LOS ANGELES – It was late February when Perfect Game announced it would stage two inaugural PG California World Series events – Upperclass and Underclass – in early October with the intended purpose of bringing 32 of the top teams from The Golden State together for a three-day slugfest played on fields in Southern California.
“I’ve been waiting for this to happen for awhile,” Mitch Spiers, the director and head coach of the Carlsbad-based Team California Warriors said just days after the announcement. “Perfect Game is great, and for it to come into Southern California like this, it’s just going to open up better baseball around the rest of the state.”
California plays second fiddle to no state in terms of the highest level of high school baseball being played and this weekend’s PG events are, as Spiers alluded to, long overdue.
California teams – and So Cal teams, in particular – have dominated the PG/EvoShield National Championships in the Phoenix area over the past five or six years and these two tournaments allow the best of the best from the entire state to go head-to-head with one another on their own turf and it promises to be quite a turf battle, to be sure.
The inaugural Perfect Game Upperclass World Series and Perfect Game Underclass World Series will be contested on eight fields in the Los Angeles area from Friday through Sunday, with Dedeaux Field on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles serving as the base of operations.
Sixteen teams in each tournament will compete in three pool-play games Friday and Saturday, with the four pool champions in each classification playing in semifinal and championship games on Sunday. The PG California Upperclass World Series semifinal and championship games will be played Sunday morning at Cal State Northridge while the Underclass games will be contested at Southern Cal.
IN THE PAST TWO YEARS, THE GARCIAPARRA BASEBALL GROUP (GBG) out of Los Angeles has flexed its muscles like none other and emerged as the preeminent program in Southern California. Just be careful not to whisper that declaration to such storied programs as the Southern California Bombers, the San Diego Show, the Team California Warriors, the ABD Bulldogs and most recently – and definitely the most loudly – CBA Marucci.
GBG Marucci won PG national championships at both the PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship and PG/EvoShield Upperclass National Championship in mid-September, its third and fourth titles at those two events in the last two years. GBG Marucci Navy beat San Bernardino-based CBA Marucci in the championship game of the PG/EvoShield Upper just more than a week ago.
They just might very well be the two teams to beat in the Upperclass tournament this weekend, as well.
GBG Marucci features a roster with nine NCAA Division-I commits, including PG All-American 2105 outfielder Kyle Dean (ranked No. 36 nationally and a U. of San Diego commit); 2015 catcher Lucas Herbert (No. 92, UCLA), 2015 second baseman Jagger Rusconi (No. 149, Southern Cal) and 2015 right-hander Javier Medina (No. 254, Arizona).
CBA Marucci – with a tournament high 15 D-I commits on its roster – counters with PG All-American 2015 right-hander/outfielder Kyle Molnar (No. 25, UCLA); 2015 third baseman/right-hander Niko Navarro (No. 160, San Diego State); 2015 first baseman Kyle Hatton (No. 257, UC Santa Barbara) and 2015 middle-infielder David Maldonado (No. 272, San Diego State).
CCB Elite out of San Jose is intriguing with 11 D-I commitments on its 20-man roster. 2015 outfielder Nicholas Oar, a Stanford recruit ranked No. 243 nationally, and 2015 right-hander/third baseman Troy Miller, a Michigan commit ranked No. 276, look the most intriguing of all.
One organization that is difficult to get a handle on is BPA DeMarini Elite out of San Juan Capistrano because it presents a pair of rosters filled with seven top-160 prospects from the class of 2017 that is basically the same roster for its entrants in both tournaments. It’s hard to say how those prospects will be used.
Those rosters do include 2017 right-hander/catcher Hagen Danner (No. 2 nationally, UCLA); 2017 left-hander/outfielder Nicholas Pratto (No. 10, Southern Cal); 2017 right-hander Hans Crouse (No. 37, uncommitted); 2017 shortstop Brett Borgogno (No. 45, uncommitted); 2017 catcher Tyler Lasch (No. 48, Mississippi State) and 2017 shortstop Isaiah Parra (No. 66, uncommitted).
Those youngsters played with BPA DeMarini Elite at the PG/EvoShield Upperclass National Championship less than two weeks ago and advanced to the semifinals.
“We want to play the best competition all the time,” BPA DeMarini Elite head coach Jared Sandler told PG while at the PG/EvoShield Upper. “As much as it’s nice to win tournaments we always try to play ‘up’ and compete as hard as we can.”
Every one of the 16 teams in the Upperclass field is worthy of mention, but the Trombly Nighthawks out of Placentia warrant a special shout-out. The Nighthawks feature five players with D-I commitments, including 2015 shortstop Brandon Becker, an Oregon recruit ranked No. 290 nationally.
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LOOK AT THE 16-TEAM UNDERCLASS FIELD and not come up with most of the usual suspects just mentioned in the Upperclass run-down.
The GBG Marucci team that won the PG/EvoShield Under two weeks ago (under the same “Navy” name that won the Upper) is back in full force with 11 D-I commitments from the class of 2016. Heck, this team would give its Upperclass brethren a good run for any tournament title.
Where to begin? 2016 prospects third baseman Spencer Steer (No. 39, Oregon) and shortstop Will Proctor (No. 237, Georgia) were the only GBG players to collect PG national championship rings as members of both the PG/EvoShield Upperclass and Underclass championship teams.
2016 right-hander Kevin Gowdy (No. 22, UCLA), 2016 right-hander/third baseman Tristan Duncan (No. 150, Oregon), 2017 catcher/infielder Adam Kerner (No. 126, U. of San Diego) and 2017 outfielder Johnny
Deluca (No. 136, Oregon) are also hard to miss in the GBG lineup.
But once again, just like in the Upperclass division, CBA Marucci not only lurks but towers. CBA’s underclass team boasts eight NCAA D-I commits and it’s a collection even more impressive than the one put forward by GBG – seven of its 2016 and 2017 prospects are ranked in the top-85 of their respective classes.
The most high-profile 2016s include outfielder Blake Rutherford (No. 3, UCLA), right-hander/third baseman Reggie Lawson (No. 18, uncommitted), catcher Blake Sabol (No. 28, uncommitted), outfielder/left-hander Dominic Fletcher (No. 44, Arkansas) and outfielder Josh Stephen (No. 47, Southern Cal). The top 2017s include middle-infielder Nick Allen (No. 13, Southern Cal), outfielder Garrett Mitchell (No. 28, UCLA) and right-hander Charles Nies (No. 85, uncommitted).
The San Diego Show are well represented at the PG Cali Underclass World Series with four prospects ranked in the top-50 in their respective classes and three with D-I commitments.
2016 outfielder Mickey Moniak leads the way (No. 13, UCLA) but close behind are 2017 shortstop Ben Ramirez (No. 15, Southern Cal), 2017 right-hander/first baseman Kyle Hurt (No. 30, Southern Cal) and 2017 shortstop Zach Sehgal (No. 50, uncommitted).