New Tampa Little League’s majors baseball team came out of pool play in Coral Springs with a 2-1 record, but relied on two standout pitching performances in the semifinals and finals to capture the state title Monday.

New Tampa’s lone loss came Saturday to Miami Kendall in pool play, but the team avenged its loss with a 6-1 win in Monday’s final. The fianl was highlighted by Bryce Martin’s 3-run single coming on his birthday.

New Tampa’s Conor Grady pitched a six inning complete game in the final, allowing only one earned run on two hits against a Kendall team that showed its power in the tournament 14 homeruns and scoring 53 runs prior to Monday.

In the semifinals, Ethan Thomas pitched 4.2 innings allowing only one run as New Tampa advanced against last year’s 11-year-old state champs Niceville.

“Playing the top seven teams in the state of Florida over a weekend is tough,” coach Ed Thinger said. “You think you have a pretty good team and then you show up down there and you have kids hitting homeruns left and right and kids throwing 70 miles-per-hour.”
“But these boys have just jelled together and just made this so easy for the coaching staff.”

On the weekend Aaron Guiang led the New Tampa offense with four homeruns in the tournament and a .411 batting average. Catcher Eddie Thinger earned the nickname “Ironman” amongst teammates as he caught 27 of the teams 28 innings in the tournament.

New Tampa will travel to Warner Robins, Ga. for the region tournament facing off against West Virginia, Virginia and South Carolina in pool play beginning Friday August 5.