GLENDALE, Ariz. – It would have been easy to expect the West Coast Clippers 2017 to come into this weekend’s Perfect Game/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass) tournament with a certain air of confidence swirling about them.
That sense of “been there, done that” might have wafted in on the 100-degree desert breeze well in advance of the WC Clippers 2017’s tournament-opener Friday morning at the Camelback Ranch MLB Cactus League spring training facility. It might of, but it most certainly did not.
While other teams that brought back 12 prominent members from a squad that finished in the top-four of last year’s PG/EvoShield Underclass event might have exhibited that air, that wasn’t the case for this confident but extremely humble and well-grounded group out of San Marcos, Calif.
“We had a good showing last year so to come back and try to represent or duplicate what we did is exciting,” Clippers 2017 head coach Josh Larrinaga said Friday morning from the L.A. Dodgers side of the Camelback Ranch Complex, which the Dodgers share with the Chicago White Sox. “This is basically the same team – the same guys – with just another year of development, so it’s awesome and we’re excited to see what happens.”
The West Coast Clippers 2017 are the only team that reached last year’s final four at this event to return largely intact. In 2014, they finished pool-play at 4-0 and beat the always tough-out Southern California Bombers, 5-3, in the quarterfinals before losing to the heavily favored and eventual national championship runner-up SACSN National Team, 1-0, in the semifinals.
Twelve of the Clippers 2017 regulars were just beginning their sophomore years in high school last September and are back for more this year as older and wiser juniors. Three of them were named to last year’s PG/EvoShield Underclass all-tournament team: right-hander Ed Gonzalez (Perris, Calif.), infielder A.J. Nelums (Oceanside, Calif.) and catcher/third baseman Brendan Siriani (Carlsbad, Calif.).
Nelums and Siriani played key roles offensively in the Clippers 2017’s 5-1 tournament-opening win over D-backs Academy from Phoenix early Friday afternoon: Nelums was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored and Siriani also doubled.
But 2017 outfielder/first baseman Zach Hogueisson and 2017 corner-infielder Justin Ledgerwood both hit home runs and drove in a pair of runs – Hogueisson’s was the inside-the-park-variety – and 2017 catcher/first baseman Emilio Escobedo was 3-for-3 with a double to lead the 11-hit barrage.
2017 right-hander Jamison Hill and 2017 lefty Hayden Salverda combined on a seven-inning four-hitter without allowing an earned run, while striking out nine and walking two. All but Ledgerwood and Salverda were with this team a year ago.
“Anytime I can get together with this team, it’s a fun time; we’re all like family,” said Hogueisson, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound left-handed swinging outfielder/first baseman from El Cajon, Calif., who is ranked No. 359 nationally in the class of 2017 and has committed to Arizona State.
“Ever since I started playing with the Clippers it’s been very family like,” he said. “We always hang out with each other and some of all go to the same schools, so we each other all the time. It’s a baseball team, but it’s more than that to a lot of us.”
Hogueisson speaks of a team that enjoys much better communication among itself than it did a year ago, simply because there were players on board in 2014 that were just getting their feet wet with the organization. This is a team that has cemented the bond between individual teammates, and when a game is being played, everybody – yes, everybody – has each other’s back.
At least nine of these underclass Clippers have been playing together since they were 10-years-old, and Larrinaga has enjoyed watching them grow and improve and steadily move forward towards becoming the kind of elite ballplayers they all long to be. He calls the group very team-oriented – or more specifically very family-oriented – and one that is always ready to pick the other guy up and offer encouragement when needed.
“It’s been really fun to just watch them grow as opposed to different guys coming in and just having a revolving door. The tightness is what makes them fun to watch,” he said. “They’re here to put on a good show and they want to play hard, they want to compete.
“Obviously, it’s always about (gaining) exposure and trying to take it to the next level but at the same time’s it’s really just about them coming out and having fun,” Larrinaga continued. “They don’t play football, so this is it for them; they’re here to compete and have fun.”
Five other WC Clippers 2017’s join Hogueisson in PG’s class of 2017 rankings: Escobedo is a top-500 prospect; outfielder/second baseman Adrian Collazo is ranked in the top-550; and Hill, Ledgerwood and catcher/outfielder Ryan Schmidt are all in the top-600; all are uncommitted.
The West Coast Clippers organization was founded by Dayne Wagoner in 2008 as a destination for young ballplayers in southwest Riverside County and San Diego County in Southern California.
The Clippers have been led since their inception by Buck Taylor, the ninth-year head coach at Palomar College – a California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) powerhouse in San Marcos – where Larrinaga has served as an assistant coach the past three seasons. Larrinaga played collegiately at Southern Colorado and also professionally in a couple of Independent leagues.
He has accumulated a lot of baseball knowledge along the way and now wants to share that with his young Clippers. And it has been his experience in the three years he’s been with the Clippers that the only way to make his players better is to put them out there against the best competition in the country, like that offered at the PG/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass).
“We don’t play in very many local events because there’s just no point,” Larrinaga said. “We always try to play in the Perfect Game events – we went out to Georgia (for the PG WWBA national championship) which was new experience for us playing in the heat and the humidity – and the Perfect Game events are always good exposure for the boys. They usually try to take their game to the next level because of the great competition.”
This tournament features 78 of the top underclass teams from all across the nation with most coming from the western part of the country. Advancing the final four at last year’s event as a group of high school sophomores was truly a fine accomplishment for the West Coast Clippers 2017 and certainly set the bar extremely high this year.
But even a year later, these guys feel like they can carry some of that momentum over to this September.
“We hope to take that energy into this tournament,” Hogueisson said. “Finishing third is kind of a big thing to live up to so we’re just going to try to take it game-by-game and not get ahead of ourselves. If you look too far ahead you’re not going to focus on the game that’s right in front of you, so we’re going to take it (easy) and work into (the same situation) that we did last year. Hopefully we can do the same thing – or even better.”