TTBC 14U are the 2023 Turkey Tournament Champions!
The TTBC 14U team capped off an exciting weekend with a tournament win against the Philippine Admirals on the hot and humid grounds of the Alabang Country Club in Manila.
During the round-robin stage, TTBC went 5 and 1 with wins over the aforementioned Admirals (11-2), SAS Eagles White (15-0), Garuda Indonesia (10-6), Philippines Genesis (4-3), and the Hong Kong Angels (17-3).
For more tournament news, check out Tournament News page.
The “Championship Game” Before The Championship Game
Going into the knockout stage with the third seed in the tournament, TTBC faced a strong SAS Eagles Red, the one team that they succumbed to in the round-robin stage (6-7). For all intents and purposes, this game would likely determine the champion of the tournament.
As expected, the semifinal was another tight affair with the TTBC team facing SAS’s skilled southpaw Ryan Krause.
In the first game, he had dominated with precision and power. This time around, however, TTBC got to him early with two runs in the top of the first with a leadoff walk from Harrison “Stix” Waag, followed by a single by Andes “Deez” Chai and another single by Luke “Shot Caller” Lawler.
TTBC countered Krause with their own creative southpaw, Khai Harris, who gave up two runs in the bottom of the first to make it another nail-biter of a game.
After going down 4-1 in the second, TTBC started their comeback with one run in the top of the third and another two runs in the top of the fourth through a double by Daniel “Boomtown” Looram, a bunt single by Kai “Tiny” Shohtoku, and a fortunate error on a pop fly to shallow left field by Jacob “the Flach Jacket” Flach.
Down by one again at the top of the fifth, TTBC again showed their never-say-die spirit through a two-run burst kick started by a Noah Lambert double, a Waag single, and a Chai double.
Championship Game
With a slim one-run lead going into the bottom of the inning, the team turned to their fireball closer, Jacob Flach, who came in to pitch a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to kill any hope of a comeback by the SAS Eagles Red.
The tournament final was a more relaxed affair for TTBC, even after giving up two runs in the top of the first to the Admirals. Chai took over the mound from Waag in the top of the first and pitched 4.1 innings, giving up 0 runs and only two hits.
Chai also stayed hot in the batter’s box with a 3-for-3 effort with 3 RBIs. TTBC settled down after a four-run bottom of the second and continued to tack on runs until the game finished in the bottom of the fifth after the time limit of 1 hour and 40 minutes was up.
