Before Macon RBI upset Dominican Republic, the nerves set in for the journey

When you’re used to the big stage, nerves can be managed a bit.

Clearly, the Macon Braves RBI 15-under team has the baseball part down. Now, can the locals handle what playing good baseball brings?

The pressure of a World Series, for example? Of playing opponents in programs that have been around for decades, not less than a decade, and have two, three or four times as much funding?

Shoot, the first task was keeping calm for what is the first airplane flight for many, like it is for Jayden Reese.

“It’s my first time flying,” said Reese, who goes to Howard. “My grandma, she likes flying, she likes traveling. She told me to chew some gum, so when your ears pop, it doesn’t hurt that bad.”

There may have been some nerves when the team arrived at the host site, the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla., about two and half hours north of Miami and nearly two hours southeast of Orlando.

It is, after all, Dodgertown, spring training home until 2008 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, having since undergone a major change.

But it seems the Macon team can handle the spotlight just fine. Their opener was originally scheduled for 4 p.m. on Tuesday against the Dodgers, but that game got pushed to Thursday. The Macon team really started at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday with a game against the Dominican Republic and one at 4 p.m. against the Chicago White Sox.

The Macon team, surprising many at the event, beat the Dominican Republic 6-3. They lost to the Chicago team later Wednesday 8-3.

If Macon’s Braves can reach the championship, they’ll play in Holman Stadium, the sterling 6,500-seat centerpiece of a massive complex handling baseball, softball, soccer, and includes several batting cages and bullpens as well as multipurpose rooms and fields.

“We have been nervous,” utility player Bryce Talley said. “But we always continue to fight in games.”

The nine-year-old program — launched with the help of the Cal Ripken Foundation — is joining much older groups at the eight-team Nike RBI World Series that started Monday.

The quarterfinals for the 15-under junior division start Friday morning.

The World Series, including the senior 18-under division, takes place at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex, in the shadows of the Vero Beach Regional Airport.

Teams from New Orleans, Durham, Cleveland and New Jersey are also in the junior field.

The team gathered Saturday at Vernon Sinclair Field, the turf and lighted facility behind Hartley Elementary on Anthony Road and centerpiece of the Tom Fontaine Complex to get the Southeast Region banner, and hand out awards for the season.

It’ll be a different life for a few days for the group of mid-teens from Macon, Warner Robins and Atlanta, reaching a level they didn’t necessarily expect when the season started.

“We didn’t expect this,” Talley said. “When the Atlanta kids came down, they made us play harder.”

There are no geographical boundaries of the MLB RBI program. Macon director of baseball operations Michael Rodgers noted that players have come from Milledgeville, Eatonton, Jones County, Monroe County, Houston County, as well as Henry County. This team has three players from Atlanta and three from Houston County.

“The competition is a lot more hectic in Atlanta, and kids feel as though they might not get playing time,” Rodgers said. “So those who live south of Atlanta may come down here.”

As impressive as Macon’s play was to win the Southeast Regional in Jacksonville, Florida to make the World Series, the seamlessness of adding some out-of-towners bolstered things.

“At the beginning of the season, our chemistry really wasn’t all there,” Reese said. “As the season (went) on, we got to the big tournaments, and our chemistry got better and better. “We got the team together, and it made us better as a whole.”

The chemistry led to confidence, somewhat culminating in a 9-0 win over Atlanta Metro in the regional tournament.

“After the Atlanta Metro game … everybody thought that was a big, bad team,” Reese said. “Nobody thought we could beat them, and we ended up beating them 9-0.”

Then Macon came back during the championship game, lost the lead in the seventh, and won it with a walk-off in the bottom of the eighth inning on a passed ball to win 10-9. 

Macon RBI founder Jeff Battcher and Rodgers noted that nearly 20 players have progressed through the program on to college, a bigger priority than properly hitting a relay man or fielding grounders.

Charles Jackson is a Central grad who started out at Division II Claflin and finished at Division I Grambling. Rodgers said about 10 Macon RBI alums will be on a college roster in 2025, including Connor Polk, who played at Morrow and will attend Columbus State.

Rodgers said the program continues to expand, and now fields teams on three levels. No doubt reaching the World Series will only further fill rosters in 2025.

Success won’t change the mission, which is reviving baseball in inner cities, thus the RBI title.

“The difference between our program and other programs — I won’t call their names — the millions of training programs, is they expect you to come in and play at that level,” said Rodgers, in his sixth season as director of operations. “If you can’t do it, they just kind of jettison you. We don’t have that expectation. We have the expectation of potential.”

Macon RBI roster

Manager: Brandon Harris – Team Manager

Assistant manager: Shawn Livsey

Coach: Nick Wiggins

Coach: Rodney Mangham

Team:

Westen Griffin

Kyle Howard

Caden Abrams

Teyton Braswell

Kevin Durr

Chris Frazier

Amir Harris

Jake Hendley

Jacob Krivanek

Kaelix Marcus

Justice Morrison

Peyton Nauss

Jayden Reese

Jeremiah Reiss

Bryce Talley

Chadburne Woolcock