C35 National finishes as runners-up

Jul. 13—The final game of the 2022 16U WWBA Coastal Championship was more like what you would expect from basketball's March Madness, not baseball in the Dog Days of summer.

But after six rounds of play in a 44-team tournament, on Monday evening, it all came down to Tar Heel blue vs. Kentucky bluegrass. Unfortunately, it was the Kentuckians who came on top in this showdown, as the Kentucky Mustangs Arsenal 16U team, one of the few from outside the Carolinas to compete in the tournament, completed their unbeaten run with an 8-4 victory over the Sanford-based C35 2024 National team at High Point University.

C35 National, coached by Lee Senior head coach Jevon Wade and including three of his top players, along with other standouts from their Sandhills Athletic Conference rivals, won five games over three days to reach the finals. The Mustangs, who'd played one extra game after being seeded 14th in the field, came out hot and stayed that way Monday, when eight teams remained and three wins were required to take the title.

Eighth-seeded C35 National drubbed top-seed TPA Nationals 16U Grey 6-1 in the morning and then held off fourth-seed Next Level Baseball NC 3-2 to reach the finals that evening. Meanwhile, the Mustangs blanked Cobras Elite 2024, a team that included two local players, 10-0 in their morning game. In the semifinals, they scored another rout, downing the Mid-Atlantic Orioles 11-2.

C35 National, which is 13-5-1 in the summer season, actually held a 3-1 lead in the championship game after scoring three times in the bottom of the third inning. The Mustangs immediately got the three runs back in the fourth, but C35 tied it at four in their half of the inning. However, despite outhitting the Mustangs 11-8 for the evening, C35 was unable to score again. The Kentucky team, which has played teams from Georgia to Colorado this summer and owns a 20-4 record, scored twice in the fifth to retake the lead and then added two more in the seventh, all off two homers by two-way standout Kadin Ray.

Two of Wade's players started in the final game. BJ Brown started in center field and went 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI, while Walker McDuffie started at shortstop and went 1-for-3.

The Mustangs strung together three hits in the top of the second inning against C35 pitcher James Eason (Richmond) and held it until the bottom of the third, when C35 mounted a two-out rally against Mustangs pitcher Hayden Jones. Cody Callahan (North Brunswick) singled to center on a 1-2 pitch, and then Brown followed with one of his own. Bryant Kimbrell walked on five pitches, and C35 was in business.

With the count at 1-1, Grayson Hudgins (Pinecrest) hit a ground single through the infield into left, tying the game. Eason then looked at four straight balls, forcing in Brown as C35 took the lead. Another ground single to left by Parker Pritchett (South Garner) put them up by two before the Kentuckians got out of the jam.

However, the Mustangs got the runs right back in the next half-inning, which began with a hard-hit ground ball that Kimbrell, playing third for C35, couldn't handle. They loaded the bases on a single and a hit batsman sandwiched around the first out. Then, with one out and the bases loaded, pitcher Eason lost the plate and walked the next two batters. A single by Sam Matherly put the Mustangs back in front 4-3.

McDuffie started the bottom of the fourth off with a hit but was later erased on the basepaths. But with two out, Brown smashed a double into left field and drove in Gavin Hernandez (Cornerstone Charter) to tie the score again.

A two-run homer by Ray in the fifth put the Mustangs ahead for good. History repeated itself in the seventh, when the leadoff man walked again and Ray stroked a second two-run homer. Ray, who had come on to pitch for his team during the fourth, ended up as both the winning pitcher and the player who drove in the winning run, going 2-for-4 with four RBI and four scoreless innings pitched.

Ray, a 6'3", 215-pound prospect from Muhlenberg Co. (Ky.) High School who pitches and plays four different positions in the field, lists UNC as one of the schools he is considering, and they will likely consider him more after this game. He hit .417 with a 1.242 OPS during his high school season.

It was a tough ending to an impressive run for C35 National, which had just played Next Level Baseball NC in the semifinals shortly before facing the Mustangs. In that contest, C35 took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third, but Next Level, which entered the game unbeaten in the tournament and 12-2-1 in its last 15 games, scored in the fourth and sixth to tie the game. C35, despite being outhit 9-4, got a run across in the seventh for the win.

C35 started Monday off with a 9 a.m. game with top-seeded TPA Nationals that appeared one-sided based on the final score, but was actually very hard-fought. TPA took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth before the C35 bat rack caught fire in the fifth, with five runs in the inning. An insurance run in the seventh concluded the scoring.

Leading the charge for C35 was a gem on the mound from Camron Seagraves (Richmond), who allowed one hit and struck out 10 over six innings. Coach Wade decided to ride his Raiders into the semifinals, inserting Seagraves' high school teammate Eason for the seventh due to pitch limits. Eason worked a scoreless inning.

Callahan drove in three runs and Aiden Carroll (South Garner) two for C35 in the victory.

There won't be much of a break for the C35 Nationals. On Saturday, they will begin play in the WWBA Grads or National Championships in Marietta, Ga., with the first game at 8 a.m. Saturday against the South Dekalb Tribe 16U.