It was a good weekend for our Top Tier Las Vegas guys. Our 10U team made it into bracket play in the Perfect Game Spring NIT, and our 13U Americans won the 14U Open division at the USSSA Spring NIT.
Today we’re focusing on the 13s — there’s enough to say about their weekend to give them their own post. We’ll get to the 10U guys later this weekend.
I’ll be honest: I’m not sure how to characterize this group anymore. It’s been an interesting spring. They opened the season as a true 13U team with plans to play up at 14U — partly to prepare them for high school ball, partly to get ready for the 14U season that kicks off in August.
They say 90-foot bases and BBCOR bats are the great equalizers in middle school baseball. That’s been our reality, and then some.
We’ve lost players, we’ve gained players. We’ve had bright moments, and we’ve had a lot of struggles. This has been one of the more trying seasons I’ve ever been a part of. It’s tested everyone mentally, and at times, it’s been exhausting. We’ve put a lot on these kids’ plates, and just about everything that could go wrong has.
So let me start about a month ago, when we pulled the plug on competition. We were blasted by JAM Baseball in a consolation game — no-hit, to be exact. As a coaching staff, we knew we needed a reset. We started with an Academy day in the classroom, cancelled their next tournament, and gave everyone a two-week break.
There was a lot to address. Walk rates through the roof. Baserunning giveaways at an almost fictional clip. No quality at-bats being strung together. But underneath all the numbers — which I’ll spare you — our compete level was as low as I’ve personally ever seen from a team I’ve coached.
So we went to work. Classroom sessions, practice field, the cages — for weeks. We also added another talented player to the mix along the way.
This past weekend was our first tournament back since that reset. We rolled through our first opponent in the USSSA Spring NIT, 13-2. The energy was infectious and constant. We strung together quality at-bats, attacked the strike zone, and let our defense work — and work they did.
Then came a rematch with JAM Baseball, the same team that no-hit us last month. It wasn’t the same game, but it was the same result, and there were enough echoes to make it feel that way.
The bracket set up another meeting with JAM in the semifinals. The start didn’t go as planned. Too many walks. We weren’t executing what we’d spent a month working on. Things got chippy between the dugouts. We turned to Jedd Gallagher-Spencer in the second inning to stabilize things, and he did exactly that — inducing a pair of ground balls to get out of the inning.
The biggest challenge this group has faced all year has been competing through adversity. This was the moment where it could have easily become “here we go again.” The coaching staff challenged them. They responded. Gallagher-Spencer held JAM scoreless on two hits the rest of the way, and the offense did enough to earn a 5-3 win and a spot in the championship game.
In the final, Sal Mantico took the mound and gave us three solid innings. The offense jumped out to a five-run lead early, and even when the Southern Nevada Bandits closed it to one, we stayed the course. Roman Paiz delivered 2.1 strong innings before Jedd Gallagher-Spencer came on to close it out. With the Bandits’ cleanup hitter up, Gallagher-Spencer induced a double play to end the inning with a 7-5 lead heading to the seventh.
After adding another run to push the lead to 8-5, Gallagher-Spencer retired the Bandits in order — pop-up, groundout, strikeout — to seal the championship.
Moments that Mattered
- Jonathan Rolands had a tough open to the semi-finals game against Jam Baseball. He was pulled in the second inning, and that could have been the end of his weekend. Instead, Rolands started in right field in the championship game, and went 2-3 with a walk, an RBI, and a run scored.
- Jedd Gallagher-Spencer started the weekend with his bat doing the talking, and finished it with his arm on the mound. He racked up two triples, two doubles, a single, 5 RBI, 5 runs, and 2 HBP’s at the plate, and 6.1 innings pitched, in which he allowed zero runs on two hits while striking out four.
- Sal Mantico didn’t get a start in the semi-final game on Saturday, but came into the game and reached base twice, starting two scoring innings, and then turned in three solid innings on the mound in the championship game. Mantico turned in the best string of plate appearances he has put together this season, and when it mattered most.
- Amit Sharma didn’t crack the starting lineup for the first time this weekend in the championship game, but killed the role. We’ve placed an emphasis on players understanding roles, which vary by day, game, and inning, and when Sharma was held out of the lineup because of the way things played out, he didn’t miss a beat, making sure he was a positive contributor in multiple ways even when he wasn’t in the lineup in that game.
- Roman Paiz was excellent on the mound in the middle of the championship game, and he went 3-4 at the plate.
- Blake Bloyer went 3-3 in the nine-hole in the championship game, helping to flip the lineup five times.
- Newcomer Angelo Silvera—who is yet to turn 13—played in his first 14U games of his life, and put together quality at-bats and approaches all day and played excellent defense at third base.
- Brady Kotake, Jalen Boman, Jedd Gallagher-Spencer, and Otto Braverman all racked up five-plus hits each on the weekend.
Top Tier Las Vegas Numbers that Mattered
Offense
- XBH (Extra-Base Hits): 9
- QAB% (Quality At-Bat Rate): 61.8
- BA RISP (Batting Average w/ Runners in Scoring Position): .345
Defense
- ERA (Earned Run Average): 2.00
- Opposing BA (Opponent Batting Average): .184
- <3% (Percentage of Opposing At-Bats Ending in 3 or Fewer Pitches): 50.0
- FPSO% (Percentage of ABs w/ First Pitch Strike Resulting in an Out): 74.47
- FPSW% (Percentage of ABs w/ First Pitch Strike Resulting in a Walk): 6.38
- FPSH% (Percentage of ABs w/ First Pitch Strike Resulting in a Hit): 12.77
- BB/INN (Walks Per Inning): .905
It’s a start.
There’s plenty of work still ahead, but these guys rose to the challenge this weekend — and it’s the highest point of the season for them.
Not just because of the result, but because of how they did it: the work they put in together, the energy in the dugout, the togetherness, the compete level, the ability to push through adversity.
We’re proud of what they accomplished this weekend. Plenty more to build on.
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