WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Opportunity knocks and, with help from Major League Baseball’s partnership with USA Baseball, the next generation of the sport is opening brand new doors.

The Breakthrough Series, a team comprised of the 2022 and '23 high school graduation classes, played a game against Canes Green of Miami at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on Friday afternoon.

For a program that seeks to foster strength of heart and character, the home-team Breakthrough squad demonstrated plenty in a hard-fought, sixth-inning rally for a 6-2 victory.

With two runners on, Donavan Jeffrey launched a pitch over the center fielder’s head for his second double of the game, knotting the score at 2 before his teammates helped complete the five-run inning.

“That whole at-bat, I was just going through my head, thinking, ‘Just do what you’ve got to do, play for the team,’” Jeffrey said. “And I just executed, and it was a great feeling.”

Brandon Stinson, another player who executed in the spotlight on Friday, chalked up his success to advice from one of his coaches.

“My first at-bat, I popped up to the catcher,” Stinson said. “I went over to the coach to talk a little about the adjustment. He says I need to stay through the ball more.”

Stinson certainly swung through on his single in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs to help clinch the victory.

But it’s that kind of mentorship -- tips and tricks from an insider’s perspective -- that has helped play a role in the continuing development of baseball’s future stars.

Coaches like Anthony Manuel, who manned the third-base side on Friday, bring years of experience from baseball’s biggest stages to these players’ proverbial backyards.

“It’s been amazing, because these guys are so young and they have so much to learn,” Manuel said. “There’s so much they don’t know, so it’s exciting to give it to them, to watch them use it and watch them put it into play. And they go, ‘Wow, that really works!’”

Even for players like Angelo Rivas and Pedro Duran of the losing Canes side, the experience far outweighed the result.

Rivas, who made some nice plays happen with his speed in the middle innings, expressed admiration for the field, explaining he’d never before played in a stadium of this magnitude.

The idea of playing in front of professional scouts in addition to those mentoring him and his teammates on the field made the experience even more surreal.

“Of course, they always look for the biggest guy, the strongest guy, but it’s always who has the most heart, who leaves it all out on the field,” Rivas said of what he feels the scouts look for. “And that’s it. We tried to leave it on the field.”

For Duran, his focus is on improvement and soaking up as much knowledge as he can before it comes time to pursue his collegiate dreams in the sport -- and even beyond.

Perhaps it sounds like poster-board material for a program built on helping young players make a name for themselves, but that’s what it’s all about: helping kids like Duran accomplish what he’s set out to do, however lofty those dreams may be.

“I see baseball as my future,” he said. “I see it as something that is my inspiration. I think this is helping me get closer to that goal.”