The MGBA Eagles of the Marquis Grissom Baseball Association walked away with a national title at the 2008 AAU Junior Olympic Games, held in Detroit, Michigan, July 25– Aug. 2. 

The team showed it’s resilience by overcoming a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the 7th inning with 2 outs when Davion Rucker of Creekside High School produced a base hit to score the tying run. It would take one more inning to decide the National Championship’s winner as Jackson Cannon of Westlake High School slid safely home into a sea of exhilaration from his teammates, coaches and fans.  The hard fought defensive game had finally ended in a 2-1 victory over the hometown favorite Michigan Braves.

The Eagles defeated the Braves previously during pool play in a 6-5 victory.  The Eagles win gave the Braves their first loss, and provided the number 1 seed to the Eagles, as they both shared an identical record heading into bracket play. 

Jeremy Holcomb of Griffin High School and De Mondra Arnold of Creekside High School both provided stellar performances in pitching to keeps the Braves offense contained until the Eagles could provide the comeback ability, which has produced 45 wins 10 losses and 2 ties this season.
 
The team won the inaugural “Road to Turner Field”, over the Dugout Club of Tyrone, as the championship games for the 14 & 16 games of the Smoltz-Grissom Wooden bat Tournament were held at Turner Field.
“This team has taken advantage of the opportunity to do something special this year.  They played competitive, demonstrated knowledge of the game and good fundamental baseball skills this summer.  This has allowed them to have placed second at the AAU State Tournament, to win over 80 percent of all games with 16, 17 & 18 year old teams in Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia. 

“Yes, one of our crowning achievements was winning the National Championship in Detroit, Michigan, but we still have a ways to go in getting the MGBA program where I envision it to be,” said Marquis Grissom, the founder and former Atlanta Braves player.  “I have a few more key pieces to put in place.  One of which is our mentoring sessions that we introduced this year.  This year was good but we’re looking for next year to be great!”

Two of the key players for the Eagles this season are Fayette County’s D’Monte Grissom of Whitewater High School and Chris Triplett of Sandy Creek High School.  The duo has been dubbed as the “wonder twins” for their electric and tightly coordinated defensive plays in the middle infield.  Grissom plays second base and flourishes as the leadoff hitter and stolen base leader of the team while Triplett plays shortstop and demonstrates his home run power and key base hits to lead the team in RBI’s. 

Making this years’ decision for the AAU MVP a tough choice, but in the end Triplett walked away with the Joel Ferrell national honor award.

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