The Seattle Studs captured the Grand Forks International baseball championship on Sunday afternoon with a thrilling 12-11 victory over the Everett Merchants at James Donaldson Park.
First baseman Connor Savage, who was named tournament MVP for his strong play all weekend, went 3-for-4 at the plate in the final match, knocking in two RBIs including the winning run in the top of seven.
The Studs went up 1-0 early, but the Merchants erupted for six runs in the third inning and scored two more in the fourth to lead 8-1. However, Seattle stormed back with a massive 10-run fifth inning to take an 11-8 lead.
The Merchants got one back in the sixth, before Savage’s sacrifice fly to left field scored Garrett Breda to put the Studs up 12-9.
Everett would threaten in the bottom of the ninth, when Jaykob Sales single scored two runs to bring the Merchants to within one. However, the Studs Taylor Thompson would come in and get Nick Pribble to fly out to left and strike out Jake Levin to strand Sales and end the threat.
The Studs beat the West Coast Guns in the semifinal Sunday morning 5-2 while the Merchants shut out the Burnaby Bulldogs 4-0 to advance to the final.
Savage went 13-for-24 in six games and scored 10 runs, finishing with a .542 average to claim the MVP title.
The Trail Orioles finished out of the money after dropping all three of their division matches.
The Studs take home a cool $20,000, while Everett settles for $12,000. Burnaby and the West Coast Guns pocketed $5,000 a piece, while the Kamloops Sun Devils, North Sound Emeralds, Thurston County Senators and Northwest Honkers all cashed in with $3,000 in winnings.