By Sean Duncan and Nathan Rode

The round robin portion of the 2017 Tournament of Stars was completed Thursday and the championship is set for Saturday. United and Brave will play in the bronze-medal game while Free and Pride will face off for gold. On Friday, there will be a workout for all four teams. Here are notes on the action from Thursday…

FREE 9, BRAVE 7
The Free lineup is loaded with highly-ranked hitters so it was only a matter of time before they put on an offensive show. The first five batters reached in the game as they were unfazed by the low-90s fastball from RHP Cole Wilcox (Heritage HS, GA). 2B Brice Turang (Santiago HS, CA) walked, SS Bobby Witt Jr. (Colleyville Heritage HS, TX) reached on an infield single and OF Jarred Kelenic (Waukesha West HS, WI) singled to load the bases. 2019 3B Rece Hinds (Niceville HS, FL) then cleared them with a double down the left-field line. Though he shows some swing-and-miss tendencies, the ball jumps off Hinds’ bat. The double was well struck and he added a solo home run to left-center field late in the game.

In addition to Hinds, Witt Jr., Kelenic and DH Carter Young (Selah HS, WA) each had two hits. Witt Jr. had two infield singles, showing a loose swing and getting down the line in 4.12 seconds. Kelenic had the hard single in the first and then launched a home run in the seventh inning. OF/RHP Ryder Green (Knoxville Christian Academy, TN) had entered the game and his first pitch was an 89 mph fastball around the letters. Kelenic jumped all over it for a home run to right field. It had an exit velocity of 102 mph and traveled 368 feet. Hinds then followed with his home run a few pitches later. Young squared up a fly ball double against an 89 mph fastball and then knocked in a run with a hard single in the sixth.

Here are some more notes from Free vs. Brave…