CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – The Dogs were howling on opening day of the 13u Perfect Game World Series in the north Atlanta suburbs on Tuesday, which was enough to make each of the other 17 teams at the exclusive PG national championship sit up and take notice.
The Rochester Hills, Mich.-based Motor City Hit Dogs were more than impressive in dismantling the Academy Select Sun Devils (Plano, Texas) and the EC Sox Elite (Ridgeland, Miss.) by a combined count of 24-4 in a pair of pools games on opening day, games played at the East Cobb Complex in Marietta and here at Perfect Game Park South-LakePoint.
Those results showed the opponents they still had to face in pool-play or could conceivably face in the four-team playoffs, foes that gathered here from states as far-flung as California and Florida, that the lads from Michigan know how to play a little bit.
“You couldn’t ask for a better way to get things started,” Hit Dogs head coach Wilkerson said from one of the eight all-turf fields at PG Park South Wednesday morning, before his team took the field for the first of two more pool-play games scheduled for the day. “The (pitchers) threw great and everybody top-to-bottom in the order hit, so it was a great way to start off the week.”
The Hit Dogs certainly lived up to their name in Tuesday’s two one-sided victories, collecting 10 hits in their 10-2 win over the Sun Devils and then pounding out 18 in their 14-2, four-inning demolition of the Sox Elite.
2021 shortstop/utility Luke Leto from Portage. Mich., was 7-for-7 with four triples, five RBI, six runs scored and an absolutely insane 3.143 OPS in the two wins; 2021 shortstop Alex Mooney from Rochester Hills went 4-for-5, with a double, triple, home run, two walks, five RBI and a runs scored while posting a 2.857 OPS.
On the pitching side of things, 2020 left-hander Logan Wood from Macomb, Mich., came out and threw five solid innings against the Sun Devils, giving up a pair of earned runs on three hits while striking out one without walking anyone; Wilkerson used four pitchers in the four-inning victory over the Sox Elite. It’s important to remember that most of the players at the 13u level don’t yet have a lot of experience throwing from 60-feet, 6-inches; the 90-foot base paths are new to most of the 13u players, as well.
“We’ve played a few 60-90 tournaments thus far so it didn’t really surprise me,” Wilkerson said of his guys’ performances. “Logan Wood came out in the first game and did exactly what he needed to do, and then we threw a few different guys in the second game and they got it done for us; it worked out well.”
Twelve of the 15 players on this 13u Motor City Hit Dogs team are from Michigan cities and towns; two are from Pennsylvania and one from Indiana. Wilkerson said seven or eight of the Michigan kids have been playing together in the Motor City Baseball Club program for almost five years now, with others added along the way. Some were specifically added this week just to provide pitching depth.
The Motor City Baseball Club has been around for about eight years and first really started making an impact on the national scene in 2012 when it had several age-group teams qualify for the ESPN Elite World Series in Orlando; its 11u team reached No. in USSSA’s power rankings.
It has only gotten more prominent in the years since, and it now fields 11 teams in the age-groups 9u through 18u. Its reputation is such that not only was a Hit Dogs team gain a bid to the exclusive, invitational-only, 18-team 13u PG World Series, but another one at the equally exclusive, invitation-only, 24-team 15u PG World Series, as well.
“I think we’re a top-tier (program) in the Midwest and then to come down and start off the way we did (Tuesday), it’s good for the state of Michigan and northern baseball,” Wilkerson said. “Our kids already know who most of the teams are and who most of the top players are; with social media these days they all ‘follow’ each other.
“They know who we’re playing well in advance and the really look forward to it,” he continued. “We get stuck playing up in Michigan – or at least in the Midwest – most of the year so when get to come down here and play against the best competition, that’s when it really gets fun.”
Wilkerson and his assistant, Mike Mestdagh, were teammates at Michigan State University in East Lansing before graduating last year, and Motor City Baseball Club’s Joe Mooney contacted them about taking over as coaches for this 13u team. Mooney wanted Wilkerson and Mestdagh to share with the young players some of their experiences and the first-hand knowledge they have acquired in regard to the entire college recruiting process.
“They were very, very well-coached before we got here. Joe Mooney did an outstanding job just teaching them to play hard and the basic fundamentals,” Wilkerson said of his young players. “What we’ve come on to do is try to expand on that and kind of raise the bar as far as what we know from what we’ve done, and try to show that to them.
“They’ve been extremely receptive – this is a great group of kids; you couldn’t ask for a better group – so it’s been easy on us, really. It’s been a blast.”
The competition stiffened for the Hit Dogs in their third 13u PG World Series game played late morning Wednesday at PG Park South-LakePoint, when the opponent was Team Elite 13u from Winder, Ga., which is located about 80 miles southeast of here. Team Elite Baseball boasts one of the top programs in the country at every age-group level and consistently sends championship contenders out on the field.
This Team Elite 13u squad had lost both of its pool-play games on Tuesday, however, and looked vulnerable. But the Elites jumped on the Hit Dogs for an early 4-1 lead after two innings of play, but squandered that lead when the Dogs scored two in the third, one in the fourth and two more in the fifth to grab a 6-4 cushion.
But the Elite rallied for four in the bottom of the fifth for an 8-6 advantage, and that score stood when the game was halted by time-limit rules after six innings. The Hit Dogs collected eight more hits in the loss, including a two-run home run off the bat of 2021 utility player Anthony Magliaccio in the top of the fifth; Leto went 1-for-2, Mooney 1-for-4.
The 18 teams at the 13u PG World Series were placed in three, six-team pools, and the three pool champions and one wild-card advance to the four-team playoffs on Friday. All six of the teams in the Hit Dogs’ pool had played three games through mid-afternoon Wednesday – each would play a fourth game later in the afternoon – and four, including the Hit Dogs, stood 2-1-0; one was 1-2-0 and one was 0-0-3. There was much to be decided.
“I think our guys are some of the best in the country, and we expect to come down here and not just do well but try to win it all,” Wilkerson said. “We just want them to have fun and play the best competition out there and get better, and that’s really what it comes down to. They can compare themselves to the other kids from all around the country, and as long as they do well and have some fun, that’s all that matters.”