BC-KC Prospects flip the script at 13u Elite World Series

After a stinging defeat, the most resourceful teams don’t sit around talking about how much it hurts.

At the start of their run at the Triple Crown 13u Elite World Series in Steamboat Springs on Wednesday, the Building Champions KC Rawlings Prospects had to move past the disappointment of a Game 1 loss, falling to Cascade Crush Orange (WA), 5-2. With a Game 2 assignment vs. East County Rattlers (CA) starting up right away, the Prospects didn’t have much time to stew.
So they brewed instead – concocting a four-run burst in the first inning and a huge nine-run effort in the second, more than enough to take control and eventually post a 15-2 run-rule victory over the Rattlers at the Howelsen Hill Complex. Seven different players drove in runs for the Prospects, who now get to tackle Thursday’s 8 a.m. game with a more optimistic mindset.
“What the kids are slowly getting the grasp of, is a bad play happens, a bad at-bat happens, a bad pitching start happens. Once it’s over, baseball continues on; execution is all you can control in this game,” said Prospects coach Phil Kreisman. “As long as you take care of throwing strikes, defending the baseball, putting the ball in play, the wins and losses will take care of themselves.”
Jackson Bell had three RBI on three hits for the Prospects; Nick English reached base four times and scored four times, while Easton Wasinger, Parrish Beagle, Connor White and Michael Novak each had two RBI.
“We were down on ourselves about that first game. Then we came out after Connor gave a speech about the team, and that lifted us up,” Bell said. “I tried to clear my head, because I didn’t have a good first game.”
The Prospects slapped eight doubles overall had 13 batters come to the plate in the second inning. Things quieted down late, but two insurance runs to help secure the run rule victory were scored by English.
“We were down on ourselves and rusty; we saw the ball better in Game 2. First game, I knew it was going to be iffy for me, but second game I just got back out there,” English said. “When we are doing bad, we can get a little sluggish. When it’s going well, we are way up and happy, jumping around and helping each other.”
On the mound, the Prospects allowed just four hits. Starter White went two innings, and Jack Kreisman pitched the other three, getting a ground ball double play to end the third and then stranding three runners in the fourth.
“Connor and Jack, those guys aren’t to blow it by you, but they can locate really well,” coach Kreisman said. “They are two-pitch guys, not the ones who just get up there and try to throw as hard as they can.”
“They had good fastballs and located them – they did what they needed to do,” said English, who was the Prospects catcher Wednesday.
Cameron Tarling had two hits for the Rattlers, and Luke West doubled and drove in a run.