At the tender age of 12, Ben Reiland has achieved what many players only dream about doing in their baseball career – playing for your county against the best teams in the world to bring home a gold medal.
Reiland and his USA Baseball teammates did just that SUN AUG 6, 2017, when they defeated Chinese Taipei 7-2 to win the 2017 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup in front of a sellout crowd of 11,000 at Tainan Stadium in Taiwan.
“It was a great experience playing with the top players in the nation and playing for your country,” Ben reported.
The Irvine resident and Blue Wave club baseball player was selected for the USA Baseball 12U National Team after a series of team trials and player tryouts held throughout the nation in search of the top players in the age group.
It all boiled down the 12U National Team Trials held in late July in Castaic, CA, where Reiland was one of 18 players selected to represent the United States in international competition that would start after a few days of training and exhibition games before getting on the plane to Taiwan for the July 28-Aug. 6 week-long world championships.