Western PW team finishes 13th in elite tournament

There are not too many ways getting around a simple fact set out by SBA Orioles 11U baseball manager Rich Solomon. His team ended up 13th last week at the Elite Disney super national invitation tournament though the O's were gunning for eighth. That comes one year after the team as the 10U Virginia Generals finished in ninth place in the same tournament.

But this year, the Orioles were stuck in what was by far the hardest of the four eight-team brackets and still managed to pull out an overall record of 5-2. They exited pool play in third place with a perfect 3-0 record, behind two other 3-0 teams that gave up fewer runs during the seeding round. That came at a time when the other three brackets combined produced one 3-0 team.

Simply put, the Orioles wanted to play the best and, oh, did they get it.

"We would have had to hold our last opponent under three runs," said Solomon on Monday as he explained what the O's would have needed in order to secure a No. 1 seed in the "D" bracket. Instead, they gave up four runs while still securing a win, dropping them to third place.

It was that competitive.

"We knew we were in a tough pool," said Solomon, reciting the national rankings of some of the teams they faced. They included the No. 1 Oklahoma Rays, No. 5 Motor City Hit Dogs, No. 7 Lamorinda Diablos and No. 8 San Diego Stars. The Orioles were ranked 25th heading into the tournament.

After disposing of three teams in the early round, the Diablos gave Solomon's team a "pretty good shellacking," winning 12-2.

"They had a kid that was, in my opinion, the best 11-year-old player I've ever seen," said the coach, referring to Enouche Evans.

The pitcher struck out five in four innings of work while also going 3-for-3 at the plate with a double, triple and grand slam in a game called after 4.5 innings.

So the next morning at 8 a.m., the Orioles regrouped and "just came alive" against Motor City, according to Solomon.

Mike Polanski pitched 4 innings while Elan Goodwin closed out the game's final two during a 4-2 victory for the Orioles. Goodwin proved masterful on the mound as he entered the game with runners in scoring position and no outs in the top of the fifth inning. He struck out the next two batters looking and forced a ground out to Noah Goins at third base, who zipped the ball across the diamond to Kyle Whitten to retire the side.

Polanski smacked an RBI double of his own and scored a run too to help his own cause in the bottom of the fourth, which gave SBA a 4-1 lead entering the fifth. Tyler Solomon also cranked an RBI double that scored Khalil Lee, three innings after he knocked in Goodwin with a sacrifice ground out to put the first run on the board.

Earlier in the tournament, the Orioles won a game on a walk-off "suicide squeeze" bunt by the younger Solomon, so they had already established a flair for the dramatic prior to squeaking out a 2-1 win against the Beaver Valley Reds on Aug. 5.

Lee matched the Reds' starting pitcher inning through innings before the Reds scored their lone run in the top of the fifth inning. SBA's coaching staff opted to keep in Lee and let him close out the game while Beaver Valley changed pitchers.

The elder Solomon said he then opted to bring Dylan Flint in off the bench with one mission: "We need our lead off hitter on base."

Sure enough, Flint worked the count until he drew a walk and advanced to second and third base on an error and passed ball before coming all the way around on another error while Goodwin stood in the batter's box.

Goodwin followed up with a walk of his own, made to second and rounded third on a sacrifice by Lee. The Reds intentionally walked Solomon and Polanski with only one out to force an out at any base with Noah Goins coming to the plate.

Like Tyler Solomon did earlier with his suicide squeeze attempt, Goins left off the first pitch to create the impression that he would swing away. Then, the bunt single came with Goodwin taking a 3.5 to 4-step lead at third base.

Goodwin clinked the ball down the third base line and Goodwin slid home. With everybody safe all around the diamond, that was it; the Orioles pulled out the W.

"That could have been the best game of the tournament," said the coach.

On a down note, the final game against the two-time defending champion Stars didn't end quite so well, with the eventual tournament runnner-up putting together a 12-6 win.

"The joy of that was just playing the San Diego Stars," said Solomon. "That's why you go to these biggest tournament in the game."