It will be another 11 months before the 2017 Perfect Game WWBA World Championship begins its five-day run at the Roger Dean Stadium spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla. It is likely many of the 85 or so teams that will compete for the title at that prestigious PG national championship tournament do not yet have a core roster assembled for the event, or at least not one they’d be willing to cast in stone.
With that consideration at the forefront, it would be foolish for anyone to proclaim a pre-tournament favorite more than 11 months out, not when Thanksgiving dinner leftovers are barely cold in the fridge and the first Christmas gifts are yet to be placed under the tree.
But here goes: Barring unforeseen injuries or defections, the Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Central Florida Gators, under the direction of program founder Joe Mercadante, will arrive in Jupiter at the end of next October as one of the favorites – if not the favorite – to replace the North Carolina-based Dirtbags as the PG WWBA World Championship title holder.
“I’d rather be the favorite to win it than an underdog,” Gators’ No. 13-ranked 2018 catcher/right-handed pitcher Mason Denaburg told PG during a telephone conversation earlier this week. “If we put everything together and just do everything that we’re supposed to do, I think we’d have a pretty good chance of coming out on top.”
That is not just so much bluster coming from Denaburg, a high school junior from Merritt Island, Fla., who has committed to the University of Florida in Gainesville, about 170 miles from his home. This core group of Gators – featuring eight prospects from the class of 2018 ranked in the top-163 nationally (including Denaburg) and another three 2019s ranked in the top-35 in their class – has done a lot of winning over the last three years.
With this solid group of 2018s captaining the ship, the Central Florida Gators recorded third-place finishes at the 14u Perfect Game World Series and 14u PG MLK Championship in 2014, and finished second at the 15u PG World Series and the 15u PG BCS Finals in 2015.
That led to the summer and fall seasons of 2016, during which they won championships at the 16u PG World Series and the PG WWBA Florida Qualifier, reached the quarterfinal-round of the playoffs at the PG WWBA World Championship (Jupiter) and the 16u PG WWBA National Championship; the third-round at the 17u PG WWBA National Championship and the first-round at the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship.
The Gators’ combined record at those six events was 36-6-1, including 30-5-1 at the five PG national championship tournaments at which they played. They went 7-0-0 while winning the 16u PG World Series; 8-1-0 at the 17u PG WWBA; 8-1-1 at the 16u PG WWBA, 3-1-0 at the PG WWBA Underclass World and 4-2-0 in Jupiter (they finished 6-1-0 while winning the PG WWBA Florida Q, but while that is an upper-class event, it is not a PG national championship tournament).
“Obviously, this is a very talented group,” Mercadante told PG over the phone this week. “There is a lot of strength for them with the fact that they’ve played together for such a long time and at such a high level against such great competition that they’re pretty battle-tested. They’ve been up against guys that were bigger and stronger when they were young, and we’ve instilled in them since day one that you don’t play the competition, you play the game.”
And that holds true whether they’re playing against their age-group peers or if they’re playing in an upper-class event.
“We teach them to go out there and execute whether it’s a 2018 (grad) that’s throwing 92 (mph) or a 2017 that’s throwing 92. It’s still the same pitch; you still have to battle and you still have to compete,” Mercadante continued. “They’ve really kind of bought into it, and part of it is because they’re very tough individuals mentally and they also step up to the challenge and buckle down.”
The leading 2017 on the Gators’ 2016 roster was Jacksonville, Fla., top-500 corner-infielder/right-hander Tommy Ben, a PG all-tournament selection at the PG WWBA World, 16u PGWS, 16u PG WWBA National and 17u PG WWBA National. After Ben, it was all underclassmen.
The top 2018s included Arizona infielder Nolan Gorman (ranked No. 7 nationally, an Arizona commit); Florida outfielder Elijah Cabell (No. 9, LSU); Denaburg (No. 13, Florida); Florida right-hander Carter Stewart (No. 19, uncommitted); Arizona left-hander Matthew Liberatore (No. 77, Arizona); Florida right-hander Gunnar Hoglund (No. 122, Ole Miss); Pennsylvania shortstop Connor Ollio (No. 126, North Carolina); Arizona right-hander/third baseman Connor Thurman (No. 163, Arizona) and Florida right-hander/infielder Bret Neilan (t-500, uncommitted).
The top 2019s included Florida shortstop Tyler Callihan (No. 15, South Carolina); Florida right-hander Joseph Charles (No. 18, North Carolina) and Florida third baseman Andrew Roberts (No. 35, Florida).
Mercadante likes to tell people he has three part-time jobs that add up to a full-time job, and taking care of the Central Florida Gators program is the most prominent one. He also runs some tournaments and fall leagues in the Orlando area, and has worked for USA Baseball the past couple of years.
A former collegiate player at the juco level and later at the University of Florida, Mercadante has also coached at the collegiate level, serving as a full-time assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Miami and the RC at Central Florida University. He left the collegiate ranks in 2013 and put together the Gators’ organization.
He came in and started coaching this core group of players – those from the class of 2018 – when they were 13 years old, after he had left UCF.
Andrew Robert’s dad, Mark Roberts, a friend and associate of Mercadante, had coached them when they were younger, and as many as 12 of the current Gators played together as 12-year-olds at the annual Dreams Park event in Cooperstown, N.Y. Andrew Roberts remembers those early years with Cabell, Denaburg, Charles and several others and marvels at the heights the group has already attained.
“It’s been really special, for sure,” he said over the phone this week. “When we were 10 years old, we definitely didn’t expect any of this to come our way like it has. We all push each other, and the chemistry we have has really propelled us to the next level.”
All of those players mentioned previously, with the exception of Cabell, were named to at least three all-tournament teams during the course of the 2016 season. Denaburg, Stewart, Liberatore, Ollio and Neilan joined Ben as all-tournament selections at the big-4: the PG WWBA World, 17u PG WWBA, 16u PG WWBA and 16u PG World Series. Stewart was the Most Valuable Pitcher at the 16u PG World Series, Roberts was the MV Player at the same event and Liberatore was the MV Pitcher at the PG WWBA Florida Q.
“Everyone on that team is a big-game player,” Denaburg said. “No matter who it is, someone is going to get the job done. Anyone, one-through-nine and whoever’s pitching, we’re all really competitive, no matter what the situation is. … It’s really a competitive team and we all love each other, and it’s just fun being around each other.”
Every player on this roster values and looks forward to his high school spring season; it’s a priority as it should be. But Denaburg said the Gators’ also look forward to reuniting in June, especially with guys like Gorman and Liberatore, their compadres from Arizona.
“They really enjoy playing with each other,” Mercadante said. “They challenge each other and they like to see each other succeed, but they also kind of give each other a nudge. They’ve always enjoyed being part of the same group, and, yeah, we’ve brought in a couple of pieces in here and there out of necessity … and the guys that we brought in just became part of the family very quickly.”
It’s an accepted fact in baseball – any team sport, really – that the longer a group can stay together and play together and become not only familiar with one another but fast-friends, the better that group will perform with the passing of time. Players learn how one another operates and how each individual will respond to different situations, and with that realization they are able to make up for each other’s deficiencies, however pronounced – or unpronounced – they may be.
In that type of environment, Mercadante believes, players learn to coach themselves. They might find themselves in a tight spot or two during the course of a game, but they get the sense that they’ve been there before, they don’t panic, and they know what they need to do personally and what they need to do to help their teammates get out of those challenging situations. It’s the personality a championship-caliber team must possess.
“I was really blessed finding Coach Mark (Roberts) because I don’t think I would have gotten as much exposure as I’ve gotten over the past six years without him – or Joe, obviously,” Denaburg said. “(The coaching staff) wants us to have fun while we’re playing, but at the same time they want us to play the right way.
“They want us to always hustle on and off the field and just always do everything the right way; that’s going to make people want to come back and watch us over-and-over again.”
High school prospects that play at an elite level have obviously worked hard to become the best they can be on the physical side of the game, but Mercadante points out that players must continue to learn the mental aspects of the game at every stage of their development.
That comes in different forms, like their mental approach as a hitter, or understanding how certain batters need to be pitched to from the mound, or learning how to position themselves out on the field. And most importantly with this group, they’ve learned how to keep each other grounded, which Mercadante called “a really good thing.”
“They like to kind of bust each other’s chops and kind of give each other reality checks; I don’t have to do that too much,” he said. “When you have an extremely competitive group like this, they always want to see each other succeed and they always push each other.”
With all the success, these guys have experienced, Mercadante said the aspect of their make-up that surprises him most is their consistency. It is not uncommon, he noted, to see young players experience peaks and valleys throughout the course of a long season, and while every situation this team has put itself in hasn’t always a field of clover, he’s been impressed with how they never allow their lows to get too low. If they do have a bad game, they’re able to flush it out and bounce back in the next game.
Experience helps with that, of course, and even though most of these players are sophomores and juniors in high school, they already have plenty of experience on Perfect Game’s biggest stages. If there is pressure involved in being on center-stage – and there most certainly is – these guys seemed unaffected by it; their march to the quarterfinals in Jupiter last month is proof of that.
“Anytime you get out there and all eyes are on you and you’re playing a really talented group like you always play when you’re at Perfect Game (tournaments) – and you’ve got a lot of college coaches out there – it really feeds into the competitiveness of our guys,” Mercadante said. “Our guys definitely enjoy being in that spotlight and really embrace it. To their credit, they don’t try to do too much, they just go out there and really rise up to the moment and compete the best they can.”
Added Denaburg: “We like the attention, but we like doing really good at those big events, too. We’re all just trying to get the job done, and if one person gets it going everyone else is going to feed off that.”
The fact that so many of these high school sophomores and juniors have already committed to big-time college programs is something that doesn’t surprise Mercadante either. He’s been around them a lot of years now and he’s seen the work they’ve put in and the way they’ve taken to heart the things they need to continue to work on; embracing what it takes to become a next-level baseball player.
These Gators’ prospects will cross paths with a lot of “next-level” ballplayers in 2017 when they find themselves returning to the 17u PG WWBA National Championship and continuing a natural progression from the 14u, 15u and 16u PG World Series’ to the blockbuster 17u PG World Series. And then, of course, there will be the return trip to Jupiter.
As one of the eight quarterfinalists at this year’s PG WWBA World Championship, the Central Florida Gators’ official roster stood out in one remarkable detail: they listed 15 underclassmen. By comparison, No. 1-seeded GBG Marucci had the next highest number with 10 and it, like the Gators, lost in the quarterfinal-round. The champion Dirtbags listed four underclassmen and runner-up Team Elite Prime three.
“We’re not afraid of anyone, so when we’re out on the field we’re going to play the game the same way we always to,” Andrew Roberts said. “We’re definitely comfortable playing from behind – we don’t have a problem with that – because we just know we’re going to end up coming back and giving it our best.”
The Gators’ staff’s top priority is seeing this core group advance right on up through their 17u season in 2017 and then re-evaluate the program a year from now. Mercadante would hate say to say goodbye to the talented 2019s he already has on board, and those guys would certainly provide a solid foundation to build another championship-caliber team around in 2018. In the meantime, the Central Florida Gators will enter the 2017 PG tournament season as marked men.
“In our mind, we’ve had that target on our back for a couple of years now so I don’t think it’s going to be anything different for us,” Mercadante said. “It’s just continuing to find a way to motivate yourself to go out and play at the highest level every day.
“Going back to Jupiter next year and hopefully winning it will obviously be our number-one goal when we get to that time,” he concluded. “This group has kind of stayed together and we want to see them finish it together, and when we get to that point we’ll make that decision.”
2016 CF Gators Multi All-Tournament Selections
Tommy Ben, 2017 CIF/RHP; t-500; Jacksonville, FL; uncommit: PG WWBA World Champ; 16u PG World Series; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Nolan Gorman, 2018 INF; #7; Glendale, AZ; Arizona: 16u PGWS; PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Mason Denaburg, 2018 C/RHP; #13; Merritt Island, FL; Florida: PG WWBA World Champ; 16u PG World Series; PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Carter Stewart, 2018 RHP: #19; Melbourne, FL; uncommit: PG WWBA World Champ; 16u PG World Series (MVPitch); PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Matthew Liberatore, 2018 LHP; #77; Peoria, AZ; Arizona: PG WWBA World Champ; 16u PG World Series; PG WWBA Florida Q (MVPitch); 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Gunnar Hoglund, 2018 RHP; #122; Hudson, FL; Ole Miss: PG WWBA Underclass World Champ; PG WWBA Florida Q
Connor Ollio, 2018 SS; #126; Renfrew, PA; North Carolina: PG WWBA World Champ; 16u PG World Series; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Conner Thurman, 2018 RHP/3B/OF; #163; SanTan Valley, AZ; Arizona: PG WWBA World Champ; PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Bret Neilan, 2018 RHP/INF/OF; t-500; Orlando, FL; uncommit: PG WWBA World Champ; PG WWBA Underclass World Champ; 16u PG World Series; PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Tyler Callihan, 2019 SS; #15; Neptune Beach, FL; South Carolina: PG WWBA Underclass World Champ; 16u PG World Series; PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ
Joseph Charles, 2019 RHP; #18; Celebration, FL; North Carolina: 16u PG World Series; PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ; 17u PG WWBA National Champ
Andrew Roberts, 2019 3B; #35; Altamonte Springs, FL; Florida: PG WWBA Underclass World Champ; 16u PG World Series (MVP); PG WWBA Florida Q; 16u PG WWBA National Champ