MARION, Iowa – With the easily recognizable gold block “C” on their caps and the script “Canes” scrawled across their chests, the players on the Canes Midwest team competing this weekend at the Perfect Game WWBA 15u Midwest Elite Championship couldn’t help but exude an air of confidence.
They gathered Friday morning at the Prospect Meadows Sports Complex just north of here ready to live up to the expectations that wearing the “Canes” name brings while also being fully aware of the challenges that lie in store as they take on this strong 36-team field. That name and that logo can serve to represent one big black-and-gold target.
“I feel that way a lot, especially when we get to the games we’re always facing somebody’s best (pitcher),” Canes Midwest 2024 catcher/infielder Hogan Denny told PG on Friday, referencing the target analogy. “But at the end of the day I feel like that if we just play our (game) the target really doesn’t mean much just as long as we play to the best of our ability as a team.”
Denny’s teammate, 2024 catcher/first baseman JT Stiner, shared the same thoughts: “Having that ‘C’ on our hat, it’s just another bullseye,” he told PG. “It will help (get us up) against the better competition and it will make us better in the end.”
The work is just beginning for this 15u team, although the Canes made it look easy in a 15-0, three-inning drubbing of the Rawlings Tigers Quad Cities in their tournament opener. They totaled just six hits (to go with eight walks) in the win, with nationally No. 298-ranked 2024 right-hander/outfielder Jack Brown contributing a pair of singles and scoring twice.
“I’m excited to see what these other teams are (like); it’s been awhile since I’ve played with a travel team,” Brown said. “I’m excited to be playing out here.”
2024 infielder/right-hander Luke Jackson doubled, drove in two runs and scored another, while ’23 infielder/righthander Luke Harmon contributed a single, two RBI and a run; ’23 righty/third-baseman Jobe Smith singled, drove in a run and scored.
The fivesome of Stiner, Noah Coy, Casen Murphy, Josh Ferguson and Tyler Inge went a combined 0-for-5 but got on base often enough to combine for four RBI and eight runs scored.
PG ranks Denny and Smith as top-1,000 prospects in the 2024 class, an age-group that scouts are just starting to put in clearer focus. 2023 infielder Cooper Thompson is ranked as a “high follow” while Inge comes in as a “follow.”
“We have very good camaraderie between all of us; we interact very well,” JT Stiner said. “That chemistry will probably help us in the long term and help us win in the future. … I’m really excited to actually have most of our team back and we’ll be able to compete better now. We’ve just got to lock-in mentally and we’ll be fine.”
Canes Midwest fits comfortably under the expansive umbrella of Fredericksburg, Va.-based Canes Baseball, one of the nation’s most prominent and prestigious travel ball organizations with its flagship Canes National and Canes American programs.
It is one of the organization’s flourishing regional affiliates with this particular 15u entrant based in Westfield, Ind.; its roster is built almost exclusively with Indiana high school players from the class of 2024.
Due to its proximity, the Canes Midwest spend a lot of time playing locally at the Grant Park Sports Campus, a complex in Westfield, Ind., which boasts 26 baseball fields.
“None of us had been here to this facility so we were looking forward to coming over to a new (park),” head coach Rick Stiner, TJ’s dad, told PG on Friday. “Having 26 diamonds right in your backyard you don’t get to get out much to Perfect Game events but we’re actually planning on playing in three Perfect Game events this year. We’re wanting to explore and get out a little more in the Perfect Game world rather than just hanging out in the Indiana world.”
Rick Stiner, who coached the Indiana Bulls 2024 Black to a final-four finish at the 2020 PG 14u World Series, acknowledges there are some solid young prospects on this Canes Midwest team but was quick to add – with a smile – that at this age “prospects are still suspects.”
It is the job of he and his assistant coaches to prepare these young players for the game beyond high school and to that end Stiner has assembled a pretty impressive staff, including three members that played professionally during their careers:
Brandon Inge, an All-Star third baseman for the Detroit Tigers who played all or parts of 13 big-league seasons and is Tyler Inge’s dad. Derek Root spent seven seasons in the minor leagues and Stiner himself was minor-leaguer for two seasons.
“Our job is to prepare them for the next level and teach them how to play the game the right way,” Stiner said. “Hopefully then scouts will see their tools and they’ll also understand that they’re coming from a good organization that has taught them to play the game the right way.”
The annual assessment of a specific travel ball team can be difficult because each year features a different team with a different chemistry and makeup. Stiner did get a good look at this group while playing recently in a non-PG tournament in the Atlanta-area where it went up against several prominent teams from the Southeast.
“These guys seem to be gritty; they have good baseball IQs,” Coach Stiner said. “They play the game the right way but at the same time, I demand that. We do have a lot of talent that colleges are interested in … and the competition here is going to be really good. The facility is great and the competition will be great so it will be a great weekend.”
There are challenges for every coaching staff at these four-day tournaments, especially when it comes to following the MLB Pitch Smart guidelines. For a team like the Canes Midwest 15u which arrived harboring the goal of leaving with the championship, coaches have to almost work backwards from where they want to be: playing in the final game on Monday.
That’s the expectation and as Coach Stiner told PG, one of the team’s sayings is “We’re in it to win it.” To follow through, the coaches need to do a good job of managing both the pitching staff and the every-day lineup just to put these guys in the best position to win – and then win again.
“I want to hit the ball hard and throw strikes when I pitch,” the two-way prospect Brown said of his approach entering the event. “We’re going to try our best to win, play hard and give our effort every single game we play. Hit it hard, make the plays we need to in the field, and no walks.”
That was a message Brown has obviously heard repeatedly from his head coach. Stiner told PG early Friday that regardless of the level at which you’re playing the game, the mantra “walks and errors kill” rings as loud as a Mississippi State’s fan cowbell. “If we can keep our walks and errors down, we’ll bang the ball around the yard; we’ll score some runs,” he said.
The top-1,000 Denny did sound a cautionary tone, however: “We can’t look at a team and take them lightly; it’s just playing every team like it’s the best team in the country. Just taking every game serious and playing to the best of our ability.”
And with that, these kids from Indiana will continue to carry themselves in a way that will make the Canes Baseball organization proud with the hope of maybe one day moving through the ranks to join the powerhouse Canes National and Canes American programs.
The most pressing order of business at the moment is taking home the title at the PG WWBA 15u Midwest Elite Championship so they can fly that Canes banner high over the surrounding Northeast Iowa farm fields.
“I think at this age they definitely understand that it’s an honor to wear this ‘C’ and to be affiliated with one of the best organizations in travel baseball; I think there’s a lot of pride in it,” Coach Stiner said. “There are a lot of guys that traveled a long distance to play on this team (and) if it wasn’t an honor they wouldn’t make that commitment; their parents wouldn’t spend that time and money to do that. So I think they all understand it’s a huge honor to be able to be affiliated with the Canes.”