Before the 16U NC Champs gold medal game on Tuesday morning, Cam West had a simple message for his team in the dugout.

“You don’t have to be something that you’re not to win this game. If you be you, you will win this game,” the head coach of The Show National said.

Staying true to his word, West’s players were themselves in the title game. Now they’re gold medalists and the champions of the 16U National Team Championships in Cary, North Carolina, after a 4-0 win over Aces National.

An emotional, jubilant celebration postgame spoke volumes about how much the win meant to West, his players, and Smartense program overall. West believes that the impact goes even further than that.

“This is for all of the support our program has received back home, the parents that have believed in our program since the beginning. Some of these kids have been with us since they were 13-years-old. I'd like to thank all of our parents that have brought their kids here today, our fans, and every other kid in our program. We couldn't be more blessed to be here and to get this opportunity and actually win the gold.”

West couldn’t say enough about the players who comprised his squad, either.

“We had the right kids. Instead of just a lot of talent, we had the right talent, and today it was just a representation of a lot of hard work, a lot of stressful moments, and all the support that we have back home,” The Show’s coach said. We want to stand for something a little bigger than what other travel ball programs try to represent, we like to be homegrown. We couldn't have done it without the combination of players.”

Among The Show’s combination of players are the 1-2-3 hitters who lead the order, whom West was excited to see take on the challenge of the gold medal game. He called the trio of Deion Cole, CJ Weinstein, and Will Myhand ‘the most dynamic hitters in the country,’ and the trio didn’t disappoint on the biggest stage of the week.

Weinstein held his cool with two outs in the bottom of the second inning to draw a bases-loaded walk, the opening run of the game. Myhand scored The Show’s second run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI single from Luke Manderson.

Weinstein struck again in the bottom of the sixth as The Show looked to close out the game, driving an RBI single into right to give The Show a 3-0 lead. A third RBI single, this time from Jessiah Andrade, made it 4-0 in the same inning.

“It's not just that they can hit the ball far or hard, right? So being even keel about their approach, not trying to do too much, taking what the game gives you, and strategically being in a position to drive the ball when that pitcher does make a mistake. That's what makes them well-rounded in their approach,” West said postgame. “They're not just step and swing type of hitters. They have excellent approaches. They can go from 0-2 to a walk, and that takes a lot of discipline and confidence.”

For as good as the hitting has been, pitching has been The Show’s bread and butter throughout the tournament, having allowed just seven runs in five games coming into the gold medal matchup. After seven innings on the biggest stage of the week, that number remained the same.

Tabbed as the starter, Jayden Grose went the first 5.0 innings and posted six strikeouts, allowing just three hits as he stifled an Aces National lineup that had scored 13 runs in its past two games. Tristan Ramos closed the final two innings, hurling a hitless final 2.0 innings and tallying a pair of strikeouts along the way.

“They were unbelievable. There were moments in that game where things could have gone differently. But big time pitchers, even if they don't have their best stuff, they're a little tired, whatever it may be, in those moments, they step up and they execute. There are small moments in a game that make the difference in the result and in those moments, they bear down and they are at their best.”

It wasn’t a perfect game by any standard for West and his crew, though. He said he was relaxed headed into the game today, and that mindset was certainly tested at different points during the championship matchup.

“I thought a lot of our hitters in the first at-bat, nerves came into play. Second at-bat, I saw them kind of settle in, but then they started trying to swing and really do too much with pitches they couldn't do anything on,” West admitted. “It was about the third at-bat where they started getting back to where they were yesterday, and that's when they started putting pressure on the defense.”

It hasn’t been the easiest road to the title for The Show. West’s team won two of its three games in pool play by a run, and won the other by two runs. But The Show’s talent was evident in a dominant postseason run where the team posted a 20-2 run differential in its three biggest games. Two of them were shutouts.

“I'm most proud of just how they've gone about playing the game. It's been selfless. And these kids, they have represented something bigger than themselves. They actually bought into what we're trying to do,” West said. “Each player had a role, and every player took advantage of that role and did the best they could. Not one time was there a bad feeling in this dugout. From the start to finish of every game in this event, they believed they were going to win, regardless of what we could have done better.”

There’s not much that The Show could’ve done better over the last four days in Cary. The players have certainly lived to the name they wear on their jerseys, wowing the crowd this week with no-hitters, home runs, and clutch defensive plays. Their head coach certainly agreed when everything was said and done on Tuesday afternoon.

“I'm so proud of how everybody grouped together and played to win. It was unbelievable. These kids are very mature for their age. They're smart hitters, they're smart players, they're seasoned players. We're blessed as a staff and as a program to have had these players representing our program this week.”

In the bronze medal game, USA Prime National earned the final spot on the podium with a 10-2 win over Alpha Prime. Jorvorskie Lane Jr. opened the game with a bang, blasting a three-run homer over the left field wall to give USA Prime the lead in the top of the first inning. A bases-loaded walk made it 4-0 before the end of the inning. The victors added three more runs in the fourth inning, first on a two-RBI single from Chandler Hart before CJ Sampson added another run with a drive into right. USA Prime’s final three runs came in the sixth inning, led by an RBI double and followed by RBI singles from Sampson and Lane to cap off the win.