Victory marks group’s second-consecutive championship
BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — The Auburn Parks and Recreation 12U All-Stars have made a habit of finishing on top, and this year they did it again on one of the region’s biggest stages.
Playing against a field packed with elite teams from across the South, Auburn captured the 12U championship of the United States Specialty Sports Association Rec All-Star World Series, held July 9-12 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The All-Stars won the tournament’s top bracket over a field drawn from Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia — a stage that requires a merit-based berth just to reach.
“It’s really just a testament to them that they didn’t quit or back down a single time,” said Auburn 12U head coach Andrew McCay. “We had several situations where we were down, getting into the late innings or had just made a mistake that could have cost us, and every time they answered the bell. We’ve always said that if you never stop getting up, then you’ll never get beat, and they never stopped getting up.”
After Auburn dropped a 2-1 pool-play decision to Winthrop Park in a game that didn’t count toward the team’s official record, it never lost again.
Auburn answered that defeat with six straight wins over Iberville (12-2), Wenonah (6-4), Lakeview (20-0), Wicksburg (5-4), North Bibb (5-4) and the Northport Nationals (9-3).
They then avenged their 2-1 defeat to Winthrop Park three days earlier with a gutsy 6-2 championship game win.
The World Series crown is the second in as many years for the core group of players on the team, which finished this season with a 20-4 record across all competitions.
Many of the same players won an 11U World Series a year ago with Andrew McCay also at the helm, and their run in Baton Rouge makes them the first team in Auburn history to win the World Series in back-to-back seasons, according to Andrew McCay.
“This is the most successful age group of kids that’s come through Auburn in the last 20 years,” Andrew McCay said. “We’ve had some teams that were close, that won a World Series and lost one, or won a state championship and lost one. But nobody’s done what they’ve done.”
Just weeks earlier, Auburn had tuned up by sweeping a separate travel-ball World Series with a 5-0 record, a run Andrew McCay said gave the team invaluable reps in the heat and facing a double-elimination format before taking the bigger stage.
“We knew we had a good team, but once we were able to do that, I was pretty confident that as long as we played the kind of Auburn baseball we’ve been playing, we’d have a pretty good opportunity to do well,” Andrew McCay said.
The bracket run set up a championship rematch with Winthrop Park, the only team to beat Auburn all week. With the title on the line, Andrew McCay handed the ball to his son and team ace, Owen McCay, who delivered the tournament’s signature performance.
“It was nice to get out there in the championship game and give him the ball and just say, ‘Go do your thing,’” Andrew McCay said. “He went out and threw a complete game, a two-hitter, shut them down and we won.”
Owen McCay anchored the staff all summer, going 6-1 with a save and piling up 43 strikeouts in 27 innings, while also receiving plenty of help from his fellow pitchers.
Eli Bell went 4-1 and led the team in ERA, including a 4 ⅔-inning effort to win the semifinal, while Ross Cadden paced the squad in saves.
Building a new team around a returning core of leaders, Andrew McCay said, made a repeat feel possible from the start.
“We knew pretty early that we had our core back, our leaders back and our guy on the mound that we wanted to have the ball with the game on the line,” Andrew McCay said. “To take a group of kids and mold them together as a new team this year, and then take them back and do the exact same thing again, was pretty special.”
The winning was a group effort at the plate as much as on the mound.
Bell, James Shore, Cam Vick, Owen McCay and Cadden led the team in batting average, while Owen McCay, Bell and Shore powered the offense in home runs and RBIs.
Luke Oliver set the pace on the base paths with 22 stolen bases, and Rory Keane was the anchor behind the plate all summer, according to Andrew McCay.
Andrew McCay, who has coached numerous local players who went on to compete at the collegiate level, sees the same kind of ceiling for this group as they move toward the city’s junior high and, eventually, Auburn High School’s championship-caliber baseball program.
“I think the future is as bright as it can be, honestly,” Andrew McCay said. “Nobody knows what it holds, but these kids compare every bit to the players I’ve coached who went on to play in college. It’ll do them wonders a couple of years down the road when they’re in a big game in high school and can say, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before.’”
For now, the team will savor a rare accomplishment and a fitting way to close out this storied chapter of youth baseball.
“Next year, everything changes because they go up to the big fields,” McCay said. “You’re only going to end your little league baseball career once. Might as well do it by winning a World Series.”
