The Central Florida Suns won the USSSA Santa Slam III tournament this past weekend in Daytona Beach. The Suns went 4-0 in the tournament and outscored the the opponents 31-9. Suns pitching was dominant throughout the entire tournament and only gave up 6 walks over the four games. The defense was outstanding, only committing a handful of errors while making numerous "web gems". The Suns hitting was potent as well. 

 

In game 1 of the tournament, the Suns defeated the Atlantic Beach Suns 8-2 behind the pitching of Jacob Glazar, Kaiden Perez and Brayden Kintner. The Suns defeated the Lynx from Georgia in game two 2-0. Joey Wimpelberg and Brayden Kintner were dominant in allowing only a couple hits and 1 walk over 6 innings. The two wins on day one off the tournament made the Suns the #1 seed of pool B and the overall #1 seed going into bracket play on Sunday.

 

In Sunday's semifinal the Suns once again faced the Lynx and were victorious 11-6. Gavin Thomas started the game, pitching four strong innings. Brandon Henning came on to pitch the final two innings to give the Suns the victory to put them into the championship game.

 

The Suns faced the East Orlando Tigers in the finale. Jax Phillips made his Suns pitching debut and pitched 4 dominant innings, giving up just 2 hits. The Suns bats exploded in the bottom of the third for 10 runs giving them a 10-1 lead. They then went out and held the Tigers scoreless in the top of the 4th for the 10-1 "mercy rule" victory and tournament championship.

 

TOURNAMENT SUMMARY: 

Game 1: Central Florida Suns 8 - Atlantic Beach Suns 2 - (WP: Kaiden Perez)

Game 2: Central Florida Suns 2 -  Lynx 0 - (WP: Brayden Kintner)

Game 3: Central Florida Suns 11 - Lynx 6 - (WP: Gavin Thomas - SV: Brandon Henning)

Game 4: Central Florida Suns 10 - East Orlando Tigers 1 - (WP: Jax Phillips)