The Rage, a 10-and-under travel baseball team based in Columbus, ended its season on the highest of highs – an 11-3 victory in the 2025 AAA 10-U Grand Slam Championship on June 8 and the No. 1 rank in both the state and national AAA leaderboards.
When the final out was made, the Rage cheered and leaped into a dog pile on the field to celebrate. Amid the excitement, pitching and first base coach Kevin Long couldn’t help but smile and think about how far his team had come.
“That was pretty cool, to say,” Long recalled. “Just the joy, the smiles.”
The players in the dogpile were the same ones he’s coached for the last four years and the same ones that struggled to stay above .500 early in the season, even in the lower A and AA leagues. But as the season progressed, the Rage moved up to AAA and began to round into form. Long said a 4-1 finish in the Turf Kings Super Slam in April against some tough teams gave the Rage some much-needed confidence to finish the season strong.
“We seemed to get going after that,” he said. “Our pitchers were battling, throwing strikes, our defense made the plays and we were getting timely hits.”
The Rage went on to post a 3-1 record in the Cinco De Mayo Classic, a 2-2 finish in the Boys of Summer tournament and a 10-0 win in the title game of the 82 Challenge Championship before playing in the state tournament. But a 13-4 loss to the Mississippi Yankees in pool play halted the Rage’s momentum and left the team with the No. 9 seed.
The loss didn’t phase the Rage as it beat the 8th-seeded Knights Knation 11-0 in the first round, setting up a rematch with the No. 1-seeded Yankees, who this time fell to the Rage 10-6.
“To see (the team respond to the) defeat of one game, going in as underdogs, to see them jump out determined right out of the gates, getting up several runs – we had the other team rattled,” Long said.
The team squeaked past Blues Baseball 3-2 in the semifinal match before romping the Sixers for the title.
Long said he’s proud of the team, not just about their achievements, but their growth as people.
“We try to develop players as good young people, and we’ve taken our lumps,” he explained. “We’ve had some tough losses and we just keep on plugging. We hope to continue for the next foreseeable future.”
And the future is looking bright for the Rage, which has posted a 34-16-1 record since the beginning of the 2024 fall season. Long said all of his players are returning to build upon a championship finish when the fall season begins.
“We are very excited to build off this past season,” Long said. “It’s always fun to see how much the boys have changed from season to season. Whether it be growth spurts or progress they’ve made by working on their craft at home. We now have a state title under our belt and know we will have to work very hard to try and retain it.”
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