Competing for a National Team spot at USA Baseball’s 18U National Team Training Camp can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially on day one.

However, getting over first-day jitters is much easier when you fire five punchouts in two innings or blast a home run in your very first at-bat of camp.

Pitcher Angel Cervantes, outfielder Ty Peeples, and infielder Xavier Neyens, did exactly that in their respective 18U training camp debuts in Cary, North Carolina. While Cervantes flamed two hitless innings to kick off training camp, Cervantes and Neyens each smashed a home run for their respective teams as they began to battle for spots on the 18U National Team.

Peeples, who earned the first win of the camp with the Grey squad, contributed to his team’s 10-3 victory with a two-run homer. Peeples was admittedly nervous about his National Team Training Camp debut, but seemed to settle in just fine by just his second at-bat.

“There was definitely a little bit of nerves going on — competing against some of the best talent in the country, there’s going to be nerves,” Peeples said. “I was just really hoping to get that first at-bat out of the way, because all the nerves kind of went away [after].”

The outfielder’s nerves were quickly put to rest after he settled in. In his second at-bat of the morning against Team Light Blue, Peeples found his pitch and rocked a two-shot homer for the first long ball of camp.

“I just went in there looking for a heater,” Peeples said. “He threw one for a ball inside, and he came back with another one, and that's the pitch I'm always looking to hit. I saw the fastball and tried to put my best swing on it, and ultimately, put a pretty good one on it.”

Just before Peeples' homer, Cervantes shut down Team Grey while starting on the mound for the Light Blue squad. Cervantes brought a calm, cool, and collected mindset and it showed. He hurled five punchouts in his two frames on the mound, holding Team Grey hitless to kick off 18U Training Camp.

“My mindset was just have fun, but still compete,” Cervantes said. “And I was against top players here, so I just had to get ahead and stay ahead — that's all that was on my mind. So I did pretty good at that and stayed with the plan.”

No matter who he faced, Cervantes sat down elite hitters one by one. Even though he was in front of an array of scouts, managers, and USA Baseball staff, Cervantes stayed calm as he battled the rest of the best in game one.

“I'm just trying to pitch,” Cervantes said. “At the end of the day, it's just another game. But I am pitching in front of a lot of scouts, so I’m still trying to impress everyone with what I can do and I’m sticking to me and not trying to overdo it. So I felt I did a good job on that.”

Neyens topped day one’s action in a special and loud way. In the day’s second game, a faceoff between Team Red and Navy, Neyens scalded a monstrous 440-foot home run well over the centerfield wall to give Navy an early 1-0 lead.

“I faced that guy about a week ago, and I saw him pretty well, and I was just trying to get a fastball I could try to drive up the middle pretty hard,” Neyens said. “So I got in a favorable count, and I knew he's going to go fastball, and then that's what I got.”

Eventually, Neyens’ Team Navy tied Team Red 3-3 in a heated contest to finish off the day’s pair of games at the National Training Complex in Cary. Featuring the best players from around the nation that have been meticulously scouted and selected by USA Baseball’s staff, athletes like Neyens, Peeples, Cervantes, and more are competing for a coveted spot on the National Team.

Oftentimes being surrounded by the rest of the most talented players in the country challenges you to compete even harder and become better than before. Iron sharpens iron, and Neyens and his peers were already testaments to that process in just the first day of camp.

“You come in here, there's 84 of the other best players in the entire country, so everybody's going to be good, so you just got to go out there and compete,” Neyens said. “You're trying to make a team that's pretty prestigious, so I just wanted to come out here and compete my butt off to win.”

Aside from the inspiration to compete harder than before, players have quickly learned the feeling when you succeed is sweeter than ever before as they continue to settle into camp.

“When you make a play or you hit a ball really hard, it feels better knowing that you hit that or you made that play off somebody who's really good,” Peeples said. “And we’re here for a reason — it’s the top guys in the country. And when you do something rewarding, it feels a lot better than what it would somewhere else — it's unbelievable.”