CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — As the saying goes, “Business is about to pick up.”
The USSSA Queen City Super Select NIT – the granddaddy of all Charlotte region travel baseball tournaments – takes center stage this weekend. Canes Carolina will once again step between the lines and take on some of the best the area offers in 12U Major-level competition.
The Canes will begin pool play at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow against Dirtbags Charlotte in the first meeting between these teams from rival organizations. Canes then face ZT Prospects Carolina at 2:30 p.m., also for the first time. Both games will take place at Park Road Park in Charlotte.
In all, 16 teams are competing in the 12U Major division, including five of the top eight teams in North Carolina, according to Travel Baseball Rankings. SBA Bolts National (No. 2, TBR), WOW Factor Atlantic (No. 5), GBC Prospects (No. 6), USA Prime Coastal (No. 7), and Dirtbags Elite Gold (No. 8) are among the top contenders for the Queen City crown.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — Spring returned to the Carolinas this week, and with it comes the enthusiastic return of travel baseball for teams across the region.
Canes Carolina joins 15 other 12U teams from North and South Carolina to round out the field for this weekend’s USSSA March Mania tournament in Charlotte.
UPDATED MARCH 23 (2:25 PM)
Inclement weather has transformed March Mania into a one-day tournament. Canes Carolina will face Carolina Express (1:30 p.m.) and Carolina Evo (5:00 p.m.) at TM Winget Park in Charlotte on Sunday, March 24. The top two teams from the 12U pool will advance to the finals at 6:45 p.m.
Canes Carolina last played on March 10 in the one-day March Bucket Bash (Top Gun), where they won a pair of games by a combined 11-3 score to take the top spot in the weather-shortened tournament. Knox Duncan was named to the event’s All-Tournament team after recording three hits, including a pair of doubles, and picking up two runs batted in.
The complete roster of teams competing in this weekend’s 12U field is:
Canes Carolina – Charlotte, N.C.
T24 Black – York, S.C.
Mill Town White – Fort Mill, S.C.
Copperheads Black – Mooresville, N.C.
NBA Queen City Bulls – Charlotte, N.C.
Carolina Express – Charlotte, N.C.
MARA Bolts – Matthews, N.C.
Legacy Baseball – Fort Mill, S.C.
South Park Chargers – Charlotte, N.C.
South Charlotte Revolution (Forman) – Charlotte, N.C.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — You know a tournament has history and well-earned prestige when it has been gifted a nickname, in this case, “The Beast of the Southeast.”
USSSA’s twice-a-year classic, formally known as the Queen City Select Super NIT, has been a fixture on the Charlotte travel baseball schedule for years and a highlight of the season for all that participate.
Canes Carolina will compete in its fifth and final tournament of the fall season at the NIT. The tourney features a 13-team Major division and some of the top organizations in 12U travel baseball.
Pool play starts for the Canes at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in a matchup with the Rawlings Prospects NC out of Wake Forest, N.C. It will be the first meeting between the squads.
Then comes an all-Canes showdown as Canes Carolina takes on Canes Danko out of Clayton, N.C. at 4:30 p.m. This will also be the first meeting between these Canes affiliates. Both games will take place at Crooked Creek Park in Indian Trail, N.C.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — Canes Carolina is at the midway point of its fall baseball season, and the strongest field to date awaits in the USSSA Fall State Championship.
Nine major-level teams are set to compete for the Old North State’s bragging rights, including a “who’s who” of the best squads in the area.
TEAM
CITY
Canes Carolina
Charlotte, N.C.
Mission Saints
Matthews, N.C.
GBC Prospects
Greensboro, N.C.
Carolina Express
Charlotte, N.C.
Panthers Marucci
Randleman, N.C.
USA Prime Coastal Stars
Clemmons, N.C.
Canes South
Greenville, S.C.
SBA Futures
Matthews, N.C.
SBA North Prospects
Rockwell, N.C.
Canes Carolina will face Carolina Express (2 p.m.) and GBC Prospects (5:40 p.m.) in Saturday’s pool play at Crooked Creek Park in Indian Trail, N.C. It will be the first meeting of the season between the Canes and Express. The Canes will square off with GBC Prospects for the second consecutive tournament, with the Prospects taking a rain-shortened 3-1 win in the previous meeting.
SBA Futures and SBA North Prospects were ranked Nos. 1 and 3, respectively, in the most recent TBR North Carolina poll. Canes South was the top-ranked team in South Carolina.
Sunday’s tournament play will occur at Catawba Park in Tega Cay, S.C.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — The “unofficial start” of the fall travel baseball season happens this weekend – the first Saturday and Sunday after Labor Day – as 26 teams enter the 12U division of the USSSA Fall Kickoff NIT in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Canes Carolina is one of eight major-level squads competing in the nine-team Pool A of the weekend tourney. This will be the season’s second tournament for the Canes, who got a jump on the traditional fall calendar by reaching the semifinal round of the USSSA Carolina Fall Brawl on August 27.
The Canes will face Carolina Clippers Orange (Richfield, N.C.) at 4:45 p.m. and GBC Prospects (Greensboro, N.C.) at 6:30 p.m. at TM Winget Park. It will be the season’s first meeting against either team for the Canes.
The other teams participating in Pool A are:
SBA North Stars
Mooresville, N.C.
Major
Mission Saints
Matthews, N.C.
Major
MARA Bolts
Matthews, N.C.
Major
Carolina Express
Charlotte, N.C.
Major
Dirtbags Elite Gold
Flat Rock, N.C.
Major
T24 Black
York, S.C.
AAA
The Canes have won six of their last nine games overall and have a 7-3 mark in pool play over the last five tournaments entered.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — Few things in sports rival the hopes and dreams present on the opening day of a new baseball season. The ledger is as clean as the fabric of the uniform, and the belief is steadfast that all the preseason’s hard work and preparation will elevate results to a new level.
Time will tell how successful the 12U run will be for the Canes, but starting Saturday, August 26, results will begin to accumulate.
The Canes conclude the first day of pool play at 6:30 p.m. against a familiar opponent, the SBA North Stars (Mooresville, N.C.). The Stars concluded the 11U season ranked ninth in the state by Travel Baseball Rankings.
The Canes and Stars are the Major-level contingent in the tournament’s Pool A, joined by five AAA squads: Carolina Baseball Club (Charlotte), South Charlotte Revolution-Norris, South Park Chargers (Charlotte), T24 Black (York, S.C.), and South Charlotte Revolution-Forman.
Canes Carolina has a 12-man roster, including three newcomers to the squad. Miles Byrd, Connor Sylvan, and Cameron White will join nine returning players, including Knox Duncan, Isaiah Everett, Nash Hayes, Benji Malloy, Caden Moss, Sam O’Neill, Eli Schmolke, Kenneth White III, and Chase Willis. The Canes are coached by Darren Schmolke and Steve Chapter.
The team is coming off a 13-11 spring season that concluded with wins in four of the final five games and a pair of championship game appearances over the final three tournaments contested. The marquee victory was a 4-2 win over the SBA North Prospects (ranked No. 3 in NC by TBR) in the semifinals of the USSSA Easton Showdown NIT.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — Canes Carolina’s 12U Fall schedule features five tournaments over nine weeks, including Charlotte’s largest autumn tourney and the team’s first trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The Canes head to Myrtle Beach for the first time to compete in the Ripken Experience’s Fall Kickoff (October 7-8), marking the squad’s lone tourney beyond the borders of the Old North State this upcoming season.
Canes Carolina looks to build on a winning spring season that saw the team win four of its final five games and advance to the championship round in its last two USSSA tournaments.
CHARLOTTE (N.C.) — It seems like yesterday Canes Carolina was hitting the practice field for its first training session of the season, but fast forward five months and we’re arriving at the finale of the team’s 11U run.
The Canes will close the scorebook on the 2023 spring campaign with this weekend’s USSSA Father’s Day Classic in Tega Cay, S.C. This will be the team’s seventh tournament of the season and its fifth in USSSA play.
The last time the Canes competed in USSSA they advanced to the Major division’s championship game in the Easton Showdown NIT before losing 5-2 to Dirtbags Carolina, the third-ranked team in South Carolina.
TEGA CAY (SC) —“One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something.”
Those words of wisdom are attributed to one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game – Nolan Ryan – and they perfectly describe the weekend experienced by Canes Carolina 11U.
Just one month removed from an 0-3 weekend that forced the Canes to look inward for the motivation and drive to push through the adversity they faced, the squad stepped into the light with a USSSA Easton Showdown NIT championship game appearance and a renewed confidence in one another.
Saturday’s pool play started with a close 3-1 loss to Dirtbags Black, the No. 7 ranked team in North Carolina (Travel Baseball Rankings). It was in that performance you could begin the see the ceiling rising for the Canes. The team finished up pool play with a two-game split after taking down the South Charlotte Panthers, 17-12.
Saturday’s results positioned the Canes as the No. 4 seed in the tournament’s Major classification bracket, opposite the No. 1 seed SBA North Prospects, Travel Baseball Rankings’ No. 3 team in North Carolina.
What happened over a 90-minute stretch of baseball at Catawba Park served to establish a foundation for what this Canes team can be, and what the Charlotte travel baseball community will see going forward – a team that is capable of competing with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Canes Carolina and SBA North Prospects held each other scoreless through four complete innings before the Canes recorded three runs on three hits and a walk in the fifth inning. Liam Sanders led off the inning with a double and scored the game’s first run on a single by Nash Hayes. Caden Moss then singled to score Hayes, and Benji Moss concluded the scoring by advancing home on a two-out wild pitch.
Kenneth White III would push the lead to 4-0 with a titanic solo home run in the sixth inning, his second round-tripper of the tournament.
KENNETH WHITE III SOLO HOME RUN IN THE SIXTH INNING
SBA North would finally break through for a pair of runs in the final frame but would leave the tying runs on the bases as the final out settled into center fielder Isaiah Everett‘s glove.
Moss went the distance on the mound for the Canes, allowing seven hits and two runs on just 68 total pitches in a masterful performance against one of the top teams in the state – a team that had beaten the Canes 12-2 just two months earlier.
The Canes advanced to face Dirtbags Carolina, TBR’s No. 3 team in South Carolina, in Sunday’s championship game. It was the second meeting of the season between the clubs, with the Dirtbags scoring a 19-3 pool-play victory on March 18.
But this time the result was much closer, another sign of the Canes’ growth over the course of the season. Chase Willis would get the start and was staked a 2-1 lead before the Dirtbags broke through for a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the third inning. They would also add a pair of runs in the fourth to secure the final 5-2 margin of victory.
It was the Canes’ first runner-up finish of the season, its best showing to date in five tournament appearances. Sam O’Neill paced the offense with six hits and six RBI, while Malloy (six hits), Everett (five hits), and White (nine total bases) provided strong assists.
CANES CAROLINA 12U 