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General
Baseball

Athlete: Clayton Palicki

Graduated - Madison Academy High School (Class of 2011)

Huntsville, AL

General Stats

Height 5 ft 10 in
Weight 180 lbs

Honors Received

2008 Defensive Player of the Year, 14U Team Alabama

2008 Team Alabama 14U Disney Elite 24 National Champions.

2008 Travel Ball Select 14U First Team All-America.

14U TEAM Alabama - the 2008 National Champions

“Team Alabama Wins the 2008 National Championship”

From the first pitch to the last, bases loaded – Team Alabama dominated the USSSA 14u Elite World Series. Team Alabama came to Orlando ready to play. Hitting, pitching and fielding were superior throughout the tournament. Team Alabama had a perfect 7 – 0 record in the tournament with four shut outs including the win over Central Texas Raiders for the National Championship.

Playing at the prestigious Champion Stadium, spring training venue for the Atlanta Braves, in Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Team Alabama set records for this annual event. In the seven wins, Team Alabama outscored their opponents 63 – 6 producing 74 hits with an overall on base % plus slugging % of 1,087. Team Alabama players stole 21 bases and were never caught stealing. The tournaments most coveted awards went to David Dahl, lead off hitter and centerfielder, named as Tournament MVP and Nick Masonia, short stop, Offensive Player of the Tournament.

David Dahl led the hitting offense for Team Alabama with a .727 tournament average. Clayton Palicki, Jeremy Hyde and Paul Angel all hit home runs. Clayton Palicki’s high flying homer screeched out at left field. In the third tournament game against the South Florida Snappers of Miami Florida, Jeremy Hyde hit a bomb that cleared the fence at center field’s 400 foot mark and Paul Angel hit a walk off, grand slam to right center to end a game with the four innings, mercy rule. The defense was led with a combination of nine pitchers from Team Alabama with an overall pitching ERA of 0.35 during the seven game run to the championship. Hunter Soleymani pitched for two wins with a 1.17 ERA. Jordan Friday pitched a complete game, shut out in the championship game. Pool play began on Monday August 4th with Team Alabama facing Ocala Xpress. Scoring 5 runs in the first inning, Team Alabama mercy ruled the opponent winning 12 – 0 in four innings.

David Dahl and Boomer White went 3 for 3. Boomer White threw out a runner attempting to steal second base. On the hill, right hander Hunter Soleymani led the charge for the win; Michael Boriboun picked up the save with combined pitching for the no hit shut out. Next, Team Alabama defeated the Red Raiders of Orlando 6 – 1. TA had nine singles and four stolen bases in this defeat. Ben Craft’s hard hit single to left center cleared the bases with 3 RBI’s in the bottom of the first inning. Tanner Gardner singled to center field and was driven in by a single from Dahl. Hayden Jones went 2 for 3 with two hits to left center. Tanner Gardner took the win as the starting pitcher; Jordan Friday closed for the save.

Winning all of their pool play games, Team Alabama began tournament play on Thursday August 7th seeded number one in pool A. Team Alabama faced the South Florida Snappers of Miami Florida. David Dahl and Hayden Jones pitched the 4 – 0 shut out. With the game tied 0 – 0 in the bottom of the fourth David Dahl led off with a strong, line drive double to left field. Nick Masonia, Clayton Palicki and Ben Craft followed with singles to drive in two runs. In the bottom of the sixth, Clayton Palicki topped off the win with a hard hit, homerun to left field.

On Friday the 8th, Team Alabama would continue their impressive run for the national championship with a victory over Team Demarini of Dallas Texas. Hunter Soleymani was the winning pitcher of the 10 - 2 defeat with Boomer White taking the save. Team Alabama exploded with 14 hits; Dahl, Masonia and Craft each hit doubles. Six of the 14 hits were blasted in the bottom of the fourth. Clayton Palicki went 2 for 3 with two singles, a run scored and a RBI. Mathew Goodson hit a rocket to center field to drive in a run. Then, Ryan Smith grounded to left to drive in another run and load up the bases. With the bases loaded, lead off hitter, David Dahl hit a crashing double to the right centerfield fence clearing the bases and generating 3 RBI’s for Team Alabama. With six stolen bases, Team Alabama played aggressively for this win.

In the quarterfinals, Team Alabama continued its run toward the championship again facing the South Florida Snappers that had fought through the loser’s bracket. Left hander Hayden Jones led the pitching by striking out five and winning the 14 – 0 mercy ruled, shut out in four innings. Beginning in the bottom of the second it was lights out baseball with Team Alabama scoring 14 runs in three innings. David Dahl, Clayton Palicki, Michael Boriboun, Jeremy Hyde all hit doubles. In the bottom of the third Hyde hit a two run home run to deep centerfield. Hyde was 2 for 2 with three RBI’s. Paul Angel wrapped up the hitting spree in the bottom of the fourth with an exciting walk off, grand slam to right field to generate four RBI’s.

By Saturday, evening eight more teams from the original field of twenty four had been eliminated from the tournament - East Cobb Astros of Atlanta Georgia, Panteras of Puerto Rico, Alabama Storm from Mobile, Baltimore Buzz, Bullet Baseball from Lake Charles Louisiana, Team Demarini of Dallas Texas, Nitro Elite from San Diego and NorCal of San Francisco California Sunday morning August 10th the final four teams were poised to play for the USSSA 14u Elite World Series National Championship - Bases Loaded Team Alabama, Central Texas Raiders, Memphis Tigers and Houston Banditos.

In the semi finals, Team Alabama faced Banditos Black from Houston Texas. Michael Boriboun was the winning pitcher with Hayden Jones securing the save. The bats were still blazing for Team Alabama as David Dahl lead off with a triple to left center. Team Alabama was led at the plate by Nick Masonia who went 4 for 4 with two doubles, two singles, three runs scored and one RBI. Hayden Jones and Ben Craft both singled in the 14 hit, mercy ruled game in six innings. With their strong performance, Team Alabama advanced to the championship game with the 11 -3 victory over the Banditos.The Central Texas Raiders knocked off the Memphis Tigers in the semi finals and prepared to play Team Alabama. With two teams standing, Bases Loaded - Team Alabama and Central Texas Raiders prepared to face off in the USSSA 14u Elite World Series National Championship playing in Champion Stadium at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Starting pitcher Jordan Friday began the game with three up and three down and continued to shut down the Raiders all day. The offense did their damage early with four singles and scoring three runs in the first inning. Leading the hitting was Dahl, Masonia, White and Craft. Friday’s pitching would be flawless with great defense and eight strike outs. He finished with a complete game, two hit, shut out. Team Alabama triumphed with a ten hit victory winning the National Championship 6 – 0.

Team Alabama manager, Jeff Segar said “Our coaches and our players feel that winning this first national title for our club was a way we can honor the Bases Loaded Training Center - which has provided our training facilities over the years.”

Team Alabama’s Championship Roster consisted of: Hunter Soleymani – Pelham, AL, Ben Craft – Chelsea, AL, Jeremy Hyde & JR Posey – Calera, AL, David Dahl & Paul Angel Oak Mountain, AL, Ryan Smith – Vestavia, AL, Mathew Goodson & Tanner Gardner - Oxford, AL, Clayton Palicki – Huntsville, AL, Jordan Friday – Prattville, AL, Nick Masonia & Allen Belue - Killen, AL, Michael Boriboun – Sarasota, FL and Boomer White & Hayden Jones, Houston, TX. Team Alabama’s manager is Jeff Segar along with assistant coaches Rusty Riley and Norm Martel. Team Alabama trains at Bases Loaded Training Facility in Montevallo, Alabama.