Boca Thunder Players: Alex Bialakis, Cale Brader, Stephen Gogreve, Chris Graffeo, Carlos Leon, Matt Luzzi, Josh Parker, Adam Saks, Evan Schaffner, John Sheridan, Tommy Smith and Mike Spooner. The coaches of Boca Thunder are Pete Graffeo and Jim Spooner.

Boca Thunder Baseball 14U finished second at Perfect Game's Baseball Championship Series Finals tournament held this past week in Fort Myers. This is a highly competitive tournament, with some of the best teams in the country participating. There were 32 teams from 13 different states, and many teams had players from multiple states on their roster. While most teams carried 15 or more players on their roster, Boca Thunder brought only 12 players all from this area. Eleven of those players have been on the team for 3 years, or more.

Boca Thunder played 10 games in 6 days, finishing 7-3 overall. They started off slowly going 1-2 in their first 3 seeding games. They then hit their stride, and won the next 3 seeding games, all by a margin of 8 runs or more. The top 16 teams advanced to the playoffs and Thunder claimed the number seven seed. In the first round of elimination they played the number 10 seed Home Plate Chilidogs from Georgia. It was a close game all the way, and the teams traded the lead three times before Thunder put up two runs in the bottom of the fifth, and then held the Chilidogs scoreless the rest of the game to claim a 5-3 victory.

After a long rain delay, Thunder took on the number 5 seed, New York Grays, from the Bronx, in a game that didn’t finish until after eleven in the evening. Some costly errors allowed the Grays to build a 5-1 lead heading into the last inning. Down to their last at bat, Thunder scored 5 runs to win the game 6-5, with the final three runs coming with 2 outs. Despite being tired from a long day of baseball, Boca Thunder did some celebrating at home plate.

In the semi-finals Thunder, took on the number 3 seed, Texas Venom, from Houston. The Thunder scored 2 runs their first at bat, but the Venom fought back with two in their first at bat. The Thunder scored in each of their next 3 at bats, and built a 6-3 lead going into the fifth inning. Thunder’s pitching, and defense shut down the high powered Venom offense the rest of the way, as they earned a shot at the title.

In the finals Boca Thunder took on the East Cobb Titans. Once again, Thunder scored 2 runs in their first at bat, but the Titans came back with 4 runs in the bottom of the first. Over the next four innings neither team scored; in the top of the sixth inning Thunder put another run on the board to pull within one run, but the Titans came back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Down 6-3 and facing their last at bat, Thunder showed their toughness by scoring 3 runs to tie the score. Thunder quickly got the Titans first two batters out, and it looked like the game was headed for extra innings. But, the Titans put a rally together to score the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to win 7-6.