Chicago White Sox RBI has won the Junior Baseball Division Championship of the 2016 Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) World Series, earning their city's first RBI World Senior championship in the 24-year history of the tournament. Chicago White Sox RBI defeated Atlanta Metro RBI in a tightly-contested 5-4-game today at the P&G Cincinnati MLB Youth Academy. Chicago White Sox RBI finished the tournament with a perfect 6-0 record.
Chicago's Lorenz Elion, 15 out of Simeon High School in Chicago, made his presence felt both at the plate and on the mound and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Junior Division Championship Game. Elion delivered two crucial hits in both innings in which Chicago scored all of their runs for Chicago. In the first, he drove in Chicago's third run with a two-out triple to give his team a two-run cushion. After Atlanta took a 4-3 lead in the fifth, Elion came through in the clutch with the go-ahead, and eventual winning run, with another two-out base hit (single) to right field. With the game tied at 3-3, Elion came in to pitch in the top of the 5^th. Even though he surrendered the go-ahead run that inning, he settled down to retire seven of the last eight Atlanta batters he faced to secure the win. He finished with the game with a 2-for-2 (triple, single) line, he walked once and had a game-high two RBIs. He pitched three innings, surrendered one earned run, struck out three and walked none.
The RBI World Series is the international baseball and softball championship tournament of the RBI program, the Major League Baseball youth initiative designed to provide young people from underserved and diverse communities with the opportunity to play baseball and softball, encourage academic success, and teach the value of teamwork and other important life lessons. The Senior Baseball Division Championship Game between Arizona RBI (out of Phoenix) and Passaic (N.J.) RBI is following this game at the P&G Cincinnati MLB Youth Academy and will stream LIVE on MLB.com. 
The Cincinnati Reds are hosting the RBI World Series for the first time in 2016 and will again host in 2017, which will be the 25^th RBI World Series. Every baseball team in the 2016 RBI World Series was able to play one game at Great American Ball Park, the home of the Reds. The rest of the games were played at the P&G Cincinnati MLB Youth Academy, Xavier University's Hayden Field and Withrow Field, which was one of the fields renovated as part of the 2015 All-Star Legacy effort between MLB and the Reds.
The RBI program has provided a path for many players to enter the college and professional game. More than 200 RBI participants have been drafted by MLB Clubs throughout the program's 28-year history, and many others were given the opportunity for higher education through baseball and softball scholarships. There have been approximately 65 RBI players selected in the 2013-2016 MLB Drafts, many of whom have played in the RBI World Series (between 2009 and 2015). Approximately 90 RBI alumni have been drafted since 2008.
Alumni on MLB rosters during the 2016 regular season include Michael Bourn (Arizona Diamondbacks), Carl Crawford (free agent), Coco Crisp (Oakland Athletics), Yovani Gallardo (Baltimore Orioles), Chris Iannetta (Seattle Mariners), James Loney (New York Mets), Nomar Mazara (Texas Rangers), Anthony Rendon (Washington Nationals), CC Sabathia (New York Yankees), Hector Santiago (Minnesota Twins), Steven Souza, Jr. (Tampa Bay Rays), Justin Upton (Detroit Tigers) and Chris Young (Boston Red Sox).
Crawford (Houston RBI - '97), Crisp (LA RBI - '95, '96), Gallardo (Fort Worth RBI - '03), Loney (Houston RBI - '99) and Mazara (Dominican Republic RBI - '11) have each played in the RBI World Series. NBC News senior food analyst and former White House chef Sam Cass is also an RBI World Series alumnus.
The RBI program is administered by Major League Baseball and has served approximately 2 million young people since its inception. RBI currently serves approximately 230,000 young men and women in over 300 programs established in approximately 200 cities worldwide. MLB and its Clubs have designated more than $40 million worth of resources to the RBI program, and all 30 Clubs support RBI leagues.