GLENDALE, Ariz. – Canyon Thunder Baseball Club (CTBC) is a travel ball organization based in Phoenix that has been sending its 16u and 18u teams to Phoenix-area Perfect Game WWBA tournaments since the fall of 2014. It wasted little time in becoming a bona fide player among the top organizations showing their wares in the Valley of the Sun.
While the Thunder have no PG WWBA championships to show for their efforts, the podium finishes are no longer totally discounted at West Valley tournaments like the PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classics or the PG/EvoShield Upperclass and Underclass National Championships. A track record, of sorts, is starting to become established.
The CTBC organization, under the direction of Ryan Cisterna, has two teams entered in this holiday weekend’s 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic field and another one in the 16u event. The two 18u teams, Purple and Black, boast rosters with a total of 14 players committed to or signed with NCAA Division I schools – nine on Black and five on Purple.
A team simply called The Canyon Thunder finished as runner-up with a 6-1-0 record at last year’s 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic with a roster stocked with class of 2015 prospects. Canyon Thunder Purple 2016 right-hander/utility player Ryan Alexander was on that squad, however, as were Canyon Thunder Black 2016 right-hander Josh Sieglitz, 2016 middle-infielder Dane Stankiewicz and 2016 catcher/corner-infielder Sam Huff.
“We try to kind of split the rosters up pretty evenly,” Thunder Purple head coach Nic Spence said late Saturday morning from the Chicago White Sox side of the Camelback Ranch MLB spring training facility. “We have guys that have committed, guys that we’ve had in the program before, guys that wanted to play with one another – they’ve played in other organizations before or they’ve played in high school together – and we’ve just gone about it that way. We try to make two evenly matched teams and I think we have two pretty good squads.”
Action in all three PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classics – 14u, 16u and 18u – rolled into its second day of pool-play at Camelback Ranch and at the Goodyear Ballpark Sports Complex on Saturday, although some teams didn’t open on Friday. The eight-team playoffs at the 18u event begin early Sunday evening in Goodyear with the tournament’s top-two seeds receiving byes directly into Monday’s semifinal round.
With so many D-I prospects on their rosters, both the Thunder Purple and the Thunder Black had high hopes of making runs into Monday’s final four. Those hopes took a hit, however, when Black lost its pool-play opener to the AZ T-Rex Baseball Club from Scottsdale on Friday and Purple lost its second pool-play game to All-Star Baseball Academy 18u out of Peoria on Saturday. Enthusiasm was in high gear in the Purple dugout before they took the field against the ASBA 18u, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to carry the day.
“They do really look forward to this,” Spence said. “We’re missing a few guys this weekend who maybe wanted to take some time off after their high school seasons, but these guys love coming out in the summer. We get to practice a lot with them and they’re trying to get better.”
The Thunder Purple roster features five graduated seniors (class of 2016) and the Black has six graduates. That is not unusual with the Thunder, who in the past have welcomed the recent graduates onto their 18u team, many whom played right through the summer until they left for college.
Ryan Novis is a 6-foot-2, 175-pound outfielder from Tempe who just graduated from Corona Del Sol High School and who will continue his studies (he graduated high school with a 4.4 GPA) and his baseball career at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif. He won’t be leaving for Saint Mary’s – an NCAA D-I power in the West Coast Conference – until the end of August and felt it was important he keep playing ball for as long as the Arizona heat allows him to do so.
“It’s definitely important to keep your skills sharp and keep trying to get better so you don’t lose any ground over the summer,” Novis said. “I’ve had a couple of weeks off since the high school season ended and I’m ready to get right back in the thick of things. I feel a little bit rusty and I want to back into the swing of things.”
Novis smiled brightly when asked about his decision to attend Saint Mary’s: “Part of it was that I wanted to get out of Arizona for a little bit, but it’s also a pretty good academic school with a good atmosphere there,” he said. “I really liked the coaches and I liked the campus and they’re doing really well (in baseball) this year, too.”
It is worth noting that of the 14 D-I commitments on the Canyon Thunder Purple and Black rosters, six are to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Cisterna, who was drafted in 2006, ’07 and ’09, played two seasons of minor league ball (2009-10) and is an alumnus of the 2003 PG Sunshine West Showcase, is an assistant coach at GCU and Spence is a volunteer assistant. That doesn’t mean there is a direct pipeline from Canyon Thunder to Grand Canyon U.
The Canyon Thunder Purple players committed to GCU are 2017 shortstop Nico Burgarello, 2017 middle-infielder Channy Ortiz and the aforementioned Alexander. Thunder Black Grand Canyon U. signees include 2016 left-hander/outfielder Jack Schneider, 2016 right-hander/first baseman Johnny Morrell and the aforementioned Huff.
But GCU didn’t get them all. In addition to Novis signing with Saint Mary’s (Thunder Black 2017 RHP/2B Casey Candiotti has also committed to Saint Mary’s), 2017 infielder Daniel Carrizosa is committed to Cal State Bakersfield. Throughout the organization, there are commitments to schools like Louisiana State, Arizona State and Texas Christian.
“We do have some guys that are coming in the next couple of years but we also have guys going to other programs,” Spence said. “It’s not necessarily the case where just because you played for Canyon Thunder you have to come to GCU, it’s if you get the chance to go to ASU, U of A, (Cal) Fullerton, St. Mary’s, (Cal) Bakersfield) that’s great. We’re helping you guys get the exposure, helping you play better baseball.”
Burgarello, one of the GCU commits, is playing his first season with the Canyon Thunder program. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound incoming senior at Sandra Day O’Connor High School had played previously with the AZ Athletics organization and with his college commitment he seems to be a perfect fit with the Thunder Purple.
“This is a great time; we’ve got a lot of good guys on this team and we’re just ready to get after it,” he said before speaking about the transition from the high school spring season to the travel ball summer season. “It’s a different atmosphere; a lot more relaxed. You still have to get after it every day because there are (scouts) out here watching you.”
Despite a 37-game high school season (O’Connor finished third at the AIA Division I state tournament), Burgarello said he feels fresh, invigorated and just pretty good overall. It seemed to be the same way everyone else involved in this tournament felt. The energy level on every field seemed high, and Spence felt that could work in Thunder Purple’s favor simply because of the weapons he had on hand.
“We have great depth right across the board in the infield, the outfield and on the mound,” Spence said. “Everybody has a role and everybody has accepted their role and are able to take care of it. We have a couple of important two-way guys like (Cole) Bellinger and (Mathew) Novis, who will do a little bit of both with the bat and the ball. So I’d say our number-one thing is depth; we have pretty good depth throughout the lineup.”
Bellinger is playing this weekend with an interesting history behind him. A 6-foot-1, 175-pound 2017 second baseman and right-handed pitcher who will be a senior in the fall at Hamilton High School, he is the son of Clay Bellinger, who played 16 seasons of pro ball including parts of four seasons in the big leagues, and the brother of Cody Bellinger, currently a Los Angeles Dodgers farmhand currently playing at Double-A Tulsa. Cody played in the 2012 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic with the Dbacks Elite Scout Team.
Thunder Purple’s Spence is a native Australian who moved to The States his freshman of year of college. He was a baseball player Down Under and continued his career at Central Arizona University and finished at the University of Cincinnati. He’s been helping out at Grand Canyon U. the last couple of years while he pursues a Master’s degree. Although it might be remotely mathematically possible, the Thunder Purple won’t be playing in Sunday’s playoffs but that doesn’t mean the weekend will be a complete wash.
“Obviously, we want to play good baseball and win,” Spence said. “But if we just play good baseball and focus on doing the little things right, at the end of the tournament we usually find ourselves right around the mark. If that’s the case, that’s awesome; if not, hopefully we have a solid weekend and just play some good baseball.”