Braves win Optimist Park AA Championship

The Optimist Park Braves at the 2025 AA champions. They faced off against the Mets and took a 13-3 win to bring home the hardware.

The Braves plated four runs in the first inning, beginning with a single by Nolan Rackley. With one out, Bowen Mitchell singled to put runners on first and third. John Henry Tillman put a little extra spin on the bat and doubled home Rackley and Mitchell. Wes Moore took it a step further, went yard and added two RBIs to his stats for the last offense of the first inning. Stats were not available for the Mets at press time.

In the second inning, the Braves added seven runs. Warren Dunn led off with a single and moved to third on a single by Dean Bedley. With one out, Caden Allen singled home Dunn and left runners on the corners for an RBI single by Tripp Maxwell.  William Leavins singled to load the bases for an eight-pitch GRAND SLAM by Bowen Mitchell to end the scoring for the second inning.

The Braves added one run in the third inning starting with a one-out double by Wes Moore. More scored on a single by Kohen Christmas. Vincent Edwards singled to put runners at first and second, but back-to-back outs ended the inning with two runners left on the bags.

The final run came in the fourth inning when Maverick Meyer went yard on the fourth pitch he saw. With one out Tripp Maxwell and William Leavins put together a pair of singles but two outs followed to leave them on the bases.

The Braves claimed the 2025 AA championship with an undefeated record. Following the game, Coach Brian Mitchell had nothing but praise for both teams, “The Mets were well coached. I found myself pulling for that team all year. The Mets team and coaches were awesome. Their coach worked so hard with that team and took them all the way to the championship game, and I was proud of them. I am really proud of the Braves too – they were a great team to coach.”