Detroit PAL baseball team's playoff march heads to Vero Beach, Florida

DETROIT (FOX 2) - There's a push to bring baseball back to inner city communities across the country - and Detroit PAL is driving that message home.

Teenagers playing baseball for the Detroit Police Athletic League are part of Major League Baseball's RBI program reviving baseball in the inner cities - and they're heading to the playoffs in Vero Beach, Florida.

"We're representing Detroit, we're going to play our hardest and give it our all," said player Lawrence Price

The team just got back from regionals in Indianapolis, where things didn't go so well in the first game.

"We had a pitcher who was throwing a perfect game through 6.5 innings, we ended up losing that game," said head coach Michael Harris.

The team had 20 minutes until the next game - and bounced back.

"We turned it around against Kansas City," Price said. "We hit the ball and put up 17 runs and we didn't look back after that."

"The game after that, we beat the team 16 to nothing," Harris said.

And they won the game after that.

"As coaches we told them you're either going to get it together or we're going to nose dive and they got it together that's why we're going to Florida," Harris said.

Team captain Trenton Newby refers to these games as "business trips."

"We're also going to have fun down there, but it is strictly business," Newby said. "We are going to come out on top this time."

"(They) are very tough and resilient group of young men and I'm so proud of them," Harris said.