Team Missouri wins Junior Sunbelt

By Jeremy Higgins

They’ve gone from the basement to the penthouse.

In it’s seventh year of competing in the Annual Junior Sunbelt Classic, Team Missouri won it’s first title Wednesday night at Mike Deak Field in McAlester. This year’s championship is a vast improvement from past performances for a team who has never won more than four games in the Sunbelt tournament.

“It takes time,” first-year Team Missouri director Andy Jackson said after Wednesday’s game. “We’ve started doing a better job finding the best talent possible and are happy to have improved the way we have.

“We now have two showcases to evaluate and invite the best talent we can from the state of Missouri. Eric Briggs, who is the former director, now oversees our showcase exclusively and is doing a great job finding the best players available.”

Missouri got three runs in the bottom of the first inning against California Wednesday and then held on for a 3-2 win.

Bret Schwartz and Mack Kyle both reached base after being hit with pitches in the first inning. Schwartz and Kyle later scored the first two runs of the game and Zack Porath scored the third run after reaching base on a California error.

California scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth but fell just short of winning their second title.

“What a wonderful experience Sunbelt is,” Jackson said. “If it weren’t for the McAlester Dugout Club, the host families and Sunbelt Director John Schwartz, it wouldn’t be possible.

“This is by far the premier junior baseball tournament in the country. We are happy to have been invited and are glad they’ve stuck with our team through some tough years.

“I think winning this year will really peak some interest in Missouri baseball and hopefully we can come back and defend our title next year.”

Defending a Junior Sunbelt title isn’t an easy task and has only been done one time, by Team Georgia. Missouri has a good chance to become the second repeat winner as they had five sophomores on this year’s team and may field a very similar team next year.

In other medal day games Wednesday, Texas defeated Georgia 6-5 for 5th place and Arizona topped Tennessee for third place, winning 6-4. Games for 9th-10th place and 7th-8th place between Oklahoma Blue and Ontario, Canada and Oklahoma Gold and Mississippi were both cancelled.

Missouri’s Riley Reynolds was named tournament MVP and Kyle Barbeck was voted most outstanding pitcher. McAlester’s Justin Klusak and Anthony Trevino were voted to the All-

Tournament team.

Text Only