FORT MYERS, Fla. – The boys from the Austin Metropolitan Area of Texas cut quite a fine figure when they walked into the Player Development 5-Plex bright and early Monday morning, eager to get what they hope is a seven-day stay at the 16u Perfect Game BCS Finals off to rousing start.
The team representing Dripping Springs, Texas-based Clutch Athletics that goes simply by the name Clutch, was looking both stylish and a tad-bit old-school with their all-white uniforms complete with front button-down jerseys with Vegas gold-and-black trim, black belts, black socks and a Vegas gold “C” on their caps and over their left breast-pocket.
The Clutch might just be one of 101 teams competing for the PG national championship at this week’s 16u BCS Finals, but on Monday morning they stood out simply by looking professional. And that’s important for this group as it works to establish a positive image for itself on the PG national championship tournament scene while also working to show it belongs on that scene.
“Any time you’re traveling across state lines and you get to see newer competition, I think it’s a good opportunity for the boys to see what’s out and about,” Clutch head coach Rob Johnson told PG Monday morning. “I’m really excited about it, I think the boys are really about it – nice travel, some hotel time –and hopefully we can come together as a team and play as well as we can.”
This Clutch 16u team is built around a core group of guys that have been playing together for quite some time now, even before Johnson formed Clutch Athletics in 2014 when he retired after a seven-year MLB career. He established the program in December 2014, put three teams together in the spring of 2015, bumped it up to six teams last fall and has 11 teams this summer.
“We’re trying to compete in the area (around Austin) and we’re trying to compete nationwide,” Johnson said. “We’re just trying to get these kids as much exposure as we can at the high school level and we try to develop them at the younger levels.”
There are seven class of 2018 prospects on the Clutch roster that have caught the eye of the PG scouting department: No. 461-ranked Reed Beverly, top-1,000 prospect John Hoyle, “high follows” Jacob Navejas, Justin Dunlap and Brittan Howeth, and “follow” Zach Young.
The roster includes only 11 players and Johnson isn’t afraid to send 10 of the 11 – catcher Navejas is the exception – out to the mound to pitch. The situation requires all 11 to go out and play with a great deal of heart and passion which comes from the realization they will be given both the opportunity to be noticed and the opportunity to win some ballgames. These guys are grinders in the truest sense of the word, a job title that is the direct result of the situation they find themselves in.
Beverly, a 2018 outfielder/infielder/right-handed pitcher like so many of his versatile teammates, is from Austin and playing in his first PG tournament in Florida after previous stops back home in Texas and up in Georgia. He and his mates will next take part in the inaugural PG College Station Showdown at Texas A&M’s Blue Bell Park July 29-31 to complete their summer season.
He loves playing with the Clutch, calling it a tight-knit group of 11 players who depend on each other in ways squads with larger rosters can’t imagine. He’s on a team where everyone plays, everyone bats everyone gets reps and almost everyone pitches.
The real key for this team, according to Beverly, is unselfishness. He admitted there have been a handful of times this summer when selfishness as reared its ugly head and the team suffered the consequences, but feels like the group has cleaned up its act and is ready to compete at a high level this week. Beverly also promises that all 11 players will be paying attention to every pitch of every game. All 11 players have to be aware of the game-situation at all times.
“In this game, it’s easy to lose focus,” he said. “If you’re sitting on the bench and (not playing) an inning you can lose focus and if you turn it off it’s hard to turn it back on. But with the pitching and everything, it keeps everyone going, it keeps everyone locked in. We’re here for a week, and if you’re playing the same position every single day, going out on the mound kind of gives you a re-start, a little energy boost.
“We just trust in each other,” Beverly continued. “Baseball is a game of failure, and I know if I fail the guy behind is going to pick me up. If I’m having a bad day he’s going to pick me up and if he’s having a bad day I’m going to pick him up.”
Johnson, a catcher, was a fourth-round pick of the Mariners in the 2004 MLB Amateur Draft out of the University of Houston and played parts of seven big-league seasons (2007-13) with the Mariners, Padres, Mets and Cardinals. He tries to convey to these teenagers as much about his experiences playing at both the collegiate and professional levels as he can, and has found them to be very receptive.
But Johnson defers any of the credit he might receive for the successes this Clutch team enjoys to a trio of men who coached them before he became involved. He called Clint Baty, Steve Robert and Michael Dunlap “incredible baseball guys” who all have sons – Brett Baty, Zachery Robert and Justin Dunlap – playing on this team.
“We have a bunch of great coaches here,” Beverly said. “We listen to what they say and I try to learn everything I can. You have to be a sponge and try to soak up everything you can.”
Clutch was at the LakePoint facility in Cartersville, Ga., June 10-15 to compete at the 16u PG WWBA National Championship Qualifier and finished 8-1-0 after losing to a 6-4-3 DP team in the semifinals on a walk-off suicide squeeze. Eight Clutch players were named to the event’s all-tournament team: 2018 infielders/outfielders/right-handed pitchers Beverly, Dunlap, Robert, Hoyle, Howeth and Matthew Maldonado; 2018 catcher/infielder Navejas; and the 2019 infielder/outfielder/right-hander Baty.
“For these boys to gain the confidence that they can compete (at this level) is huge, not only as a group, not only for the organization, but as individuals, as well,” Johnson said. “You get an opportunity to play late in the tournament and then hopefully get noticed by people at the next level.”
Clutch opened play at the 16u PG BCS Finals Monday morning with an 8-0, six-inning victory over the Florida Burn 16u out of Sarasota, Fla. Beverly drove in two runs with a pair of sacrifice flies, Baty tripled and drove in a run and Izaiah Faz delivered a two-run single to pace Clutch offensively.
The right-hander Hoyle worked five, one-hit, shutout innings, striking out nine and walking three. It was a resounding victory over an excellent program from Florida, not that Beverly necessarily learned anything from the Floridians who occupied the opposing dugout.
You learn something every day,” he said matter-of-factly. “I just go out there and play the game of baseball and just try to keep it a faceless opponent. I have no idea who we’re playing today; I’m just ready to go out and play, you know.”
“I want to go home knowing we gave it our all and we came out here ready to play,” Beverly concluded. “I don’t want to go home wishing I would have done something better. I want to leave everything out there and that’s how you should play baseball.”
The baseball team representing Clutch Athletics that goes simply by the name Clutch, showed up at the 5-Plex Player Development Monday morning looking simultaneously relaxed, stylish, old-school, confident and determined – in other words, they looked professional. This week promises to be a long slog for the boys from Texas, but they seem more than equal to the task.
“I hope they can go out and play in the moment,” Johnson said. “This is such a ‘process’ sport; too many people, I think, focus on the results of everything. But as a process-minded player, enjoy the moment, enjoy the time, enjoy the competition. Be able to learn from the experience, learn from the exposure of being in front of some scouts or some college guys, and just be in the moment because it goes fast.”