(Youth1) – The three-game championship of the Cecil Fielder Elite World Series promised to be a great series on paper and when it came time to take the field the boys did not disappoint.

The Oakley Stingrays came into game one as Youth1’s No. 1 team in the nation, already holding a 6-4 win over Rawlings Pico Elite from earlier in the tournament, and looked to take two more from them in the three-game set. Such would not be the case in game one though, as the Pico Elite jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the top of the 1^st and never looked back.

Tyler Wright led off the game for Pico, beating out an infield single to set the tone before Emilio Jimenez and Jared Thomas reached safely to load the bases. Noah Gomez came through with a huge bases-clearing triple and Devin Semper drove Gomez home with a line drive single over the shortstop’s head before the Stingrays finally stopped the bleeding.

After the pitching of Wright held the Stingrays scoreless, Pico tacked on six more in the bottom of the 2^nd with the big blow coming on a bases-clearing triple from John Politis. Also contributing RBI in the inning were Devin Sempre, Zeke Riesgo, and Raider Peralta.

The Stingrays came storming back in the bottom of the 3^rd when a single by No. 10 bounced over the reach of Noah Gomez, sparking a late-game rally. The Stingrays would go on to score five more runs in the inning, highlighted by a three-run triple from No. 24 but eventually ran out of gas when No. 7 grounded out to end the inning.

Pico tacked on one more in the top of the 4^th and held the Stingrays scoreless as the two-hour time limit was reached and Pico was victorious by an 11-6 final.

Written By: Matthew Carl This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sports Manager: Matthew Carl