Temecula 12-year-old grabs baseball gold with Team USA

a walk-off drag bunt.

“It was an awesome experience,” says Miller. “In the Mexico qualifier, we played against other international teams from nine different countries where it was very loud and exciting during the games. I did my best to block out the noise and stayed focused when I was pitching. I also got to make new friends on our USA Team with players from all over the US and got to experience the culture in Mexico and traveling there.”

The battle between the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier’s two highest scoring teams lived up to the hype. Team USA led 15-6 in the third before Venezuela scored 19 unanswered runs to lead by 10 in the fifth, 25-15. The U.S. added two in the bottom of the fifth, but Venezuela added three in the sixth to earn the game’s largest lead at 28-17 headed into the final inning. With three outs left in the game, Team USA stayed calm, collected, and patient at the plate to score seven until it had one out to go. Zaylon Johnson stepped up to the plate with the bases-loaded and hit a grand slam to tie the game. One inning later, an error on a sacrifice bunt allowed Team USA to win gold and set a 12U National Team record for most runs scored in a single game.

Team USA had five players earn honors at the WBSC U-12 see USA, page C-3

JP Raineri Sports Editor AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico

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It’s been a summer to remember for Temecula’s Jacob Miller, a 12-year-old that stormed onto the scene recently, representing the United States on the baseball field. Miller was selected to join Team USA after attending a tryout through their National Team Identification System about 18 months ago. In total, he attended three different tryouts before being selected for the USA 12UNational Team. It’s a challenging process that starts with about 5,000 youngsters, before they get to the final selection for the 18-man roster.

The first stop for Jacob and Team USA was the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier, held in Aguascalientes. After pool play and making their way through the winners bracket, it all came down to Team USA (9-0) where they overcame an 11-run deficit to win gold with a 29-28 win over Venezuela (6-3) in seven innings on Sunday, May 28.

When Team USA faced Venezuela in the Opening Round, nearly a week earlier, the 25-24 game ended with a U.S. walk-off home run. Fast forward to Sunday and the two teams combined for eight more runs scored in the contest, but this time it ended with