News

In 2011 ProspectSelect and Hardball teamed up to do put on an event where players could participate in a showcase that really catered to both College Coaches and Professional Scouts. One huge difference from other showcases, was the addition of a tournament (VBC) held right after that allows players to re group with their travel team and allow these coaches/scouts to continue to follow them the rest of the week.

With torrential downpours in 201, the Hardball/Prospect Select staff worked around the clock to get all of the games in and resulted in a 16u and 18u Championship at the end of the tournament. This year, the staff has been at work to make it an even better event for everyone involved. The Vero Beach classic is back! and this time around, it’s bigger & better!

The Vero Beach Classic has extended the tournament from 3 full days to 5 full days allowing more flexibility, Live results will be posted using point streak technology to update teams and fans with all the scores and pool standings, The Prospect Select Eastern Topps showcase will run the days before tournament play begins and will once again one of the best amatuer showcases in the country. Last but not least, in the first year (2011) there was 60 different travel teams that participated in the Innaugural Vero Beach Classic with over 70 colleges and pro scouts in attendance. This year there are already over 80 teams registered which include the very best travel teams in the state of FL, Puerto Rico and Curacao!!!!

The 2012 Vero Beach Classic is shaping up to be one of the best amateur events of the 2013 summer!!!!

The South Florida Elite Squad 16u Red captured the first championship of the afternoon by defeating a very good and scrappy Palm Beach Shockers team. The Shockers had beat both the Elite Squad 16u White and 15u before the Championship game. The South Florida Elite Squad 16u Red  has had a pretty impressive summer and has certainly gotten pretty hot over the last few weeks. Congratulations to 16u Champions!

The SF Elite Squad 17u White got a rematch against the SF Breakers 18u, this time the Squad came out on top. These two teams matched up against each other at the Vero Beach Classic earlier this summer. To add a little bit of spice to the match-ups a lot of the Breaker 18u players played for the SF Elite Squad last year (Elite does not carry 18u teams).  So many of the players are familiar with each other and have a friendly rivalry every time they match up. In the first matchup the breakers won off a walk off double from a former Elite Player, this time around it wasn’t so dramatic. Elite built an early 6-0 lead and held on for a 8-5 victory.

Congratulations to all final four teams on a terrific tournament!

The championship game would take place between 2 undefeated teams on Sunday. The # 2 seed SF Breakers and the # 4 seed SF Elite Squad 17u White. Having a bye in the first round the Breakers defeated Hardcore Baseball Black in the semi final and the Elite Squad took on Renegades Baseball 18u the #1 overall seed before defeating them 6-0.

In the final matchup of what was a rain shortend weekend two lefties (Jimmy Wright ’12) Breakers and (Michael Mediavilla ’14) for the Elite. Both pitchers got comfortable early on and dominated the game allowing 0 runs on both sides.

The game remained tied going into the bottom of the 7th inning. After a walk issued to the lead off batter Elite pitcher picked up 2 straight outs off of Breaker hitters. Coming down to the last and final out 2012 catcher John McNamara smacked a game winning single to deep LF to score the winning run resulting in a 1-0 walk off win to claim the championship.

Congratulations to the 18u SF Breakers on winning the 18u Vero Beach Classic.

The 16u Palm Beach PAL ran through POOL  A in convincing fashion going 3-0 and scored 30 runs to just allowing 2 runs. After receiving a first round bye with the 2nd overall seed, PAL faced a young but tough Orlando Scorpions 2015 group that challenged them all the way until the end. PAL advanced with a 1-0 win to face the Florida Sox 16u team in the championship game.

For the Florida Sox 16u, they would face PAL as their 5th game of the day! Extreme rain on both Friday and Saturday caused the Florida Sox’s games to be rained out pushing for Sunday to be a bit of backloaded day if they wanted to make the playoffs let alone the playoffs.

After winning their pool the Florida Sox defeated the SF Huskies 2-1 in the quater finals and then defeated Orlando Scorpions White to face PAL. Unfortunately, but understandably the Sox just didn’t have any left in the tank as they faced PAL and were eliminated 8-0 by another dominant performance from the Champions.

Congratulations to PALM BEACH PAL on winning the first ever Vero Beach Classic 16u title!

Coaches, Players and Parents

We want to start off by thanking you for coming to the Vero Beach Classic this weekend. We also wanted to thank the 70 + college/pro scouts in attendance, staff members and those participants that understood what we were going through trying to reschedule 60 teams and were appreciative we did everything we could to not cancel the event and let the players continue to play in front of the schools in attendance.

Obviously things didn’t go as planned with the weather raining out over 40 games on Friday and Saturday night. After being rained out on all 17 fields, we went to plan B before being rained out once again. On Saturday night, after being rained out for the second straight day on all 17 fields we were forced to make a decision. Either cancel the tournament because of all the games that had been rained out, or do as best as possible to get everyone to play on Sunday in front of the coaches and pro scouts (70+) that made the trip to Vero Beach. After much debate, we decided to do everything possible to get teams to play as many games on Sunday, and having the championship games go off at 8pm. At this point we had to move games that hadn’t been played to 5 inning games and 1 1/2 hr time limits, resume games where they left off, and even decide winners of games with lob sided scores in which games hadn’t gone a full 4 1/2 innings.

We understood that by doing this it could effect teams in pool play in a positive way and other teams in a negative way. It was something that we did not want to do but HAD TO do in order to get in as many games on Sunday. For those teams that it effected their playoff run we do sincerely apologize and the last thing we wanted was to effect any playoff implications but it simply had to be done in order to get games in, even if they were only for 5 innings. After the pool play games were decided we took the pool play winners from each pool with 1 wildcard for each division to create the playoffs.

At the end of the day we wanted to put as many players possible in front of college coaches and that meant having to change things in a significant way after having 2 of the 3 days being rained out. If there was something different we could have done we would have but at this point in the event we did not have any other options other than to extend the tournament into the week but we know parents had to go back to work on Monday and could not have taken off with this late of a notice. We considered everything possible.

We would like to extend a credit amount to those teams that have already registered and paid for the FAU Tournament August 2nd – 5th who did not get the guaranteed amount of games in over the weekend and also invite teams that did not already register to join us and also give them a credit amount for playing in the tournament.

Please let us know if you would like to take us up on our offer as space is very limited.

 * Congrats to Palm Beach PAL and SF Breakers on winning the championship in their respective age divisions. We will be updating their features soon!

Regards,

HardBall Baseball Staff

We’ve all heard the term “Cardiac Kids” before, but the All American Prospects 16u Red reminded you what that is all about. After going a pretty easy 3-0 in Pool Play, the All American Prospects saved the drama or heroics depending your view for the playoffs.

In the semi-final matchup, two very talented teams took the field in SF Elite Squad 16u White and AAP 16u Red. AAP carried a 3-1 late in the game before the SF Elite made a comeback to tie the game 3-3 a peice. In the bottom of the 7th inning, with the score still tied and runners on first and third base, SF Elite Squad 16u White left handed pitcher made a move to pickoff the 1B runner and thats when the umpire signaled time and called a balk allowing the winning run to score in your not so typical walk off “balk”. The dramatics wouldn’t stop there. AAP made their way over to Broward College to play in the championship game against from what is probably the biggest surprise in the tournament, SF Elite Squad 15u.

The SF Elite Squad 15u, the youngest team in the event had their own dramatics as they captured their first win of the summer in walk off fashion vs The A-Team. They dropped their second game of the tournament after some sloppy play and pitching. Going into Sunday it featured a matchup between them and the South Florida Prospects 16u Navy, winner advances/loser goes home. Minutes before first pitch, the skies opened up at BC and postponed the game until the next morning. SF Elite 15u won in convincing fashion Monday morning by a score of 9-2 creating a Semi-Final Matchup with SF Breakers 16u Grey which they defeated 2-1.

In the Championship game the SF Elite jumped out to a 1-0 lead but the AAP answered back to tie the game. In the top of the 7th inning SF Elite got a timely two out RBI to put them up 2-1. Not surprisingly AAP would fight their way back. After AAP’s leadoff batter drew a walk in the bottom of the 7th, the next batter was hit by pitch attempting to sacrifice him over to 2B. The following batter successfully bunted over the two runners in scoring position. The very next AAP batter lined a pitch to center field allowing both runners to score in another walk off win for them.

Call it luck or resiliency, AAP had to fight and answer back each time to win, and they did just that. Congratulations to the All American Prospects 16u Red on a championship well deserved!

Gatorball Baseball out of Gainsville, FL captured the first Hardball Championship of the summer!

Gatorball won their pool by going 2-0-1 and defeating Latino America 9-2 in the semi-finals and 2-0 in the championship game vs the Florida Legends.  However, it wasn’t that easy for them. In what came down to an elimination game for them, Sunday night featured a game between the Gatorball 18u vs SF Elite Squad 17u White who at the time were both 1-0-1. After a back and fourth affair Gatorball was victorious with a 7-6 win that granted them the pool C winners and an automatic birth in the playoffs.

Throughout the playoffs Gatorball got some very good pitching and timely hitting that lead to them going 2-0 on the day and capturing the title. Congratulations to Coach Steve Barton, his staff, players and families for a tremendous tournament!