FORT MYERS, Fla. – You can take the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship out of Jupiter, but you can’t take Jupiter’s Sunday-Funday out of the PG WWBA World Championship.
The first, second and quarterfinal rounds of bracket-play at the WWBA WC were contested at the Terry Park Sports Complex and the Lee County Player Development 5-Plex on Sunday and to say there were some surprises wouldn’t do justice to the day’s somewhat unexpected outcomes.
And even with this year’s PG national championship tournament moved from Florida’s Atlantic Coast to its Gulf Coast, the hundreds of MLB scouts – sans golf carts – and other observers were treated to the usual craziness as Sunday’s 32-team field was pared down to Monday’s final-four.
The Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9-seeded teams in the 32-team playoff field were not only eliminated during a full day of play but were sent packing after losses in Sunday morning’s first round. Yes, the first round.
The No. 1 East Coast Sox Founder’s Club? Gone. The No. 3 Canes National/Mets Scout Team? See ya. No. 4 FTB/SF Giants Scout Team and No. 5 Hit Factory Pro? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
And other pre-tournament favorites like the No. 15 Team Elite/Atlanta Braves Scout Team and the No. 7 ECB/Padres Scout Team – both boasting rosters stocked with 2020 PG All-Americans – also experienced early exits.
“Even though we lost, this has been the greatest experience of my life because these are my boys right here,” PG All-American and TE/Atlanta Braves ST shortstop and Vanderbilt commit Rob Gordon told PG. “I love them to death and it’s sad that we lost but I still have the love for them and I’ll see them around.”
Yes, defeat can be deflating but despite the setbacks suffered from some of the more high-profile teams in the bracket on Sunday we do have a final-four and if nothing else, this promises to be very entertaining come Monday morning.
On one side of the semifinal bracket sits the Virginia-based No. 16 Canes 17u Prospects (5-1-0) taking on the No. 13 GBG Navy 2021 (5-0-1) out of Southern California. The other side features an all-Florida pairing with the No. 22 Scorpions Marucci Franchise Team (5-1-0) going up against No. 10 Power Baseball 2021.
Despite the early first round upsets, there was more than one instance when the pairings in the later rounds matched the seedings, including the intriguing quarterfinal matchup between No. 10 Power Baseball 2021 and the No. 2 South Charlotte Panthers.
The Power 2021 trailed 4-0 after only one inning into this thing but rallied for a 5-4 victory after scoring three runs in the top of the third and a game-clinching two in the top of the seventh.
They used two one-out walks, a one-out single from Mason Wilson and a one-out, two-run double from Mac Omalley to stage the comeback win. 2021 righty Reid Sondermeyer worked six shutout, four-hit, four-strikeout innings in relief to pick up the win and send the Power dancing into Monday.
“Obviously we’re ecstatic to be here right now; this is the farthest we’ve ever made it at this event,” Power Baseball 2021 coach Jesse Marlo said Sunday. “This is only our second year (at the WWBA WC) as a program so to be able to get this far in year two is really a big step for us, a big milestone. But obviously we’re not happy just being here, we want to continue to keep this thing going.”
The Power earned its No. 10 seeding by finishing 3-0-0 in pool-play and outscoring those three opponents by a combined 20-7. They beat No. 23 Team Elite National 4-0 in a first round game Sunday and then topped the No. 24 Ontario Blue Jays 2021, 6-4, in the second round. 2022 top-500 lefthander Isaac Sewell delivered a complete game one-hitter, striking out five in the win over TE National.
The Power’s roster features a nice blend of upperclass and underclass talent led by 2021s shortstop Justin Colon (No. 90 nationally ranked, Missouri commit), right-hander/first baseman Bryce Braxton (t-500, Florida Atlantic) and outfielder Kyle Manitz (t-500, Stetson).
The roster is ripe with class of 2022 talent including third baseman Ben Barrett (No. 243, Florida State), middle-infielder Greg Pettay (No. 310, UCF) and catcher Riley Parker (t-500, UCF). Shortstop/third baseman Braden Holcomb (No. 9, Vanderbilt) and outfielder Dallas Dale II (No. 117, Alabama) head a 2023 class that bodes very well for the future.
“It’s a very good mix; it’s about 50-50, so I think that’s helped us a lot,” Marlo said of the upper/underclass roster split. “Our older guys, they’ve got that blue-collar, grinder-type attitude. But the biggest thing, I don’t care what age these guys are, I’d put our defense on the infield up there against anybody.”
He’s talking about a foursome that includes Colon at short, Barrett or Holcomb at third and Pettay at second. Those are guys that not only already have D-I tickets in their pocket but could get some consideration in the MLB Draft when their time comes.
“It’s going to be hard to find a group better than that,” Marlo said of the players he can spread out in the middle and to the left side of the infield. “If we continue to throw strikes and get ground-ball outs we should be fine. That’s what we’ve continued to stress to our pitchers.
“It doesn’t matter if we don’t have guys throwing 95 miles an hour. You can be 84-86 and if you can throw three pitches, work it in-and-out and just get us our ground balls we’ll be fine.”
One of the pure joys over the last 11 Octobers for one veteran PG note-taker has been the opportunity to spend a few minutes chatting with South Charlotte Panthers founder/owner/head coach Don Hutchins.
Hutchins comes across as one of the more genuine guys to have ever spent time in the various dugouts in Jupiter, Fla., over the past 20 years and this year in Fort Myers while guiding his Panthers teams to win after win.
“It’s so good to see you,” was the greeting Hutchins provided from the Lee County Player Development Complex late Sunday afternoon after his Panthers team had picked-up yet another playoff victory at the WWBA WC. “This means we’ve done something good or one of my coaches got thrown out, I don’t know – one or the other.”
The reason for a chat has always been because the Panthers have done something good and their run this year was no exception. They took a lead into the top of the seventh against the Power and needed just three outs to move into Monday’s final-four; it was not to be.
Like Power Baseball 2021, South Charlotte’s roster is a perfect blend of upper and underclassmen featuring top 2021 catcher/corner-infielder/right-hander Jacob Cozart (No. 118, N.C. State), 2022 right-hander/infielder Eli Jerzembeck (No. 23, South Carolina), 2022 infielder Logan Wagner (No. 90, Louisville) and 2023 outfielder Walker Jenkins (No. 10, North Carolina).
“We have a very small, kind of a boutique little program,” Hutchins said. “We have three teams: a ‘23 team, a ‘22 team and a ‘21 team and those teams stay together for three years. We’ll lose a kid here or gain a kid there but not very much and most of them come from the Carolinas and the greater Charlotte area – maybe a 200-mile radius.”
So it is the Power 2021 that moves on and Marlo and the program’s other coaches are liking what they’re seeing from their guys so far. It could very well be impossible to pick a favorite from this final-four but the Canes and GBG programs have been semifinalists in the past, just not with these particular teams.
Again, it is the very unexpected nature of events that makes playoff Sunday at the PG WWBA World Championship such a playoff Funday. Can GBG, the Canes and Scorpions draw on the history of their programs to find some magic come Monday? Can the newcomer Power Baseball 2021 power itself to a championship?
“The guys are just playing great baseball,” Marlo said. “They’ve done everything we’ve asked, they’re playing team baseball, they’re having team at-bats, they’re throwing strikes, they’re bunting when we need to bunt.
“I don’t want to jinx it right now, but they’re basically playing flawless baseball. We’ve got to continue to keep that up, obviously, especially when you get to this point in the game.”