Pisella shines, Mojo brings home championship

Chris Pisella of Hutto helped his Super Series summer baseball team, the Mojo Silver of Round Rock, win the Central Region championship in the 10U Minors division in Broken Arrow, Okla.

Pisella is the only player from Hutto on Mojo Silver. Players from Round Rock, Smithville, Lake Travis and Pflugerville also compete for the Mojo, which fields a separate team, Mojo Black, to go with Mojo Silver.

Teams from 25 states, including Colorado, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and others, compete in Super Series baseball.

The Minors division is the third of three divisions of play in Super Series Baseball; the other two are National, the highest, and American.

Mojo qualified for the 16-team winners bracket during the pool play phase of the tournament, featuring 24 teams. In its three pool-play games, the Mojo defeated the Tulsa Astros 8-3 and Triple Play 9-1 and fell to the Wise County Rangers 11-7.

For its 2-1 pool play record, the Mojo were seeded No. 9 in the 16-team, double-elimination winners bracket.

Mojo Silver proceeded to win four straight games, including wins over the top seeded Oklahoma Angels 6-3 in the second round and the No. 3 Oklahoma Generals 7-6 in the championship game July 30.

Facing the No. 1 ranked Angels, Pisella, batting out of the cleanup spot, went three for three and drove in four runs with a home run and a game-tying, two-run double.

Pisella also pitched all six innings in the second round for the Mojo, striking out seven batters with his arsenal of pitches - a slider, changeup, and two and four-seam fastballs.

While neither Chris or his father Gene know exactly how hard Chris throws now, they know he isn’t a soft-tosser.

“All I know is that after catching Chris, the kid took his glove off and had to shake his hand,” Gene Pisella said.

To get to the championship game, the Mojo came back after allowing five runs in the first inning to score 15 of its own in the third for the 10-run victory against the Wise County Rangers, the only team to beat Mojo in pool play, in the semifinals.

The Mojo will be recognized for their success by the Round Rock Express Aug. 18 at the Dell Diamond during the Express’ game against the Nashville Sounds.

Super Series Baseball rules dictate that a team which wins its division and returns a bulk of its players must be promoted to the next level of competition, so the Mojo will likely be playing in the American Division next summer.

Pisella is no stranger to success on the baseball field. Two years ago Pisella won an area Pitch, Hit and Run contest and earned the chance to travel to Minute Maid Park in Houston, home of the Astros, to compete against Pitch, Hit, and Run winners from all around the state.

Although Pisella did not win that competition, finishing 3rd overall, he still considers the experience 'amazing', having gotten to step on the field that he hopes to play on someday as a member of the Astros, and meet and shake the hands of his favorite Astro, Craig Biggio and former Astros pitcher Roger Clemens.