NSA Baseball Dominates 18u Championship at TC Vegas Fall Nationals

by Daniel Villegas

Las Vegas, NV -- It was a beautiful Sunday for some championship baseball as NSA Baseball took down Baseball 101-Pagan in dominant fashion with a 9-1 victory, claiming the 18u division title at the Triple Crown Las Vegas Fall Nationals. 

NSA (out of Henderson, NV) started pool play Saturday with a record of 1-1, winning against Canes West Las Vegas 16 but dropping their second game to Golden Spikes Baseball. They needed to be perfect on championship Sunday and NSA was up for the challenge. 

They won their morning game against TKB with a nice 8-3 victory and were set up for a revenge game against the only team that beat them in the tournament. NSA showed that Saturday was not the final word as they won a close matchup, 9-6, against Golden Spikes to become championship-game bound, set to face a Baseball-Pagan team that won its first two Sunday games by big margins. 

NSA came out the gates firing as they put up a crooked number their very first at bats. Leadoff hitter Ty Phillips set the tempo with a quick single for the first hit of the game. Back-to-back bunts had NSA looking good as the first was a base hit while the other was able to move the runners over. A wild pitch put the first run on the board for NSA and the offense took off after that. 

Jase Pashales got a clutch RBI base hit to bring in the runner from third. Then followed a huge RBI triple from Kanon Welbourne to extend their lead. Gabe San Juan put the final touches of the inning with an RBI single to bring in Welbourne, and NSA had a fast 4-0 lead. 

“Tremendous,” said NSA’s starting pitcher Ryan David about the quick offensive production from his team. “Pitching with a lead, easiest thing to do. Whenever we have four runs, easy day, and just throw strikes." 

David settled in quickly as he had a one-run complete game to help his team win a championship. He only allowed six hits with three strikeouts through seven dominant innings. 

“He was pounding the zone” said Kanon Welbourne who was catching the dominant pitching performance. “Throwing strikes, curveball was working. Doing what he had to do (to get the win). He’s pretty consistent so I expect that." 

Their next runs did not come until the fourth inning when Derek Render hit an RBI single that brought in Welbourne who was hit by a pitch to start the inning. David seemed like he was doing it all with a two-run double in the same inning to push his lead to 7-0. 

The bottom of the fourth was the time Baseball 101 (Las Vegas) started to rattle the bats. As Levi Cook was walked with his teammate Dejion Mitchell smacking a double to put runners on second and third. Caleb Sturman hit a sacrifice fly the very next at bat to bring in their only run of the game. 

NSA was able to answer quickly with another run scored coming from an RBI single by Pashales in the top of the fifth. Their last run came in the seventh with Jake Morrison hitting a ball back to the pitcher with a runner scoring on the play. 

David only faced five batters in the bottom of the seventh to close things out to bring the Las Vegas Fall National title to the boys from Nevada. 

“It feels great, man,” said head coach Justin Grenier. “These boys work their butts off and they absolutely deserve it. Proud of them."