16 Astros Win Perfect Game Super25 National Championship

Perfect Game Super25 National Champions – 16u Astros

With a matchup of the two top pitching staffs throughout the entire 16u PG Super25 National Championship, it was no surprise that Friday’s championship showdown between the East Cobb Astros and eXposure Prime amounted to be a low-scoring affair.

Tied after seven innings at one, and each team scoring a run apiece in the eighth, it took some clutch pitching from the Astros’ Andrew Armstrong (2020, Buford, Ga.) to get East Cobb out of the 10th inning. From there the game went its deciding tiebreaker scenario and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Andrew Bennett (2020, Kennesaw, Ga.) lifted the Astros to a 3-2 victory at jetBlue Park.

With the game reaching the 10th inning, Perfect Game’s tiebreaker rules set the final three hitters of the previous inning on the bases with one out. Armstrong, who came to the mound in relief in the eighth for the Astros, was able to work his way clear of the traffic by punching out back-to-back hitters to give East Cobb their shot at the win.

Needing just one run for the title, Bennett watched a 3-1 pitch go outside to force home the championship-winning run for East Cobb.

The starting pitching matchup consisted of a pair of southpaws, with Josiah Siegel (2020, Woodstock, Ga.) on the hill for East Cobb and Colin Ahearn his opposite number going for eXposure. The two locked up in a duel that rivaled any title-game matchup out of Perfect Game’s summer tournaments this year.

Both lefties put on an exhibition of mixing speeds and locating everything in their arsenal through three innings as they each set down the first nine batters they faced with Siegel picking up three strikeouts and Ahearn whiffing five of his first nine batters.

eXposure picked up their first baserunner of the game for either side in the fourth on an error to lead off the inning. Siegel promptly cleaned the basepaths with a pickoff at first to record another scoreless frame, but ran into his first jam of the day in the fifth.

After allowing a one-out infield single and seeing a potential inning-ending double play ball end up with a throwing error resulting in runners on first and second, Siegel again held the line by getting back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.

In the top of the sixth, Siegel allowed back-to-back one-out singles and saw Lukas Cook  ground another single through the left side. However, with the lead runner heading for the plate, Astros left fielder Treyton Rank (2021, Acworth, Ga.) came up firing towards the plate and his throw home met East Cobb catcher Stephen Hrustich (2019, Lilburn, Ga.) in time to keep the game scoreless.

The Astros finally broke through in the home half as after Brad Grenkoski (2020, Knoxville, Tenn.) lined a two-out double to the fence in left, Jagger Smith (2020, Winnsboro, La.) would bring him home with an RBI single to right to put East Cobb ahead 1-0.

Christian Martin was called upon to lay down another bunt to move both runners up to second and third, and he succeeded with a perfectly placed bunt that left Hrustich no play, but he faked a throw to first and hung up Fisher, who made too big a turn around third. Hrustich made the throw to third, but Fisher went ahead and broke for the plate and slid in well ahead of the throw back to the plate to tie the game.

Ahearn was tasked to try to again move runners up to second and third, but his bunt was handled by Siegel, who nabbed the lead runner for the first out of the seventh.

That would be his last act of the game, as Siegel departed after going 6 1/3 innings and striking out nine. Ethan Stamps (2020, Madison, Ga.) was able to send the game to the bottom of the seventh still tied at one by inducing a 6-4-3 double play.

Needing a run to extend the game, Hrustich gave East Cobb a runner in scoring position with a 1-out double to the gap in left-center. Nathan Smith (2021, Thomasville, Ga.) would follow with what appeared to be a fly ball to right center that was in the grasps of the eXposure center fielder, but a collision with the right fielder jarred the ball loose. Hrustich, needing to make sure to be close enough to second to tag and move up to third, had enough time to come all the home to make it a brand new game at two apiece.

Armstrong and Cook tossed clean innings in the ninth, setting up the tiebreaker scenario that gave each team a shot to put across a run, but it was Armstrong who came up with the goods to keep eXposure off the scoreboard and the Astros only needing one batter to close out the tournament with a championship.

With a matchup that lived up to the billing, Siegel knew that matching up against a talented arm on the other side meant that keeping his focus was paramount to keep East Cobb in the game.

“I was locked in, I was confident and me and and Stephen had been working a lot this summer and we had trust in one another,” Siegel said. “All of my pitches were working and I had a great defense behind me. They made some great plays and I’ve got to give credit to them. I tried to stay focused and not give away any bad innings to those hitters and I did a good job of that today.”

Catching most of the tournament for East Cobb and performing under the pressure of all 10 innings on Friday, Hrustich had high praise for Siegel on Friday through a eXposure lineup that had put up 59 runs of offense in their prior six games of the tournament.

“We had to be 110 percent locked in, and Josiah on the mound was hitting his spots, his changeup was really good,” Hrustich said. “When he got it going, we just had to try to keep it rolling.”

Hrustich was selected as the tournament’s MV-Player as he finished with a .500 average (8-for-16) with four extra-base hits and four RBI.

2018 16u PG Super25 National Championship MVP: Stephen Hrustich

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