SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Swarm Red Elite National 2024 took home the bronze medal at the 17U National Team Championships Arizona on Saturday morning, narrowly edging past MASH 17U Vocca 2-1 to cap off its tournament run with its first-ever top three finish at the event.

The early goings of the bronze-medal game were dominated by the two starting pitchers, as Swarm's Robert James Leibmann and MASH's Riley Leatherman put on a show right from the first pitch. The two young arms had nearly identical lines through the first three innings, with both of them allowing just a lone hit and walk while keeping the opposing lineups off the scoreboard. Leatherman struck out six hitters in this stretch, including all three he faced in the third, while Leibmann picked up three punchouts of his own.

The first breakthrough of the game for either team came in the fourth inning, when the Swarm offense finally managed to get something going against Leatherman. Back-to-back hits by Jack Meissner and Gavin Short put a pair of runners on the bases for the first time all morning, and with two outs, Kevin Hoffmaster cashed in on this golden opportunity with a double into deep left field that brought home Meissner and gave Swarm a 1-0 lead. This advantage would be doubled a few pitches later as well, with Short coming in to score on a passed ball the very next at-bat.

Now blessed with a two-run cushion, Leibmann turned it up to another level on the mound, working through the middle portion of the ballgame nearly unblemished. He allowed just a lone baserunner in the fourth by way of an error while showcasing pinpoint command during this span, striking out three batters and walking none while only reaching even a three-ball count one time.

MASH's best and final scoring chance came in the seventh inning. An error and a passed ball to lead off the frame followed by an Alex Hendrickson single finally chased Leibmann from the ballgame, and when Wyatt Schottel came in from the bullpen looking to seal the deal, cleanup hitter Eddie Peters greeted him by nearly ending the game in dramatic fashion. Peters blasted Schottel's 2-0 offering into deep left field, coming just mere inches from a three-run walk-off home run before the ball settled into a leaping Matthew Niezgodzki's glove right up against the wall in front of the visitor's bullpen. This still brought home the runner from third and cut MASH's deficit down to 2-1, but on the next batter, Schottel induced a groundball double play to shortstop David Daniels, slamming the door shut and securing the bronze medal for Swarm.

Notable Stats

• Leibmann was without a doubt the star of the game, finishing his outing on the mound with a line of six innings pitched, two hits, one unearned run allowed, one walk, and six strikeouts.
• Short led the way for Swarm with two hits, one of them being the double that helped get things going in the fourth inning. Four other players in the lineup recorded a hit, those being Meissner, Hoffmaster, Leibmann, and Cade Shumard.
• For MASH, the only two hits in the game were singles that came off the bats of Hendrickson and Jonathan Dobis.

On Deck

• The 17U National Team Championships conclude with the gold-medal game at 10:30 A.M. MT at Surprise Stadium, when No. 2 seed TB SoCal goes for its second gold medal of the event against No. 16 seed Prime, which will try for first this year after taking home silver at the 16U tournament in 2022.