Since the end of his junior season with the Toombs County Bulldogs D.R. Meadows has been traveling the south with his summer team, Game On Estrada, coached by former Atlanta Brave All Star catcher Johnny Estrada. Meadows has played in tournaments in Birmingham, Alabama and Hogansville and national tournaments in Jupiter, Florida,  Atlanta and Panama City, Florida. The summer season came to an end on July 30 with a 5-1 win over Over the Mountain Baseball from Birmingham giving Game On a 6-0 record and first place in the 2016 18U Grand Slam World Series of Baseball in Panama City.

Listen to D.R. and coach Estrada talk about the tourney

In the semifinal Game On rallied from a 5-3 deficit and defeated Southeast Storm, from Kennesaw, 8-6. Southeast was 40-0 for the summer prior to that defeat.

In this tourney Meadows went 11-for-19 (.579) with three doubles, one triple and one homer and in his three big national tourneys this summer he went 24-for-46 (.521) with six doubles, one triple and two homers.

“It was a good tournament and we worked hard to get to the championship.” Meadows said. “We had very clutch hits in the best situations. Our defense was lock down. Out pitching did a heck of a job getting us through the games.”

Meadows played on a team with a lot of accomplished players. Sean Hunley pitched Game On to the championship win. The 2017 high school senior from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee is 6-5 230 pounds and has committed to University of Tennessee.

In the semifinal win, L.J. Talley, the University of Georgia’s starting second baseman, doubled in a pair of runs to give Game On the win. Talley, who played on two state championship teams at Charlton County, started in 54 of the 56 games he played for UGA in his freshman season. Playing second and third he usually batted in the bottom part of the Bulldogs’ lineup. He hit .230 with nine doubles, one triple, one home run and 25 RBI in 2016.