Briefs: Ocoee travel baseball teams concludes summer with championship

WABA Ocoee Baseball Club, an 18-and-under summer travel baseball team made up of players from Ocoee High School, won its second consecutive Nations Baseball of Greater Orlando tournament recently.

The ball club won the Tourneo de Estrellas on July 13 and the Summer Slugfest Tournament on July 27. The 18-and-under brackets for both events featured games played at Ocoee High School’s home field. The WABA Oviedo Baseball Club went undefeated in both respective events.

In the Summer Slugfest, catcher John Warren received the tournament’s Golden Glove Award and first baseman/pitcher Zac Adams was recognized as the tournament’s best hitter, receiving the Slugger Award.

The Summer Slugfest concluded the travel team’s summer season.

Nikhazy, USA Baseball U15 finish 2nd in Mexico

USA Baseball’s 15U National Team, which included Ocoee native and incoming West Orange freshman Doug Nikhazy, lost just one game in the 2014 WBSC ‘AA’ 15U World Cup — unfortunately, that game was the gold medal game.

USA Baseball went 9-1 over the 11-day event, posting the tournament’s best record and outscoring its opponents 107-29, but fell to Cuba (8-2) in Sunday’s final, 6-3.

Cuba had trailed 3-1 entering the sixth inning of play, but scored 5 runs over the course of the next three innings to take a lead it would not relinquish.

Nikhazy, a lefty pitcher for the team, made four appearances over the course of the event against New Zealand, Japan, Venezuela and Mexico. The local standout pitched in relief for Team USA, logging 3.2 innings of work and allowing just one earned run.

Nikhazy struck out five batters, including all three batters he faced in an inning of work against New Zealand.

Olympia pitcher makes Under Armour All-America Game roster

Juan Hillman, a left-handed pitcher for the Olympia Titans, was added to the roster for the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game on Saturday.

The game will take place at 7 p.m. in Chicago at Wrigley Field and will be broadcast nationally on MLB Network at 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Winter Garden Renegades switch affiliation

The Winter Garden Renegades, an amateur football organization competing at the minor league level, has announced that it will move forward competing in the Florida Football Alliance for its 2015 season.

In its inaugural season, the Winter Garden franchise competed in the United Football Federation.

The Renegades will play an exhibition game on Oct. 25 against the Miami Magic City Bulls and will play a home exhibition game on Nov. 23 at Walker Field against the Osceola Ravens.

The complete 2015 schedule will be released at a later date.