitchers. Junior Josh Gray singled and doubled, drove in two runs and scored one; freshman Levi Albert singled and doubled, drove in one and scored one; junior Tyler Callihan (2019 No. 20, South Carolina) had a pair of singles, an RBI and a run scored; senior Jake Morrow singled and drove in a pair and senior Tyler Johnson singled three times.

Providence junior right-hander Cutter Cannon scattered five hits over 5 2/3 innings, giving up one earned run and striking out six, in Providence’s semifinal victory over Cartersville (Ga.), and was named the Red Division Most Valuable Pitcher.

Blessed Trinity won Georgia High School Association state championships in 2014 and ’15 and finished as state runner-up in both ’16 and ’17. Harlin believes winning a PG championship like the Showdown in the middle of the Titans’ 2018 schedule will serve as a springboard into the rest of their season.

“At a tournament like this you’re going to see great arms, and that’s going to get you ready for (GHSA) region play and hopefully the playoffs down the road,” he said. “Everything goes into building a team, and experiences like this definitely play a big role in that.

“It’s a great event, and at this venue it’s nuts how nice this is. You’re playing against the top competition in the country and (the players) were definitely excited about being back here.”

The Red Division championship game rematch of last year’s single-division game came were the result of the outcomes of a pair of tense semifinal games played earlier Saturday. The Titans pitched their way past nationally No. 2-ranked Lilburn (Ga.) Parkview HS, 2-0, and the Stallions out-lasted No. 33 Cartersville (Ga.), 7-4 in 11 innings.

Providence’s victory over No. 33 Cartersville was particularly dramatic. The Hurricanes were down to their last strike, trailing 4-2 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, when Jake Gooch hit a groundball, two-run single up the middle to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

The Stallions used three singles and two walks to push across three runs in the top of the 11th and held on for the win.


2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Red Division Champions: Blessed Trinity



2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Red Division Runner-up: Providence



2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Red Division MVP: Jake Smith



2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Red Division MV-Pitcher: Cutter Cannon





Montverde Academy cruises to Blue Division title

EMERSON, Ga. – Although Montverde (Fla.) Academy is a fully accredited and highly regarded private academic institution, its sports teams are independent and don’t operate under the jurisdiction of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA).

One of the drawbacks of that independence is that Eagles athletics squad don’t have the opportunity to compete for traditional Florida high school state championships. There’s nothing amiss here, it’s just the way things work.

Montverde Academy’s baseball program sets a goal every season of finishing 25-0 – that’s how many regular season games it tries to schedule – and this year it meant the Eagles would have to go 4-0 and win the Blue Division championship at the Perfect Game High School Showdown, which completed its three-day run at PG Park-LakePoint on Saturday, to reach that goal.

After a 6-2 Blue Division championship game victory over Houston County (Warner Robins, Ga.), the Eagles, with head coach Victor Valencia, had the same feeling they may have had if they won a FHSAA state championship.

“This is what they wanted since we started (the season), they wanted to win at Perfect Game,” Valencia said. “They wanted to show to people that they can do this … and that’s what I’m so happy about.”

Senior Nander De Sedas hit a three-run home run as part of a game-changing six-run second inning and senior right-hander Saul Gonzalez delivered a complete-game, 10-strikeout, three-hitter and Montverde completed a 4-0 run at the Showdown and improved to 11-0 this season.

It was quite a turnaround for a program that was a combined 3-9 in its three previous Showdown appearances. The Eagles outscored their four opponents at this week’s event by a combined 24-5 and were clearly the class of their division.

They pounded out 13 hits in their championship game victory, a total that included two players chipping in with three singles apiece and seven others collecting one hit each. De Sedas was one of those “one-hit wonders” but, of course, his happened to be a three-run bomb.

Alejandro Rodriguez, Johan Campines Chacon and Eduardo Acosta – hitting 7-8-9 in the batting order – each singled and drove in a run. Trevor Candelaria and Caleb Cali were the hitters that contributed three singles apiece and both also scored a run.

Houston County (3-1 Showdown, 12-3 overall) scored both of its run off Gonzalez (No. 355, Alabama State) in the fourth inning but otherwise struggled to get anything going against Montverde’s big right-hander. Cameron Jones doubled and scored a run and Chandler Ring singled and drove one in, and that was about it for the Bears’ offensive highlights.

Both the Most Valuable Player and the MV Pitcher came from Montverde’s roster, which came as little surprise. They are two of the most highly regarded prospects in the country and certainly two of the most highly prized at the Showdown.

De Sedas, a Perfect Game All-American, Florida State signee and top 2018 MLB Draft prospect ranked No. 3 nationally in the 2018 class, was the MVP after hitting 4-for-9 (.444) with a double, a home run, four RBI and three stolen bases.

The MV Pitcher trophy went to senior right-hander Kerry Wright, a Louisville signee ranked No. 147 nationally who is also considered a worthy draft prospect. Wright was the winning pitcher in the Eagles’ semifinal victory Friday night, throwing six, three-hit shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and one walk.

“I felt good that I was able to help the team and get us to a victory and lead us to the championship game,” he said. “It got us here, and that’s all I wanted to do.”

Montverde Academy and Houston County reached Saturday’s Blue Division championship game after winning semifinal matchups on Friday. The Eagles ran past Winder-Barrow (Ga.) HS, 9-0, in one of the semis and the Bears escaped Denham Springs (La.), 5-4, in the other.

After reaching the championship game, it looked like the Montverde Academy Eagles were a team of destiny.

“This was a lot of hard work, right from the beginning,” Valencia said. “The intensity started with our coaches, but then it was the players. They put in a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of good chemistry, but our main thing (was) we are a family. We win together … and we always close. This is the result of what we started a couple of months ago.”


2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Blue Division Champions: Montverde Academy


2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Blue Division Runner-up: Houston County



2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Blue Division MVP: Nander De Sedas



2018 Perfect Game High School Showdown Blue Division MV-Pitcher: Kerry Wright
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