USA Labor Day Cup Recap

In the first annual Labor Day Cup held by USA Baseball in Cary, North Carolina, Baseball U represented the northeast in solid fashion. The tournament was used to help identify top players from as far as California as possible USA National Team members. Just one of the greatest experiences I could imagine for a young ball player. When you bring in 16 of the top teams from as far as California and put them in an environment such as the National Training Center in Cary, North Carolina it gets you excited just walking up to the fields. Throw in the fact that the players got to watch USA vs. Canada in a four game series prior to the World tournament being held in Germany next week it just made for a fantastic end to the summer. Both teams playing well added to the experience with one team making it to the championship and the other falling short in the semi-finals.

15U

Baseball U had invites in both the 15U and 17U divisions. The 15U team came a few innings short of winning the 15U Labor Day Cup. After jumping out to a 6-1 lead the team who had tried to piece meal inning by inning for the final had to hand the ball over to position players. In the 5^th inning the St Louis Pirates scored 6 runs to take a 9 – 6 lead.

The 15U Baseball U squad who defeated Florida Travel Ball in the semi-finals a day earlier with a pitcher throwing 92mph just ran out of pitching themselves. Losing is part of baseball and helps one grow. The 15U team has nothing to hang their heads about. They competed against 7 of the top travel teams in the country and fell 3 innings short.

17U

The 17U team had a loaded bracket to come out of and competed at a level that if at East Cobb or Jupiter it would not be a surprise to see them as National Champions. In fact to give an example of how they played they had wins against the ABD Navy squad, and defeated last year’s 16U WWBA National Champions the Richmond Braves. A tough loss came to the Top Tier team based out of Illinois. With the U up 4-0 in the 4^th, Top Tier chipped away and took the lead in the 6^th for a 5-4 win. That loss put Baseball U in the Semi-Final game vs. ABD Bulldogs Red this year’s WWBA National Champions rather than SSK of California who eventually lost 7-0 to Top Tier in the other semi-final game.

The semi-final game against ABD was a hard fought battle. The game was close the entire way with scores of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and the final run coming in the 6^th inning solidifying the win for ABD 4-2. By losing to the WWBA 17U National Champions is nothing to be ashamed about. If anything the team gained more respect from the other top national teams.

Players of Note

While all of the players at the event played with great heart and enthusiasm we are going to mention four players that are note worthy.

Lou Clemente – a currently uncommitted 2010 gained more national attention from Baseball America by having an impressive tournament. In the final against ABD he simply went 3-4 with a triple, double and single.

Brian Ward – a left handed pitcher committed to UConn gave up only two hits and two unearned runs to the Richmond Braves. His fastball was 86-89mph during the game.

Stephen Pike – a left handed pitcher from Massachusetts is as crafty as they come. At 5’ 9 he pitched innings in three games and gave up only 2 runs in doing so.

Chris Falvo – a member of Baseball U and winter training and late addition due to injuries stole the show this past weekend. He started off the tournament with one of the most amazing double plays while laying out on a line drive to start the 4-6-3. Chris was also 4-4 getting the runner in from third while at the plate. Just a solid tournament from Mighty-Mite.