Mateo Guerra is greeted by Elite RBI National teammates after his two-run homer in the first inning.
By Rich Bevensee
It’s not very often that a 12-year old possesses the maturity to notice everything that’s going on around him in the midst of a national tournament. So give credit to Jett Eads, who had the presence of mind to appreciate the chance he was given to play baseball on the biggest stage of his life.
Eads started in right field and pitched in relief for the Dulins Dodgers of Gunter, Texas, who were soundly defeated in the semifinals of the inaugural Ripken National Championships on Saturday afternoon at All Star Village in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The Dodgers bowed, 27-1, to Elite RBI National of Houston, fellow Texans who hammered nine home runs in the game. It was a rematch of Lone Star State ballclubs which met in March at the Rocker B Ranch, a baseball complex in Graford, Texas, which is about an hour west of Fort Worth. Elite RBI earned a mercy-rule win in that affair as well.
Eads was noticeably saddened by seeing his team’s tournament run halted, but he still managed to see the bigger picture.
“Coming to Ripken has been a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Eads, the son of Dodgers head coach Jeremy Eads. “In some ways it was better to lose to them in Rocker B and then go through these six games. It made it more fun.”
The Dodgers earned a berth in the 16-team Ripken affair by advancing as one of the top four teams in the Cooperstown tournament earlier in the week.
Once in the big show, the Dodgers knocked off Trojans Gold of Iowa City, Iowa, 10-6, in the Round of 16, then eliminated the highly-ranked sluggers of SBA Rebel Nation of Orlando, Florida, 11-4, in the quarterfinals.
The victory over the Rebels was a huge upset. In the Rebels’ previous game, they smashed eight home runs in a 16-11 defeat of Flores Baseball Braves Red of Fairfield, N.J., in the Round of 16.
“Winning against SBA and making the top four – once in a lifetime,” Eads said.
Bunking in the player- and coach-only cottages on the All Star Village campus is what separates the Ripken experience from any other week-long showcase event, where players mostly stay in hotels with their parents.
Eads and teammate Sam Cross agreed that simply hanging around with their teammates – and meeting players from around the country when not playing ball – was probably the best part of their week.
Cross drove in his team’s only run in the semis with a fielder’s choice grounder in the third inning.
“Pin trading was a lot of fun,” Cross said. “I got a lot of different pins. I think I did pretty good, maybe 20-25 pins. Some other guys on my team probably collected more.
“But my favorite part was I got to play on national television.”
The Dodgers-Elite RBI game was nationally simulcasted by GameChanger.
Brody Pemberton pops his second home run of the game for Elite RBI National.
The other semifina,l in which Twitty City Athletics-Duke of Hendersonville, Tennessee, knocked off national power ZT Prospects Arteaga of Fontana, California, 4-3, was televised live on CBS. The championship game, in which Twitty City beat Elite RBI, 12-7, was also televised by CBS.
Eads loved having fun with his friends off the artificial turf fields of All Star Village as much as he did between the foul lines.
“Obviously it’s all baseball, but we all knew this wasn’t a business trip. It’s a destination trip,” Eads said. “We were having fun in the bunks, playing mini hoop, just doing whatever. We’ve been out of town before but nothing has come close to this.
“If you look around, nothing will ever beat this. Staying in the bunks, making Ripken, winning a Ripken game. Nothing will ever beat this.”
But make no mistake, the Dodgers were baseball-focused.
“It was fun being able to play the best teams, seeing that we can compete with the best of the best and we can beat some of those teams,” Cross said. “Most of us were mainly excited. We’ve never played as many top-ranked teams like we did here. It was fun to show how Texas plays baseball. It was very cool.”
On the winner’s side of this semifinal, Elite RBI poured it on early and often. They batted around twice, built an 18-0 lead after two innings and swatted nine homers total, a single-game tournament high.
Mateo Guerra went 4-for-5 with two homers and five RBI. Brody Pemberton hit two homers after going homerless in his team’s first five games and drove in four runs. Easton Dunham swatted two solo homers while Gavin Pratt, Austin Pederson and Lawson Herren each went deep once.
Pemberton said the old baseball maxim is true about offense being contagious.
“It makes it even more fun when you see your teammates doing well,” Pemberton said. “It gets me hyped up to get even more hits and to do better for my team.”