The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Reloaded baseball team came up short at their first international tournament this past weekend in Sanford, Florida.

The 30-member team competed in the 9-and under (9U) and 10-and under (10U) divisions at the Perfect Game Florida Summer Select Championship (Open).

Despite not winning any games at the Boombah Sports Complex, the coaches and president were happy with the team’s overall progress and development.

Peron Burnside, president of Reloaded Baseball, said there were a few bright spots in the losses.

“With this being our first time in the tournament, the kids were competitive, we can see our practices have been paying off, what we have implemented in our system and how we want to work on key fundamentals is actually working,” Burnside said.

With the Reloaded Baseball programme less than a few weeks away from celebrating a year in existence, Burnside is confident in the direction the programme is going.

“We are going to take what we have seen as deficiencies in each player and go home and strategically target them in each child and bring them right back for tournament play and get them the looks they need to see to get them to the next level,” the president said.10UIn round one of the playoffs, the Reloaded team stepped onto the field against the second-seeded Indians. The latter came into the match with a 2-0 win/loss record. Their win streak continued after shutting down The Bahamas’ team 12-6. The game concluded in four innings for the two teams. The Indians put on a strong showing starting in the second inning where they scored two runs. However, the valiant Reloaded team returned the favor in the third inning scoring 3 runs to the Indians’ 2. The score was 5-3 at the bottom of the third inning but the tide shifted in the fourth inning. The Indians scored 7 runs to put away the game. The Reloaded Baseball squad would score 3 runs in the final inning but ultimately came up short.

Stephen “Bishop” Beneby, head coach of the Reloaded 10U team, talked about his team’s efforts in their first international tourney.

“I feel good about what I saw. The first game on Saturday was just jitters, and we had two competitive games after so what we have to work on is helping kids with in-game situations, and working on routine plays,” Beneby said.

Overall, he felt the team played okay and there is a lot of room for improvement upon their return home. The coaching staff will look to make the necessary adjustments for their next international tournament.

9U

Reloaded Baseball’s 9U team had a rough start to the tournament on Saturday. The team dropped to the TBT Ballers JSM Blue 17 runs to 0. Additionally, they fell to the East Coast Baseball team 15-1. However, this past Sunday the team scored their most runs in the tournament in a 13-3 loss to Southern Squeeze Orlando (SQZ). The third-seeded Orlando squad went 1-2 in the tournament before playing Reloaded. The home team reeled off 7 runs in the first inning. The 9U team was able to score 2 runs heading into the top of the second inning. For the next two innings the Reloaded team was unable to score but came alive once again in the final inning of the timed game. The teams both scored one run apiece in the final inning.

After the completion of the two-day international tournament, Reloaded President Burnside remained optimistic as he is looking forward to the next one.

“We have engaged I-Elite so we are going to revamp what we have seen here this weekend and put them in group play at Reloaded to work on in-game situations and mistakes made in games this weekend,” he said.