FROM PRESS RELEASE
CARY, North Carolina – Nick Franklin (INF; Longwood, Fla.) lined a tie-breaking single in the seventh inning and Dixie held off a ninth inning PONY rally to register a 6-3 win June 17 during opening-day action of the 16th Annual USA Baseball Tournament of Stars presented by Major League Baseball.
The tournament, which showcases 144 of the nation’s elite age 18-and-under high school and college athletes, is being played this week at Thomas Brooks Park at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
In other opening-round contests June 17, Max Stassi (C; Yuba City, Calif.) and Andrew Susac (C; Roseville, Calif.) collected three hits apiece to lead Babe Ruth past NABF 9-3. Meanwhile, Austin Maddox (C; Jacksonville, Fla.) drove in three runs with a pair of hits to power the American Legion past RBI 8-6. Two other teams in the eight-team field – AABC and the USA Stars – did not play on opening day.
Three contests are on tap for June 18. RBI (0-1) meets Dixie (1-0) at 1 p.m. (Eastern time). Then, at 4 p.m., NABF (0-1) takes on the USA Stars (0-0). The final game at 7 p.m. features AABC (0-0) against Babe Ruth (1-0). PONY (0-1) and the American Legion (1-0) do not have scheduled games on June 18.
With the game tied at 3 entering the top of the seventh, Ronnie Richardson (OF; Eagle Lake, Fla.) singled with one out for his third hit of the game. After moving up one base on a grounder, he scored the go-ahead run on Franklin’s RBI single. Franklin moved to third on a double by Donavan Tate (OF; Cartersville, Ga.), who had three hits including a two-run homer in the first inning. Franklin then scored on a passed ball to make it 5-3. Dixie took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth. But PONY, which had just four hits, scored one run and had the winning run at the plate before a groundout ended the game. Anthony Figliolia (RHP; Winter Springs, Fla.), the third of four Dixie pitchers, picked up the win with 3.0 innings of one-hit, scoreless relief. He escaped a bases- loaded, no-out jam in the sixth be recording two of his five strikeouts and getting an infield grounder.
Babe Ruth 9, NABF 3: Stassi ripped a two-RBI triple to give Babe Ruth an early lead against NABF then scored during a four-run fourth inning that snapped a 2-2 tie and gave Babe Ruth the lead for good. Steven Proscia (INF; Suffern, N.Y.) notched a two-run single in the winner’s decisive inning. Tom Lemke (RHP; Phoenix, Ariz.) hurled one-inning of scoreless relief and added a two-run single in a three-run eighth for Babe Ruth, which had 10 hits. Babe Ruth starting pitcher Trevor Bauer (RHP; Valencia, Calif.) tossed four scoreless innings, allowing six hits while striking out six. NABF committed five fielding errors that led to five unearned runs. Reed Gragnani (INF; Richmond, Va.) paced NABF with three hits, a run scored and an RBI.
American Legion 8, RBI 6: The Legion bats erupted for 12 hits while a quartet of pitchers limited RBI to six hits. The Legion broke a 3-3 deadlock with three runs in the third inning highlighted by Maddox’s go-ahead two-run double. The winners extended their advantage to 8-4 before RBI tallied on a wild pitch and a run-scoring single from Jonathan Singleton (INF; Lakewood, Calif.) after two were out in the bottom of the ninth to make it 8-6. But RBI, which committed eight errors in the field, left the tying run on base to end the game. Keenyn Walker (OF; Salt Lake City, Utah) had three hits for the Legion.
The eight-team tournament concludes on June 22 with the-medal games and consolation-round play.
