On Saturday, ZT National Prospects defeated the San Diego Show by a final score of 8-5 to punch their ticket to the 11U Futures gold medal game. They were followed by the Scottsdale Dirtbags, who knocked off the Premier Banditos 5-2 in the second semifinal matchup. While these two sides are both 5-0 this week at Thomas Brooks Park, they have both taken very different routes to get to this point.
After three years, ZT National Prospects is back in the 11U Futures Invitational championship game at Thomas Brooks Park. If the name sounds familiar, tomorrow will be the organization’s third appearance in a title game in Cary, North Carolina, over the past two weeks.
ZT National’s 10U squad finished as the runner-up, while the club’s 13U team just earned gold at the National Team Championships. The 11U team will have the chance to join them after defeating the reigning 11U Futures champions, San Diego Show, by a score of 8-5 in the semifinals on Saturday.
Head Coach Rick Martinez’s squad plated seven runs in the opening four innings, jumping out to a 7-3 lead that proved to be too much for San Diego to fully overcome. It was a shock to the system for a team that had allowed just nine runs in four games coming into the semifinal.
“We know the Show. They play really good defense, they’re fundamentally sound,” Martinez said. “So we tried to do low line drives, hard ground balls out there. Try to keep the pressure on. Every kid gets a good at-bat, gets a good pitch and tries to keep the barrel down.”
ZT National’s series of good at-bats began in the first inning, with Khaleb Royster driving in the opening run on an RBI single into left. The Show tied the game in the top of the second, only for RBI singles from both Justin Hinojoza and James Gordillo to hand ZT National a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Dave Beck pulled San Diego level again in the third inning with a two-run drive into center, but again ZT National had a quick response. Alexander Zamora launched a triple into right, putting his side ahead 5-3 in the bottom of the third. Two more ZT National runs came home in the fourth inning, first on an RBI single from Joshua Park and then on a double courtesy of Ruben Elias.
Scoring runs has been a theme for ZT National at 11U Futures, as they lead all teams with 48. No other team has cracked the 40-run mark yet.
“The plan at the plate is to be aggressive early on fastballs, keep the ball out of the air,” Martinez explained. “A little thunder and lightning, use your speed to get on and a little thunder with our big bats in the middle. If everyone takes a good at-bat, we keep the pressure on until we can break it open.”
ZT National’s seven early runs proved crucial, giving the squad enough of a cushion to withstand what looked like a late comeback from the Show. With the lead cut to 7-5 and the bases loaded with two outs, it looked like San Diego’s offense might flip the game in the sixth inning. That was until Elias stepped onto the mound and hurled a spotless final 1.1 innings, escaping the jam. His coach had high praise postgame.
“Yeah, Ruben is one of our top players out here. He's been in those moments before. I told him to get ready, because we had a high leverage situation. And he came out, had a good command presence, and he performed well.”
After a bit of a nervy start to the tournament with a 5-3 win over Top Tier Select and a 6-5 win over Seattle Select, ZT National has shifted into gear at the right time. The squad ripped off a 14-4 win over Marucci Prospects Hebb in the final game of pool play before rolling to a 15-5 win over MVP Hustle in the quarterfinals. Now, Martinez’s team is on fire as they seek a return to gold.
“It's been a good run for ZT, kind of a newer travel ball club, building from the ground up. I know we won in 2021 and we won a couple of 10U gold medals, but we're always in contention,” the head coach said. “It's a tough tournament, and you never know what happens when you get out here. I'm just proud of the boys for making it this far. We'll see what we can do tomorrow.”
Opposing ZT National are the Scottsdale Dirtbags, who will be leaving tomorrow with their first ever medal at 11U Futures of any color after defeating Premier Banditos in the semifinals. It would be the icing on the cake for it to be the gold.
Head coach Paul Chavez’s crew is also hitting top gear at the right time, having been a two-way force over the last four games. Following a 7-4 opening win over The Future Elite, the Dirtbags have rattled off an 8-2 win over Braves Baseball Academy, a 3-0 win over SBA Bolts National, and a 9-0 quarterfinals win over the Wildcatters. Combined with the 5-2 semifinals win, Chavez’s crew have a staggering 25-2 run differential over their last four games.
“We throw strikes, and take care of the baseball. Get ahead of hitters, challenge them with the fastball early, mix on the breaking pitch later on in the at-bat,” Chavez said after the semifinal win. “We're used to playing with physical bats, so our pitchers have to get the mentality of early contact so we can extend them deep into games. Tomorrow, we're set up nicely. We don't have our one, two, but we got our three, four and five, who we feel really good about. So we're just trying to try to get out there tomorrow, play catch, and keep doing what been doing all week.”
Premier Banditos jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, and held Scottsdale scoreless for the opening two as well. It was an unfamiliar position for Chavez’s squad, but as he later noted, nothing changed in their game plan to recover.
“Nothing changed. We just kept the same mentality. We told the guys in the dugout, ‘Don’t panic. We’ve been here before, you’ve taken good at-bats.’ This team beat us last year, so everybody here was hungry to get them. We kept the same approach to start putting balls in play, base running got a little bit better. The game went on, and we’re just trying to extend the pitcher, keep him working.”
Sure enough, the Dirtbags' approach paid off in the third and fourth innings. An RBI groundout from Carlo Rivero put Scottsdale on the board, and an RBI triple followed by an error suddenly had the Dirtbags up 3-2. Another triple, this time from Rivero in the fourth inning, made it 4-2. A passed ball gave the Dirtbags their fifth and final run of the game to seal the win.
“We just keep going, keep grinding. We just keep chopping wood one half out at a time. There’s no panic in the dugout, we don't need to press. We love the fact here that it's a seven-inning game with no time limit,” Chavez explained. “We're going to extend the game, and we feel that the longer the game goes, the better chance we have to win. That's been the case all week. We got down early in our first game, and we came back. Most of our games have been tight, so we haven't really gotten a big lead to where we can really relax. We've had a lot of high intensity moments.”
On the mound for Scottsdale, Rivero was even better than he was at the plate. After allowing a pair of hits and the Banditos’ two runs in the first inning, he allowed just three more hits the rest of the way. Rivero would exit after eight strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work. Chavez had high praise for his starter postgame.
“He gets better as he goes, like most great pitchers do. We knew he was going to keep us in the game.”
On Sunday, other Dirtbags pitchers will face the challenge presented by the ZT Nationals lineup, who themselves will have their hands full with the two-way challenge presented by Scottsdale. Rick Martinez offered what he would be telling his ZT team heading into the game.
“Leave it on the field. This is what we train for. It's where you put all the extra hours in. Leave it on the field tomorrow and play to win, let's go out there and give it our best shot.”
Both teams will get the other’s best shot for gold on Sunday morning, in what stands to be a thrilling 11U Futures title game.
