The action rolled on at the 16U National Team Championships Arizona's second day on Monday, with teams continuing through pool play while vying for a coveted spot in the playoff bracket later in the week. Check out the best of the headlines from the day that was at Champs AZ:

TB SoCal Mounts Furious Rally to Stun Long Beach Bears 2025

In one of the early games on Monday morning, TB SoCal managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, rallying for four runs in the top of the sixth to stun the Long Beach Bears and pick up a wild 8-7 victory.

The game between the two 1-0 teams was a back-and forth affair from the very beginning. The Bears opened the scoring up from the very beginning, scratching across a pair of runs on singles by Ben Keisler and Connor Artaserse, but TB SoCal would be quick to respond shortly after. It halved this deficit in the second inning thanks to a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jaxon Baker, and in the third, it took the lead after a single by Mateo Rickman and a double by Lucas Owens.

The Bears answered back in a similar fashion immediately after falling behind, scoring two in the fourth inning and three in the fifth inning to turn their deficit into a three-run lead. David Garcia and Wyatt Joyce got this stretch going with a single and double respectively, Connor Patton put the team up one with a run-scoring groundout, and Shiloh Wilson added on some insurance with a double into left.

Coming up against the time limit, TB SoCal now needed to mount another rally quickly if it wanted to avoid taking its first loss of the tournament. Back-to-back base hits to lead off the sixth and final frame opened the door, and with one out, a double off the bat of pinch-hitter Stunner Gonzales brought both the runners in and suddenly made it a one-run game. A single and a stolen base right after put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, and Baker came through in the clutch with a triple into deep center field to score both and give TB SoCal its first lead since the third inning.

The Bears threatened to walk it off in their last time at the plate after back-to-back base hits put the winning run on base, but reliever Hayden Woodson slammed the door shut by inducing a pair of fly-ball outs. This furious comeback kept TB SoCal out of the loss column, and another win later in the day brought it up to a perfect 3-0 through the first two days.

Merwin's Walk-Off Single Lifts Team California Over OC Premier

Team California took home its first victory of the tournament at Peoria Stadium during Tuesday's second session in dramatic fashion, with Logan Merwin playing the hero in the game's final frame with a walk-off base hit that gave his team the 4-3 win.

Before Merwin could come through in the clutch, Team California had to dig out of an early hole, as OC Premier was able to take advantage of a few miscues and create some separation early in the contest. An RBI groundout by Zachary Lopez put the visitors up right from the jump, and this lead would expand in the second thanks to a passed ball and an error in back-to-back plate appearances that brought home two more runs and made it 3-0.

Team California's comeback effort didn't take long to get going, though, as its bats started to heat up in response to this deficit. After a quick first out, the team put five of its next six hitters on base, a stretch that included a double by Tyler Ward and an infield single by Kenneth Park that got the two runs from the prior frame back. This wouldn't be the only clutch hit of the day by Park, either, as the leadoff hitter ended up leveling the score in the fourth with a one-out base hit up the middle to get his team right back into the ballgame.

The score would stay knotted up into the seventh and final inning, when Team California came up to bat with the chance to end things and get into the win colum for the first time. The team's rally was once again started by none other than Park, who crushed a ball into deep left field that came just a few feet shy of ending the game right then and there. He had to settle for a double that put the winning run at second base, though, and two batters later, Merwin would come through with the dagger. The lefty slashed a 1-2 pitch right down the third-base line, bringing home Park and sending the Team California dugout rushing on to the field in celebration.

Stacked Explodes for 16 Runs in Blowout Victory Over GPA

After notching a 6-0 shutout victory over the TC Dors 2025 in its opening game of the tournament Monday, Stacked came back during the third session on Tuesday and impressed once again, using a handful of monster innings at the plate to cruise to a 16-2 win over GPA.

The offensive explosion from Stacked started early and often, with the team scoring in bunches over the first two innings of the game. Over that stretch in the early part of the game, its lineup notched five hits -- two of which went for extra bases -- and three walks, a recipe for success that helped produce a 9-0 lead before GPA even came up to bat for a second time.

The sixth was even better for Stacked, topping the output from those first two frames with a seven spot that put it well within the margins of a run-rule win that came at the end of the inning. The first seven hitters that came to bat got on base, and by the time the last out was finally made, the team sat at a whopping 16 runs scored on the day. This stands as the second-highest single-game run total of the tournament so far, only trailing the 18 put up by Top Tier Dudes 2025 on Monday morning.

Among a number of impressive individual performances, the star of the show for Stacked was Tyler Smith, who went 3-4 with two doubles and six runs driven in in what was perhaps one of the best individual hitting performances of pool play so far. Beyond just Smith, **Anthony Pack **impressed as well, notching three RBIs of his own while also doubling, walking twice and stealing a base. Finally, **Spencer Kwon **set the table at the top of the order, scoring three runs and stealing three bases while going 1-2 with a walk at the plate.

Trosky American 2025 Shuts Out Prime Red to Move to 3-0

During the final session of the day, Trosky American 2025 continued the momentum from its hot start on Monday, blanking Prime Red 6-0 to move to a perfect 3-0 record at the tournament and all but clinch a spot in the playoff bracket.

Trosky's third victory was fueled by its performance on the mound, beginning with a very strong effort from starter **Aiden Allred **in his first appearance of the event. Allred worked the first three innings of the game, holding his opponents scoreless while striking out three and allowing just three hits and a walk. He ran into trouble in the first when the first two batters he faced reached scoring position with no out, but he managed to strand both of them and went on to finish his day on a very efficient 42 pitches.

Coming on for Allred beginning in the fourth inning was Parker Halvorson, who finished the next three innings looking even stronger than his predecessor did. The reliever did not give up a hit or a walk in his outing and only allowed baserunners to reach via a pair of hit batsman in the fifth and back-to-back errors in the sixth, traffic he would later strand with no runs coming across. Halvorson's success was primarily achieved by putting the ball on the ground, as he recorded six of his nine outs and retired the first five hitters he faced via the ground ball.

The person tasked with guiding the game to the finish line was Jackson Young, and he was able to accomplish this with no trouble at all, working a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts to seal the deal. In total, the three arms combined to allow just three hits and one walk en route to a shutout, a performance that continued the trend from the game prior when the team tossed a no-hitter in a win over the West Coast Red Sox.