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Tournaments  | Championship  | 6/26/2019

Stix climb to top at 17u South

Nate Schweers     
Photo: Stix 2020 Davenport (Perfect Game)

DALLAS – Stix 2020 Davenport claimed the 2019 WWBA 17u South National Championship on Wednesday, beating Adidas Baseball National Team 2020 – Ina by a score of 3-0. Timely hitting and dominant pitching was the name of the game for Stix all tournament long, and they got exactly that to take home the title.

Holding on to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, tournament MVP Jalon Mack came to the plate with runners at the corners looking to put the game out of reach. Mack did exactly that, driving a triple to the opposite gap in left field. Mack’s second triple of the tournament gave Stix 2020 Davenport a 3-0 lead, and they never looked back.

“Earlier in the game I was kind of pulling off pitches,” said Mack, who is a switch hitter at the plate. “I had to make a quick adjustment and see what I was doing wrong, so that next at-bat I just tried to keep my shoulder in and drive it to the opposite field.

Mack, who is ranked as a top 500 player in the 2020 class, helped his team in a big way by finishing the tournament with five extra-base hits, driving in eight runs in the process.

“It feels great. Working through my high school season I was trying to get better each and every day, and it lead to this point. I just want to thank my teammates for getting me to this point. They motivate me each and every day when it is hard and it gets tough.”

Baseball truly is a team game, and not to be overshadowed by Mack’s offense is the pitching performance of Ryan Messick in Wednesday’s championship game. Messick tossed a complete game shutout, allowing only three hits and striking out six.

“At the beginning of the game I was pretty much only throwing my fastball, and then as it got later I found my slider and I stuck with that the rest of the game” said Messick, who is an uncommitted member of the 2020 class. “That fastball-slider combo was really working for me today.”

While Messick only needed the one early run to grab a victory on Wednesday, he was appreciative of his team’s ability to give him run support on Wednesday, again noting how well this team works with each other for success.

“It’s good to know that I can throw like that and my team will give me runs to go with it. It is fun to be out here with these guys when we are playing like that.”

Messick was up to 85 mph with the fastball on Wednesday, sitting in the low-80s with good arm-side run at times. Paired with the knockout slider, he was a force to be reckoned with on the rubber.

Stix 2020 Davenport was firing on all cylinders in this week’s tournament, going 8-0 and outscoring their opponents 53-14 in the process. On a team with 12 college commitments and a ton of offensive firepower, Stix 2020 Davenport is ready to continue this momentum the rest of the summer.

Before dropping the final game of the 2019 WWBA 17u South National Championship, Adidas Baseball National Team 2020 – Ina received a stellar performance on the mound from MV-Pitcher Matthew Linskey. Linskey tossed a complete game shutout in a semifinal win, and did not allow a run over 11 innings while striking out a total of 17 batters this week.


2019 WWBA 17u South National Championship runner-up: Adidas Baseball National Team 2020 - Ina



2019 WWBA 17u South National Championship MVP: Jalon Mack



2019 WWBA 17u South National Championship MV-Pitcher: Matthew Linskey
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