Collins Brown turned in a sturdy complete-game effort for Twitty City.

By Rich Bevensee

To get an idea of just how widespread Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore persona has on our culture, look no further than Eli Weeks of the Twitty City Athletics 12U-Duke ballclub out of Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Weeks throws right-handed and bats lefty, and he recently went through a funk where he felt his throwing motion was mucking up his rhythm at the plate.

Enter his dad, Adam, who suggested running toward a pitch and swinging, just like Gilmore would with a golf club. The younger Weeks said he thought his dad was crazy, but trusted him nonetheless and practiced the unorthodox drill.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon and the quarterfinals of the Ripken National Championships. Weeks, batting ninth in the order, delivered his team’s first breakthrough of the game, hitting an RBI double to start the scoring. That shot propelled his team to a 4-3 victory over SBA JSM X National of Estero, Florida, at All Star Village in Cooperstown. 

“It was mostly in my head,” Weeks said. “I was popping it up and not swinging through it. I wasn‘t throwing the barrel at it. I had to stay through it and stay on time and swing as hard as I could, so yeah, the Happy Gilmore swing helped a lot. You take a step and swing as hard as you can. Now I just have fun. I can be myself and do what I can do and see what happens.”

With the victory, Twitty City (68-5) earned a berth in the semifinals on Saturday and will face ZT Prospects Arteaga (58-14-2) of Fontana, California. 

Elite RBI National (61-11) will face the Dulins Dodgers, a qualifier out of Cooperstown, in the other semi. 

The Ripken Nationals may draw the best 12U teams the U.S. has to offer, but Twitty City entered the tournament thoroughly battle tested. In mid-June, coach Zach Duke’s squad traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, for the SlumpBuster Tournament, contested concurrently with the first week of the NCAA College World Series. The boys from Tennessee finished second among 68 teams.

Even with that excellent confidence boost in their back pocket, Twitty City was locked in a tense battle the entire ballgame. In fact, this quarterfinal was one of the most tightly contested ballgames of the entire tournament. 

The game came down to the final out. Trailing by a run, SBA JSM X National got the potential tying and winning runs on base when Max Drysdale led off with a walk and advanced to third on Rodrigo Pirela’s two-out single. 

Twitty City pitcher Collins Brown, however, induced a pop up and first baseman Anthony Sewell made an outstanding over the shoulder catch in foul territory to end the game and clinch the semifinal berth. 

Brown struck out 10 in a complete-game effort, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks.

“All I had was my curveball and fastball,” Brown said. “I threw the curve a good amount trying to get them out.”

Brown was most effective when facing his most difficult situations. He allowed the tying run to reach third in the fourth inning, then stranded that baserunner with two strikeouts. He then gave up the walk and the hit in the sixth which represented the winning runs. Brown was not to be deterred.

“It was a mindset,” Brown said. “I was tired but it was about knowing I have a great defense behind me and knowing we have another at bat and we can really hit.

“LIke I said, it’s a mindset. You’re nervous but you believe in the team behind you, and it’s knowing you have the ability to play with anyone.”

Yeison DeLosSantos hammered a solo hole run in the second inning for SBA JSM X National.

Perhaps Brown gets his pitcher’s mindset from his coach. Coach Duke, drafted out of high school in Waco, Texas by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2001, was a lefthanded pitcher who played for nine teams in a 15-year Major League career. 

After Weeks’ RBI double down the first base line in the second inning, Twitty City made it 3-0 when Jax Johnson singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

SBA JSM X National responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame. Jacob Brown earned a one-out walk before Yeison DeLosSantos crushed a 2-0 pitch over the 220-foot center field fence and brought his team within a run. It was the third dinger of the tournament for DeLosSantos. 

Twitty City tried to build some insurance by scoring another run in the fourth when Klein Watson swatted a solo home run with two out, his first of the tournament, giving his ballclub a 4-2 lead. 

SBA JSM X National crept right back with a run in the bottom of the frame on Christian Sosa’s solo homer, his second in as many games.

Michael Roberts struck out seven in his four innings of work for SBA JSM X National while allowing four runs, three earned, on four hits and two walks. Jake Santiago threw two scoreless, no-hit innings in relief, permitting just one walk against four strikeouts. 

The Twitty City name for the Tennessee ballclub comes from former country singer Conway Twitty, who was known to support softball programs and tournaments in his home state. Last year, Duke merged his baseball program, Framework Athletics, with the Twitty City program.