COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – At 12 years old chances are Tyler Waters doesn’t have a clue who Warren Morris is; but like Morris he will live in infamy.
In the bottom of the seventh, in a tie game with one out, Waters’ dug deep into the batter’s box and delivered a game clinching three-run walk-off home run to give his Fellowship Christian Athletes Blueclaws a 12-9 win over the South Florida Inferno to win the Week 3 Cooperstown Dream Park National Tournament title.
“They had just made a pitching change at the beginning of the inning,” Blueclaws head coach Tom Lucas said. “I knew we were headed for a big inning with two on and one out and our four hitter coming up.”
Waters big blow capped off an amazing week for the Blueclaws, who went a perfect 11-0 to win the title.
Around 104 teams participated in the week long tournament June 17-21 that was played over 22 fields at the historic Cooperstown Major League Baseball Hall of Fame complex.
To get to the finals, the Blueclaws won six pool play games then won five straight playoff games to win the title.
In the opener, the Blueclaws had little trouble with the Western Kentucky Aces in a 9-0 opening win. Isaiah Mamea, Jacob Thomas and Tyler Waters combined on a no hitter, while Mamea led the FCA offense with 2 two homeruns including a grand slam.
In game two also Sunday, the Blueclaws took out the Delaware Rockets 15-3 to remain perfect in pool play. Stats were unavailable for this game.
As Monday began, the Blueclaws dethroned Tinley Park (IL) Bulldogs 12-0 and then hammered Southern Nevada Bulls 15-0 behind homeruns from Tommy Brice, Jeffrey Henry and Waters.
On Tuesday, they finished pool play unscathed with a 15-3 win over the O’Fallon (MO) Lightning thanks to homeruns from Kent Jackson, Spencer Stephens, Alfonzo Westbrook and Mamea, a grandslam from Kyle Boylston and five strikeouts from Alfonzo.
Later in the day they capped the day and pool with an easy 18-4 win over the U.C. (Utah) Tigers.
After going 6-0 during pool play, the Blueclaws earned the No. 3 seed in the 32 team winners bracket tourney.
They began the tourney Wednesday night with an easy 15-2 win over Team Elite (GA) Futures to advance to the Sweet 16. Homeruns by Trevor Bradley, Mamea, Waters and Henry fueled the offense, which scored 12 first inning runs to establish a quick lead.
To win the championship, the Blueclaws were going to have to win four games on Thursday to bring home the trophy.
A spot in the Elite 8 was on the line in their meeting with Canes (FL) Academy, but the Claws put it away quickly with a 21-1 win thank to a great job by Henry on the mound.
Offensively, George Gilson hits his first homerun of the tournament, also hitting homeruns were Jackson, Waters, Stephens and Jacob Thomas with two dingers.
The Blueclaws advanced to the semi-finals with a 9-0 win over WFBA (FL) Blue in a high noon showdown.
Mamea struck out 13 to get the win on the mound, while big homeruns by Jackson, Boylston, Bradley, Stephens and Westbrook paced the offense.
Three hours later, the Blueclaws were back on the field playing the Pembroke (FL) Bulldogs at 3 p.m. in the semi-finals.
The Bulldogs were little competition though as FCA rolled to the finals with a 21-9 win thanks to a three run homerun from Jackson and solo home runs from Waters, Brice and Henry.
Which set up the finale with the South Florida Inferno, who had crushed their opponents all week scoring between 19-30 runs a game.
“This is the biggest tourney they play in, this is equivalent of the Little League World Series for them at the end of summer, you want to end up in Cooperstown,” Lucas stated.
Lucas was blown away by his teams performance as well as the prestigious tournament put on by Cooperstown.
“104 teams played in the tourney, using 22 fields at the park and only one game the title game is played at the Hall of Fame Stadium, that’s only reserved for the 13 title games during the 13 week period,” Lucas said.
“It’s the Disney World of Baseball and a first class tourney,” Lucas shared. “It’s a really cool event and its also on TV nationwide.”
Teams don’t qualify for the prestigious tourney but its still a cool process to get in.
“Teams are grandfathered in you have to be given a certificate to get in, we were given ours from another local team, you continually pass it on,” Lucas stated. “We will keep it for our organization until we pass it on to someone else.”
Winning the title is even more special considering the rules and the realization of his kids moving on and/or up to the U13 team.
“It’s a one time deal to be in the tourney, you only get one shot,” Lucas said.
The team was comprised of sixth, seventh and eighth graders from St. Johns Country Day, Bolles, Episcopal and Eagles View who have been playing together since the fall this season and for some kids since they were 8 years old.
“This was the last tourney they will ever play in together as 12 year olds as well,” Lucas stated.
Days later as he was driving back from New York he said his phone has been blowing up ever since with people congratulating him.
That’s a trend that likely won’t be going away anytime soon likely though with it being the talk all over social media.
