The Wetumpka 14U All-Star team ended its season with a championship trophy in hand.
Wetumpka, which found itself in the Silver Bracket of the 14U World Series, swept through the bracket en route to its championship.
Wetumpka beat Westside in the first round, 12-6, then faced Ponchatoula and won, 7-1, in the winner’s bracket. That win punched their ticket to the championship game, where they faced Ponchatoula again.
Wetumpka won the rematch again, 8-5, to claim the championship win.
The championship roster consisted of Kameron Barry, Ethan Bielen, Coleman Davis, Tripp Edwards, Reshaun Floyd, Dre NesSmith, Kaden Ryals, Ayden Sides, Mason Thompson and Joel Whittington.
“We have such a good group of kids and with this team, every single player contributes,” coach Chris NesSmith said. “It really is amazing. After getting knocked down to the silver bracket, we just went to work and came back and won three in a row against some really good teams.”
Wetumpka went 4-1 over the entire course of the weekend. They started the weekend off with a win in pool play, then lost their only game of the weekend to Bloomfield, Indiana in the second pool play game.
Wetumpka was shut out in that game, 9-0, and faced the best pitcher that NesSmith has seen in 14U. Bloomfield’s pitcher was a 6-foot-3 left-handed pitcher who could throw up to 89 miles per hour. With a 74 mph curveball in his repertoire, he pitched a shutout against Wetumpka.
“I told the guys that I wasn’t sure if I could even put the ball in play off that kid,” NesSmith said. “We lost that one to fall into the silver bracket. After seeing that big lefty, everybody looked like batting practice for the rest of the tournament.”
That certainly seemed the case as Wetumpka, after facing Bloomfield, went 3-0 and averaged nine runs per game the rest of the tournament. And while the offense supplied the run support, Wetumpka got some pretty good pitching performances as well.
Kameron Barry pitched the first game of the tournament and impressed in the complete game win over Macon, the defending champions. Once the team got to bracket play, Dre NesSmith took the mound against Westside. Wetumpka scored 12 runs in the first inning, and Dre was able to just be on cruise control the rest of the game.
Reshaun Floyd pitched the semifinal game against Ponchatoula on Sunday in the championship game. He entered in the third inning after Ponchatoula hit a grand slam early, and didn’t allow any more runs the rest of the way.
Barry started the championship game, but was removed due to an inning count. He only had two innings left after his complete game earlier in the weekend.
“We had everyone step up,” NesSmith said. “It was a next man up type of mentality. We have such a good group of kids. It’s hard to have a good group like this nowadays. It was a collective effort and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
The 14U team wasn’t the only team participating from Wetumpka.
The 12U team went 4-2 on the weekend. They went 2-0 in pool play, which landed them in the gold bracket. After losing the first game of bracket play, they tried to fight their way out of the loser’s bracket. They won two games, but eventually fell in the loser’s bracket semifinals to end their season.
Wetumpka’s 10U team went 1-4 on the weekend.
The 8U team went 3-2 on the weekend. After starting 2-0 in pool play, they also landed in the gold bracket and went 1-2 in the double-elimination bracket.
Millbrook sent one team to the World Series as well. Originally a 10U team, Millbrook was forced to play up in the 11U bracket and the Mustangs went 1-2 on the weekend.
