06/23/2018
Its bittersweet that I write this post a couple days after Gamers run in Cooperstown, New York ended. First off, thank you to all the friends and family who closely followed, watched, rooted, texted, sent videos, ect from home. We played each game for our hometown of Morgan Hill while representing Northern California out in NY! As many know Gamers started as an 8u Pony Pinto Allstar team who went to the Pinto World Series representing MH Pony in 2014 and finished 3rd there. Shortly after Gamers Baseball was born and began playing 9u travel ball. They finished 2nd in Reno World Series that year losing to a power NorCal Scorpions. As a 10u, they won the Reno World Series beating the L4 Rattlers who are still a major today. As an 11u they went to the SD World Series and lost to the runner up from Nevada finishing in the top 8 among all those power houses in SoCal. Then there was 12u, and Cooperstown, NY the birthplace of baseball and home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame! The Gamers saved their best for last owning Cooperstown, Allstar Village for 6 days! Here are a list of the accomplishments.
On Day 1 in the skills competition among all 52 teams, Will Anderson finished 3rd in the home run derby going against kids 6" taller than him. He was impressive hitting 5 home runs in round 1 to finish 2nd then 3 in the 2nd round finals.
Nolan Randol finished in the top 10 for fastest man in the the Village around all the bases.
DJ Dunne/Jacob Tatom/JJ Becks finished in the top 10 for fastest double play only losing to the top by .2 seconds.
Day 2 was the start of pool play and the Gamers beat a loaded Florida Team 15-2 who they would see again later in bracket. Then beat Michigan 9-3. Ryan McCarroll's Grandslam was the only Gamer Homer that day.
Day 3 Gamers won both again beating Brentwood, CA 17-1 and Texas Slam in the battle of 3&0's 12-8. Gamers broke out with 11 homers on the day. IN the Brentwood game DJ Dunne, Jake Tatom, Brandon Swing, and Nolan Randol hit back 2 back 2 back 2 back home runs! In the Texas Game lil brother Matt Anderson pitched 4 shutout innings with 10ks! Big Brother Will Anderson hit a grandslam to break 0-0 tie then JJ Becks followed with a 3 run shot to go up 7-0 in the 4th! Gamers ended the day on the all star village leader board at 4&0. At this point the hype was beginning to build and a target was forming on us around the village.
Day 4 and final day of pool play the Gamers took out at the time undefeated Arlington Texas 5-1 behind JJ Becks Complete game and Matt Anderson & Brandon Swings homers pushing us to 5&0. Game 6 was no match as the Gamers beat North Carolina who was out of pitching 15-3. Jayden Bejarano pitched 3 solid to get he win. This game goes down as legend in the Village as Nolan Randol delivered a Grand Slam over a hill and secondary fence into the side of a batting cage for a MAMMOTH SHOT. Gamers finished pool play with a 6&0 record and clinched the #1 seed of 52 teams!
Day 5 we got the day off as other teams battled it out to continue.
Day 6 was where the real magic began. Unfortunately We were matched up against a Socal Major squad Cal Sand Dawgs for the first game. We had watched their previous elimination game against another socal team where they won 20-2. We knew the challenge was real. In this game they took an early 1-0 lead before Ryan McCarroll tied it 1-1 with his 4th homer of the tournament. Sand Dawgs carried a 2-1 lead into the 6th and with Gamers tournament lives on the line, JJ Becks hit a solo shot to tie it 2-2! This game would need extras. Behind the arm of Jacob Molyneaux going CG 7 innings and a very good Gamers defense the table was set for the bottom of the 7th where with 1 out Will Anderson hit a walkoff home run to win it and propel the Gamers forward in the tournament!
Game 2 was against a tough team from HIll Country, Texas who just knocked off SoCal Major SoCal Jays. Matt Anderson got the start and held Hill Country within reason. Chase Agregado led off the game with a Homer to get us started but It looked like the Gamers may be tiring as they got thrown out on the bases 3 times making several mental mistakes! Losing 5-1, the comeback began. after bringing it to 5-2, Matt Anderson hit a 2 strike pitch over the center field wall to tie it 5-5 in the 4th! Then as if he didnt do enough already, Will Anderson hits a 2 run homer in the 5th to go up 7-5. Matt Anderson continued his brilliant pitching and closed out the game.
Game 3 was the SEMI finals and only 4 teams remained standing. Norcal (Us) and 3 Florida Teams Lake Nona, PGB, and Weston. Gamers were matched with Lake Nona who we beat 15-2 on day one. They came out and hit 5 home runs in the first inning to go up 7-0! In the 2nd they extended to 9-0! The Gamers were on the ropes then our offense woke up. Brandon Swing, Jayden Bejarano, Nolan Randol (2), and Chase Agregado all went deep ultimately helping the Gamers close the gap to 17-15 before the game was called for time. The umpires (we had 4 umps for the semis) told me it was the most amazing game they had been a part of. 51 balls were used in the game! The Lake Nona team ran out of pitching and re-entered their 2nd pitcher to close it out and turned around and pitched him again in the final!
In all my years and experiences from baseball, there was nothing like this one. Cooperstown, NY as the setting is magical, the blood, sweat, and tears left on the fields from each team is remarkable, and the dream of a 12 yr old to be the best is put on full display for an entire village to see. This TEAM (Gamers 12u) from Morgan Hill, CA played bigger than their size and delivered one of the best tournament performances ive ever seen going 8&1, hitting 29 home runs (4 grand slams) pitching 3 complete games, turning numerous double plays, and had their families crying tears of joy and dancing like a 12yr old kids themselves! Congratulations to these amazing 11 kids on their 3rd place finish in Coop. Thank you for the great memories!!!!!
#5 DJ Dunne-SS
#6 Jacob Tatom-2b
#7 Jacob Molyneaux-3b/C/SP
#8 Brandon Swing-C
#9-Nolan Randol-C/SP
#10 Jayden Bejarano-3b/P
#11 Ryan McCarroll OF/SP
#12 Chase Agregado CF/P
#13 JJ Becks 1b/SP
#14 Will Anderson 1b/P
#24 Matthew Anderson-3b/SP
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