EMERSON, Ga. – Back in January 2013, a team of 13- and 14-year-olds from the Phoenix area playing under the name T-Rex Baseball Club proved it could win while doing duty on the pristine and neatly manicured MLB Cactus League spring training fields in some of the players’ home cities of Glendale, Peoria and Goodyear.
This week, more than 1,800 miles to the east, this group of 15- and 16-year-olds playing under the slightly amended name of AZ T-Rex Baseball Club, is looking to show one and all it can win on the immaculate, all-synthetic turf fields at Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint here in the northwest Atlanta suburbs.
AZ T-Rex BC is one of 25 elite teams playing in the 16u Perfect Game World Series, which kicked off pool-play Saturday morning and will conclude its five-day run with the championship game Wednesday morning. Monday’s eight-team playoff bracket will be filled with the five pool champions and three at-large entrants.
Competing at high-level PG tournament events is nothing new for the AZ T-Rex BC players and coaches, it’s just that they don’t often do it this far from home. What is basically this same group did play at last year’s 15u PG World Series in Fort Myers, Fla., where it finished 3-1-1 in pool-play but didn’t advance to the playoffs. The players welcome the opportunity they’ve been given to improve on that Florida showing here in the tree-covered hills of north-central Georgia.
“We’re a really good ball club,” T-Rex top 2017 outfielder/first baseman Blake Paugh said Saturday morning. “I think we’re going to do real well out here and be able to compete very well; I feel like we’re just as good as everyone else out here.” He also noted: “This our first time here checking out this complex and it’s really cool. I really like the all-turf fields and everything else; it’s just really neat.”
One of his teammates, 2017 right-hander/corner-infielder Matt Schroer, was quick to jump on that wagon: “It’s great to get out of the 110-degree heat (in Arizona) and come here to LakePoint; it’s probably the best complex in the country,” he said. “Just being in this atmosphere and around all these great teams, it’s going to be awesome.”
Paugh singled and drove in a pair of runs as part of T-Rex’s impressive 7-1 tournament-opening victory over the New Jersey-based Tri-State Arsenal early Saturday afternoon. The Arsenal captured the championship at the 16u PG WWBA National Championship right here at LakePoint a couple of weeks ago and are looking for their second PG national championship of the summer.
2017 second baseman Zach Baptist also singled and drove in a pair for T-Rex in their opener, and third baseman Jacob Gonzalez and middle-infielder Andrew Swift – also 2017s – each doubled and drove in a run. 2016 right-hander Zane Strand allowed one earn run while scattering seven hits and striking out seven in 6 2/3 innings of work to pick up the win.
It was a good start for a team that feels like it just might have a little something to prove when it gets out of its own neighborhood.
“You want to come out here and not only represent T-Rex well but your family and, of course, the whole region and the state of Arizona,” head coach Rex Gonzalez said Saturday. “Even though Arizona is a warm-weather state it doesn’t seem like it gets as much recognition as some of the other states … but we still feel like we can compete and we have a good opportunity here to showcase our talents.”
AZ T-Rex BC does not, in fact, have anything to prove. This is largely the same “homegrown” team that won the championship at the 2013 14u Perfect Game MLK Championship and then finished third at the 2014 16u PG West Memorial Day Classic. In January, the T-Rexer’s won the 16u PG MLK Championship with a 6-0-0 record and then made a huge age-group jump and finished third at 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic in late May. All of those tournaments were played in the west Phoenix suburbs.
Five players (all in the class of 2017) here this week were named to the 18u PG West Memorial Day Classic all-tournament team: Jacob Gonzalez; outfielder/first baseman Tyler Stokes; infielder Scott Mehan; right-hander/corner-infielder Boyd Vander Kooi; and outfielder Gianni Tomasi.
Perhaps not surprisingly, that rundown includes a lot of the T-Rexer’s highest ranked national prospects. Vander Kooi, an Oregon commit, is ranked No. 50, Gonzalez is at No. 177, Mehan ranks No. 339 and Stokes comes in at No. 357.
Additionally, Paugh ranks No. 57 nationally in the 2017 class and Schroer, a Louisiana State commit, is at No. 119. 2016 first baseman/right-hander Mitchell Allen, a San Diego State commit, is ranked a top-500 prospect in his class.
“We’re a close-knit team and we’re all best friends on and off the field,” Paugh said. “We’re just ‘bros’ everywhere we go and it’s just real cool having a second family like this. Even during the school year we find ways to text and hang out on the weekends. Sometimes we’ll even go out and hit some BP and things like that.” Schroer both echoed and expounded on those thoughts:
“This is a very close-knit group – everyone’s buds – and we have good chemistry and work well together,” he said. “We just want to enjoy the fun experience of being here at LakePoint playing against all these great teams. We’re playing against the best kids in the country and everybody needs to learn and get better; nobody’s perfect.”
Rex Gonzalez founded the T-Rex Baseball Club four years ago with the cooperation and blessing of his brother, four-time MLB All-Star Luis Gonzalez, who doubles as the father of Jacob Gonzalez. Jake, who was 12-years-old when the team came together, gets the credit for coming up with the “T-Rex” name.
Over the last four years, the one thing Rex Gonzalez – who played three seasons in the minor leagues – has never tired of is the teaching aspect of this gig. He was doing a lot more of it when the core of this team was 13-years-old than he might be doing now, but he still gets great satisfaction out of interacting with that core group – “my homegrown kids.” That makes having them here all the more special.
“This is a good opportunity for our kids that we’ve homegrown a little bit to come out and face the best; we welcome the challenge and we’re looking forward to it,” Gonzalez said. “I always have high expectations – I’ve never gone into a game where they keep score and hope that we just do well. We always want to end up with one more run than the other guys at the end of seven (innings). If we don’t come out here ready to win, I’m not quite sure why we even suit-up.”
The players, of course, want to win very badly. Schroer shared that he feels the T-Rexer’s have a good enough team to win this PG national championship and because it’s done its share of winning the past, the players’ confidence level is as high as any team in the field. And then there is always the side-note of defending that desert pride.
“We’re the only team out of Arizona so we’re trying to represent our state pretty well out here,” Paugh said. “Every kid here is pretty good – they’re the elite of the elite – and you try to see what they’re doing and maybe they’ll help you learn some things.”
Rex Gonzalez is proud of the way the program has grown without sacrificing any of its ideals. He likes the way the kids have responded to what he and his staff have tried to teach them on a daily basis, and while everyone wants to win, in his mind – at least for players this age – the single most important thing for them to consider in terms of their play is doing the little things correctly. And, of course, have a lot of fun while doing it.
“I hope they can know how they measure-up against their peers and what they have to work on,” he said. “If they do well here, they need to just continue doing what we’re already doing in order to stay at the top. Everybody is always trying to knock somebody off; that’s just the way baseball works.”
There is another reward that walks hand-in-hand with watching these AZ T-Rex BC players grow older and develop their games. College coaches and recruiters are starting to show up in pretty impressive numbers at the team’s games, and that helps Gonzalez feel like maybe he might be doing something that’s heading these young guys in the right direction.
“Some of these kids are going to hopefully move on to bigger and better things after playing for T-Rex and Perfect Game,” Gonzalez said with a laugh. “Hopefully they do well in college and maybe get a cup of coffee or something in pro ball. This is really just a stepping stone toward some of these kids’ milestones.”
AZ T-Rex Baseball Club as proven it can advance to bracket-play at the 14u-, 15u-, 16u- and even the 18u-level while playing in some pretty prestigious PG tournaments, but all that playoff action came on beautiful playing fields in their desert backyards.
Saturday morning, Rex Gonzalez praised not only his team’s efforts and their desire to win a PG tournament championship while playing on the eastern side of the United States, but also offered a thumbs-up to PG Park South at LakePoint.
“Obviously, they did what’s right for the kids and the fans,” Gonzalez said. “Whoever built this had everybody’s thoughts in mind when they built it. We’re excited to come out here and face great competition and see how we measure up with our peers.”