FORT MYERS, Fla. – The big man, fully bearded now and still very much full of life, was standing out on Roberto Clemente Field at Terry Park early in the afternoon on a sweaty Fourth of July in Southwest Florida, watching the young players from the Cleburne, Texas-based Texas Bombers Elite get ready for their first pool-play game at this week’s 14u PG BCS Finals.
Livan Hernandez, a two-time MLB All-Star right-hander in the mid-2000s with the Montreal Expos (2004) and the Washington Nationals (2005), is serving as Bombers Elite’s head coach Lale Esquivel’s pitching coach, and seemed right at home surrounded by these incoming high school freshmen.
“I like watching these young guys, and these days there are a lot of good players,” Hernandez told PG Monday. “There’s a lot of good talent out here and I like to watch what’s coming up, and see these kids hit the ball and run and play the (game) the right way.”
Hernandez, a native Cuban who retired in 2012 with a 178-177 record during a 17-year big league career, picked a pretty good group to be associated with if he wants to see youth baseball played at a high level. The Texas Bombers Elite are back here looking to collect another set of Perfect Game national championship rings after winning last year’s 13u PG BCS Finals title.
Nine players that were on that 13u roster are back on this year’s 14u roster, including five that were named to the all-tournament team, all Texans from the class of 2020: third baseman/right-hander Yanulis Ortiz (Southlake), right0-hander Elijah DeGrate (Southlake), middle-infielder Jorge Figeuroa (Southlake), first baseman Victor Mederos (Grapevine) and outfielder/left-hander Edison Ramos (Trophy Club). Ortiz, a University of Miami commit as an eighth-grader, was named the Most Valuable Player.
“We’re hoping to repeat,” Esquivel said emphatically when asked what the expectations were for his club coming into the event. “It was a great tournament last year and we’re looking forward to it again. The places we play down here are unbeatable – the best anywhere in the country – and this is the place to be. I added a couple more guys to my roster … and I feel like we should be one of the favorites, for sure.”
Esquivel made his comments about Southwest Florida being a great place to play before his team began sitting through what was a 5-hour lightning and rain delay in their pool-play opener when these were being pounded into a laptop. The Bombers led the Jacksonville (Fla.) Warriors White 8-1 through four innings when the game was stopped.
When talking about this particular group of young teenagers (as opposed to old teenagers), Esquivel said the thing that sets them apart is their work ethic. They’re more than willing to travel from coast-to-coast in efforts to test themselves against the best teams in their age-group and also aren’t afraid to go up against older kids from time-to-time.
Esquivel told the Bombers that in order be successful at a tournament like the 14u PG BCS Finals – it will be a seven-day grind for the four teams that advance to Sunday’s semifinals – they will have to be 100 percent prepared for what lies ahead. They’ve been working out every day getting ready for this and played in a 17u event a couple of weeks ago to give themselves a sense of what they might be seeing from their competition here; they won that 17u tournament.
“It was just to let them know this was the type of pitching they were going to be facing and they had to be prepared to see that or even better,” Esquivel said. “They’re excited and they’re looking forward to the challenge, for sure.”
Part of that challenge, of course, is facing most of the other top 14u teams from all across the country that might show the Bombers something a little different than they’re use to back home in Texas.
During their eight-game sweep to last year’s 13u PG BCS Finals championship, they beat five teams from Florida and one each from Georgia, Virginia and Texas. That included a victory over the Miami-based MVP Banditos in the championship game, a team that was a sort of Florida-Miami hybrid. In pool-play this week, they’ll face three teams from Florida and one each from Mississippi and Kentucky.
“The experience that we had here last year not only will help them this year for this tournament again but it’s helped them with previous tournaments we’ve had in other places,” Esquivel said “They know what to expect, how to present themselves at the field, hustle in and out – you never know who’s watching you – and (Perfect Game) brings that to life here. This is what it’s all about and this is where they need to be if they want to get to the next level, there’s no doubt about that.”
Ortiz is a special talent, a 6-foot-1, 180-pounder who turned 15 on May 15 and will be a freshman at Southlake Carroll High School in the fall. Esquivel said it is his understanding Ortiz is the first eighth-grader Miami has ever offered.
“That’s a big thing and that kid’s the real deal,” he said, while acknowledging that the college recruiting process is beginning earlier and earlier for the top young prospects. “It puts more pressure on the kids but I think it’s a good kind of pressure. These types of players, that’s what they need, to be out there and be seen by the scouts and all the major universities. With this group I think it’s more with the scouts from the (colleges) than from the pro level but it doesn’t hurt to have them watch, as well.”
It is Esquivel’s hope that this group of kids is allowed to be part of the same overall enjoyable experience that last year’s Bombers Elite group received; winning another championship isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for that to happen.
He considers the PG BCS Finals the best tournaments in the country for young players who might not yet feel comfortable swinging wood bats: “Everybody looks forward to playing in the Perfect Game BCS – I know our team does – and I’ll be coming back here year after year and continuing to do this,” Esquivel said, adding that he feels like he knows his young players pretty well.
“These guys want to play on a good, experienced team with good coaching,” he continued. “I’ve got Livan Hernandez as my pitching coach and that doesn’t hurt having a guy like that. This morning at the hotel, he had about a 30-minute session with the pitchers, sat them all down, told them what he expects of them from the moment they put the uniform on in the morning until they get back to the hotel. It’s just a great experience for them.”
It’s a great experience for Hernandez, too, who is perhaps is remembered most for winning the Most Valuable Player Award at both the 1997 National League Championship Series and the 1997 World Series while with the Florida Marlins, the team that signed him as an amateur free agent out of Cuba in 1996.
Hernandez made it back to the World Series with the San Francisco Giants in 2002 but wasn’t able to win a second ring. Now, all these years later, maybe he’ll win a PG national championship ring while helping coach the Texas Bombers Elite to a second PG BCS Finals championship in two years.
“They call this Perfect Game and I think it’s perfect for the kids,” he said before telling PG he spends most of his time with his family while also managing to get out for a round of golf just about every day. “The most important thing is for the kids to have fun and play on the good teams against this good competition. Everybody’s coming here and trying to win and play good baseball and enjoy the summer.
“I try to tell them what it is and how they should try to learn to play at the different levels. … You have to learn how to play the right way if you’re ever going to play at the professional level.”