EMERSON, Ga. – Team Elite defeated the Orlando Scorpions 5-3 in a comeback win on Saturday morning at LakePoint, etching their name as the 15u Perfect Game World Series Champions.

“Man, they’re resilient,” said head coach Brooke Richards. “This group all summer we’ve seen it, they get down, they come back, they fight. The fight never quits in these guys, they’re just a resilient bunch and they don’t know how to lose, and I think that’s important for young guys in the development process and also for building confidence for them down the road. They don’t know what it’s like to lose. They lost one game all year, and that’s just the type of team they are.”

Team Elite came in with a perfect record, winning their four pool play games and taking the top spot in their pool. A bypass in the first round awaited the No. 2-seeded Team Elite in the playoffs, who proceeded to take down the Banditos Scout Team 6-5 in five innings, running out the clock. The Winder, Ga.-based team was down 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and would score one on a passed ball, the other coming on a walk-off single by Kellum Clark to send them to the championship game.

“The fight, the fight. We’re missing a couple people and [the team] stepped up,” Austin Hendrick said. “[That game] we won on a walkoff, showed a lot of character, we fought and it was fun to play with.”

A 3-1 record was the case for the Scorpions in pool play, finishing second to Team Elite in pool A. They broke into the playoffs at the No. 8 seed and took down the BigStix Gamers to move on to the quarterfinals against the No. 1-seeded 643 DP Cougars. C.J. Kayfus took the mound for the Scorpions in that one, throwing a complete game, two-hit shutout to pick up the win, and his performance led him to be named the MV-Pitcher of the tournament. A 4-0 semifinal win over the Georgia Jackets placed the Scorpions in the final game of the World Series.

A rematch between the two teams emerged in the finale, with both having previously matched up in a 9-7 Team Elite win on Thursday afternoon. The scoring was early and often in that game, but that was not the case on Saturday morning, totaling a combined four hits through the game’s first three innings.

Cade Udell, who threw five innings, giving up one earned run and three hits against Team California in pool play, toed the rubber for the Scorpions, while Team Elite sent lefty Hendrick to the mound. The No. 3 player in the class of 2020 closed out the quarterfinal game against the Banditos and came into the championship game well rested.

The Scorpions reached base in two straight at-bats to start the top of the fourth, and a single to left field by Michael Brooks looked to be good enough to score a run. That run was cut down at the plate on a strong throw by Allan Del Castillo, and Hendrick would retire the next two hitters to escape the threat.

A one-out triple by Kellum Clark in the bottom half of the fourth kept the momentum going for Team Elite, but Udell would induce a strikeout and a groundout to keep the game scoreless.

Jared Wingo smashed a two-out, RBI double down the left field line in the fifth to give the Scorpions a 1-0 lead. That hit would knock the hard-throwing Hendrick out of the game after he tossed 4 2/3 innings, giving up five hits, one run and one walk, fanning one.

Udell would exit soon after, giving up a hit and two walks to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Cole Burgess would come in, but would give up an RBI single to surrender the lead. That brought up Hendrick with the bases loaded, launching a grand slam 382 feet to right center field that cleared the scoreboard.

“So first at-bat I took a fastball down, a really good pitch to hit, got out in front of a changeup and rolled over, and I knew I had to get the first pitch,” Hendrick said. “In my third at-bat he threw me a first pitch up, I knew I couldn’t miss it, learned from my mistake, took the barrel to it and drove it out of the park.”

The Scorpions would attempt a comeback, scoring two runs in the top of the sixth, but it was enough to overcome the deficit. Richards tipped his cap to the Scorpions, knowing how good of a team they are.

“We have a ton of respect for the Scorpions,” Richards said. “That’s a tremendous organization, we know those guys, we’re friends with those guys. We know they get the most out of their kids, so we knew, even going up 5-1 this game, that it wasn’t going to be over, and of course they scored two runs and started chipping away at it. Tremendous organization, class act group.”

The difference in the game ended up being the long home run by Hendrick that backed his performance on the mound. The lefthanded hitting outfielder dominated at the plate, hitting .450 (9-for-20) with three doubles, two home runs, four stolen bases and 11 RBIs, and his heroics would earn him MVP honors for the tournament.

“He’s a total package,” Richards said. “Everybody can see the physical tools. What people don’t understand and what people don’t see is how great of a teammate he is, what he brings to a team and the value he brings to a team. We talk it about it all the time about us being a family and us playing the game together, he’s one of those guys that keeps it together and he’s just a tremendous kid. There’s not many kids like him in the country as far as the mental makeup goes.”

Team Elite 15u Prime had a lot of success this summer in Perfect Game events, winning the 15u BCS National Championship, finishing third in the Perfect Game East Cobb Invitational and making it to the quarterfinals in the 15u WWBA. Richards said that being able to win the final event of their season was a testament to their family atmosphere, faith and hard work throughout the year, saying that it could not happen without those three elements.

“Well I said it in the BCS when we won that, I felt like we were the No. 1 team in the country and I felt like our kids wanted to be the No. 1 team in the country, and I hope we proved that today. To finish off the year with a W, that rarely happens, and I couldn’t be more proud of our coaching staff, it’s a tremendous coaching staff from Brad Bouras, down to our youth director Mike Gearhart, my assistants Daniel, Zath Merry and Mark Nellist and Juan, I just have a tremendous staff.

"This takes a group of a bunch of people, not just one team, it’s a collective effort from the top to the bottom in our program. We all work hard in the recruiting, we all work hard in the development and it’s cool to see it all come together.”


2017 15u PG World Series runner-up: Orlando Scorpions



2017 15u PG World Series MVP: Austin Hendrick



2017 15u PG World Series MV-Pitcher: C.J. Kayfus