Southern Elite III (14-Major) from Midlothian, Texas, made its season debut this past weekend at the USSSA DFW Select30 Super NIT and went a perfect 7-0 en route to their first tournament title since last fall. Manager Jason Lawson’s club is now 23-2 overall in USSSA play including 4-1 In Class – they outscored opponents by a 46-11 margin to qualify for this summer’s Elite World Series.
This Select30 Super NIT attracted 32 teams from the host state in the 14-Major classification except one, Mojo Baseball from nearby Oklahoma. The squads were grouped all into one large pool to compete in a two-game schedule. The second day of the tournament comprised of a single elimination 32 bracket field. The winner would have to play four games in one day to hoist this prestigious trophy.
Southern Elite III began its Saturday schedule versus a AAA team, the Texas Raiders – Holder. In what would prove to be a theme this tournament, Southern Elite shutout the Raiders 2-0. Three pitchers took the ball for the winning side, Lee Ray for 2 innings and Jason Barela and Tanner Terry each for a single frame. The second and final pool game had many similarities to the first. It was against another Texas Raiders team (LBK – Welch) and concluded in a 2-1 Elite victory. This time just two pitchers were needed for the winning side, Brady Millstid and Tanner Terry once again.
Southern Elite III earned the third overall seed out of 32 teams at the conclusion of pool play. The two teams with better seeding were the Dallas Tigers East and Midland Aces. The following day set up an exciting single elimination round which would tax the teams that made deep runs.
Lawson’s team began its day with a comfortable win over the TX Sharks 17-3. The Sharks entered the game with a sub .500 record and allowed Southern Elite to only use two pitchers: Fletcher Newman and Mitchell Mamola. The next round against the BN Mavericks-Hall resulted in a 7-3 victory with Mamola carrying the load on the mound. He threw three excellent innings to propel his team into the quarterfinals.
In the elite 8, Southern Elite notched its second shutout of the tournament, 6-0 over the Fort Worth Cats 14U Black. The Cats had won two consecutive elimination games but ran out of steam against Southern Elite and the pitching of Tanner Terry, Mamola and Cayden Cochrane-Langthorn. Next up for Southern Elite meant a semifinals matchup versus the Dulins Dodgers 14U TX. This was the Dodgers’ first tournament of the season as well after a promising 2018 campaign. They didn’t have enough offensive punch to solve the pitching of Brady Millstid, who pitched three scoreless innings in this condensed game.
The Abilene Wildcats, the 20th seed with a 1-1 record after pool play, were the opponent standing in the way of a third USSSA tournament title in two seasons for Southern Elite. They concluded their perfect 2-day 7 game run with a 7-4 victory over the previously 9-1 Wildcats.
This should give Southern Elite a tremendous amount of momentum as they play deeper into the spring season.
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