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Play Ball: Mickey Mantle World Series returns to McKinney
BY Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
MCKINNEY -- For the 17th consecutive year, the American Amateur Baseball Congress Mickey Mantle World Series provided a closing mark to summer when it rolled through town last week.
The annual tournament gathered some of the best young talent on the continent in McKinney to compete for a national title during a torrid five-day stretch of games.
The nine-team, double-elimination tournament featured 16U regional qualifiers from across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The diverse field included the SoCal Bombers, San Diego Gamers, Ontario Blue Jays, Michigan Bulls, Ohio Thunder, Puerto Rico Vaqueros and local representation provided by the Frozen Ropes Titans, Dallas Tigers--Hernandez and Dallas Tigers--Valandingham.
All games were played at Al Alford Field, home of the McKinney baseball team, and this year's opening ceremony included a speech by Danny Mantle, the son of Mickey Mantle.
Once play got underway, it didn't take long to trim the bracket.
Ohio and Michigan were eliminated on Aug. 2, the second day of play, after dropping consecutive games. Ohio lost to the Frozen Ropes (6-2) and Ontario (4-2), while Michigan lost to the Dallas Tigers-Valandingham (7-2) and Puerto Rico (2-0) to escape the 100-plus degree heat that simmered over the tournament.
"It's hot, but we're in Texas," said Tommy Hernandez, Dallas Tigers head coach. "We're used to playing in the sun."
The next round of eliminations took place Friday and sent Ontario and the Frozen Ropes packing after a mixed showing.
After opening the tournament with a 6-2 win over Ohio, the Frozen Ropes lost consecutive games to local rivals the Dallas Tigers-Hernandez (3-0) and Dallas Tigers--Valandingham (5-2). Ontario also closed with a 1-2 record after beating Ohio (4-2) and losing to SoCal (4-1) and Puerto Rico (4-3).
The marathon continued with the bracket's two undefeated teams, the Dallas Tigers-Hernandez and SoCal, knocking out the remaining three one-loss teams on Saturday.
The Dallas Tigers-Hernandez eliminated San Diego (4-3), while the Bombers knocked the Dallas Tigers-Valandingham (11-3) and Puerto Rico (3-1) from contention to advance to the tournament's best-of-3 championship series.
The undefeated records of the Bombers and Dallas Tigers--Hernandez necessitated the three-game format, as both had a loss to give.
The Bombers had made short work of their tournament opponents to that point, racking up a +18 run differential in wins against Ontario, Puerto Rico, San Diego and the Dallas Tigers--Valandingham.
They had yet to give up more than three runs in a game, but the championship series ended that streak.
By that point, the Dallas Tigers--Hernandez and Bombers had each played at least three games and were facing the possibility of playing three more in a single day if neither could manage a series sweep on Sunday. The series ended up going the distance, as the opener went narrowly to the Bombers (5-4) before the Dallas Tigers-Hernandez rallied to win the next two games (7-3, 6-1) and take the championship.
With the win, the Tigers became the second Metroplex team (D-BAT Mustangs, 2011) in as many years to win the AABC Mickey Mantle World Series.
The championship roster consists of: Brad Barnett, Benn Hawkins, Foster Sawyer, Brandon Maine, Calvin Hernandez, Tanner Gardner, Bryce Carter, Kent Myers, Ryan Robertson, Garrett McCain, Bryar Barnes, Jake Wilcox, Mitchell Hansen, Ryan Cottingame and Seth Jordan.
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