The Greensboro Retro Pirates 14U travel baseball team brought home the gold on Sunday as they swept through a 2 game day with clutch hitting and gutty pitching and defense. The rain shortened tourney saw the Retro Pirates produce a 2-0 record to win the tourney outright.
In the first game, the Pirates were in control from the start as they cruised past a pesky Guil-Rand 14U team. The Pirates prevailed with a 7-1 victory backed by the efficent pitching of James Watkins and John Meeks. Watkins and Meeks had total command of the husky Guil–Rand ball club with the backing of a team effort of offense. Matthew Nusdeo, Lucas Olszewski, Jake Kempfer, Brian Beckham, and Andrew Knight provided the firepower for the Pirates on the offensive end. Catcher Bailey Sartin was stellar behind the plate with a couple pickoffs of runners that killed 2 Guil-Rand rallies.Guil-Rand turned an incredible triple play in the 3rd inning on the Pirates that would have been on ESPN top 10 plays if my video camera was rolling.
In game 2 of a must win situation, the retro Pirates faced arch-rival the Greensboro Cardinals. When these two teams get together you can always count on a well played ball game. The Tony Nusdeo coached Pirates and the Wally Hopkins coached Cardinals always come to play intense baseball.The Pirates sent ace hurler Lucas Olszewski to the hill to see if he could shut down the big bats of the Cardinals. After a tough first 2 innings of finding the strike zone, Olszewski came through with a gutty complete game performance (2 hitter) for the 4-1 win that clinched the undefeated weekend for the Pirates. With Olszewski running into to some jams in the first couple innings, the Pirates came through with flawless defense. Michael Kennedy threw out two Cardinal Sluggers from centerfield at first base to end any Cardinals rally. It proved to be the key plays of the game by Kennedy. The offense was carried by Kennedy, Olszewski, Nusdeo, and Kyle McKinney. McKinney came through with a huge 2 run single that provided the Pirates with all the runs they needed.
Congrats to the Retro Pirates…
RETRO PIRATES BRING HOME NATIONS 14u TOURNEY GOLD
