Ostingers Baseball Academy’s 17U team won the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship in Georgia on July 14 against the Georgia Bombers after the weeklong tournament. Fighting for the championship, Ostingers won all seven consecutive games necessary to earn the title due to the single elimination structure of the tournament.
“We play together as a team,” said coach Jim Osting. “Player development is a big part of our program … working from a young age, working your way up, learning the game the right way and being fundamentally sound.”
Osting’s team came out swinging, scoring an early two runs in the championship game. Georgia hit a three-run homer bringing the score to 3-2, but a big top of the fourth gave Ostingers the 8-3 lead. The Lithia team would tack on three more runs to win the championship game 11-3.
The hot bats of Ostingers’ hitters, led by tournament MVP Evan Dempsey and paired with the commanding pitching rotation, allowed the team to outscore opponents 66-16 in the seven-game stretch. Dempsey, who will graduate from Newsome in 2023, went 4-for-4 in the championship game with a grand slam and, of the 436 teams worth of ballplayers, earned the MVP title.
Osting attributes his team’s success this season to the emphasis on fundamentals and selfless teamwork. The group of juniors are at a difficult point in their high school career with some teammates having already signed with their dream college and others still seeking the deserved attention from scouts. In some clubhouses, this would cause animosity within the team, but Osting congratulated his group of athletes for the unity they showed in working toward their shared goal.
“All of our program and the culture of our program is built on ‘It’s all about us together,’” said Osting. “It’s a collective group, and these guys have taken it upon themselves to be great teammates and build on our philosophy of the program.”
While the championship team was a group of 18 rising seniors, Ostingers Baseball Academy fosters a love of baseball in all students from the ages of 8-18. A core handful of this year’s champions have been with the baseball academy since a young age and led the team as veterans of both the sport and Ostingers Baseball Academy.
Ostingers Baseball Academy is located at 8711 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Lithia. For more information, visit the website at https://ostingbaseball.com/.
