FORT MYERS, Fla. – Just moments after the East Cobb Astros had won their Sunday quarterfinal-round playoff game at the Perfect Game WWBA Underclass World Championship, head coach Kevin Baldwin made sure to deliver a special shout-out to his pitchers. The guys who had just labored through three playoff victories over the course of about eight hours on a very warm day in Southwest Florida.
The words of praise were not only much-deserved they were also spot-on, at least when it comes to giving credit where credit is due. That’s because while the Astros also happen to have some of the best hitters from the national class of 2023 on their Underclass World roster, it’s their pitching that has them playing into Championship Monday.
“Honestly, we’re all just trying to work as a team,” top 2023 right-hander Paul Farley told PG after the No. 1-seeded East Coast Astros held-off the determined No. 56-seeded 5 Star National 16u Black 9-3, in play Sunday at the JetBlue Park Player Development Complex. “We’re trying to get to the next person and we’re all trying to do our job to be there for the team and move on and go as far as we possibly can.”
And right now that’s Monday morning’s semifinal round, which will also be played at the JetBlue Park facility, the MLB Spring Training home of the Boston Red Sox. Try to start paying attention early. It should be quite a show.
In two premier pairings, the No. 1 East Cobb Astros (Georgia) face the No. 5 Canes National 17u (Virginia) in one of the semis, while the No. 27 Power Baseball 2023 Platinum (Florida) take on the No. 3 South Charlotte Panthers 2023 (North Carolina) in the other.
All four teams come in at 7-0-0 and this really could be a final-four for the ages, at least in the 20-year history of the WWBA Underclass World Championship.
The EC Astros seemed to be working on figurative cruise control the entire weekend, earning the top seed by outscoring their three pool-play opponents by a combined 19-0. They then won their first three playoff games by a run margin of 17-0, stretching their streak of consecutive shutouts to six games.
That is almost unheard of at an event with the stature of the WWBA Underclass World Championship. The quarterfinal victory, incidentally, came on the heels of 7-0 win over the Midland Braves on Saturday, and 8-0 and 2-0 victories over the No. 32 Canes Illinois-Gold and the No. 17 Knights Knation Baseball in the second and third rounds, respectively, on Sunday.
“We knew we had some good arms,” Baldwin told PG in perhaps the biggest understatement of the weekend. “They’re guys that have been in the program for a long time and we knew what they could do but anytime you throw six straight shutouts, that’s exceeding any expectation.
“We’ve just got to continue to play situational baseball on offense and make plays behind (the pitchers) and hopefully we’ll continue this run.”
The streak came to an end in the top of the second inning of the quarterfinal contest when the 5 Star National 16u Black plated a pair of unearned runs with Farley doing the pitching. He was still stellar, allowing just four hits and striking out five while walking one in five complete innings of work. It was, in fact, his second outing here and he’s thrown 10 innings in total, striking out 12, without allowing an earned run.
The bats were good against 5 Star, as well, with John Cooper Williams contributing a double, triple, two RBI and two runs. Dylan Cupp, a Mississippi State commit ranked No. 11 overall in the class of 2023, singled twice, drove in a run and scored one; Luke Dotson doubled, singled, drove in two and scored; Camden Wimbish singled with two RBI and a run and Jackson McKenzie doubled and scored.
Things really did click for the Astros over these first four days. The right-handers Tate McKee and Isaiah Mamea combined to throw 13 2/3 shutout innings and allowed just one hit apiece; McKee struck-out 11 in 7 2/3 frames while Mamea fanned nine in his six innings. The right-hander Wimbish and the lefty Jake Hembree each through four shutout innings.
Cupp and Cooper Williams have six hits apiece heading into Monday; Wimbish and Shawn Andrade have five each.
“I think everybody kind of feeds off of each other,” Baldwin said. “We came down really short-handed – we only had 10 or 11 position players to start with – so we’re down to just nine or 10 guys. We’ve just got to continue to grind and they know they’re going to be tired (but) hopefully they can build a little bit of adrenaline and keep playing well.”
The run the 5 Star National 16u Black made into the quarterfinals should not be ignored. It’s a very good team with a roster constructed entirely around prospects from the class of 2024 that had to overcome a pool-play loss just to get into the playoffs. The 16u Black even had to beat one of their own, the 5 Star Outlaws 2023, 3-2 in a battle of Nos. 56 and 57 seeds in a third-round pairing with a berth in the quarters on the line.
“I’m pretty excited that they haven’t really looked at the challenge of being in this event as too big,” head coach Brian Hoop told PG. “We’ve got a lot of really good players on the roster top to bottom and baseball’s baseball. You’ve got to throw it over the plate, you’ve got to catch it, you’ve got to hit it, so we’ve just kind of taken care of the basics really well. …
“They’ve been in World Wood Bat (WWBA) numerous times, they’ve been in these playoff games and you can see they’re still loose, they’re still enjoying the game. At the end of the day that’s what really
kind of helps them succeed.”
At the risk of letting hyperbole run wild, Monday’s semifinal pairing between the East Cobb Astros and the Canes National 17u could be borderline epic.
It pits teams representing two of the most successful and recognizable brands on the national travel-ball circuit over at least the last decade (East Cobb Baseball’s exploits date back much farther). The prospects wearing the Astros and Canes uniforms inevitably move on to accomplish great things in college or in the pros; there really will be no loser regardless of the outcome.
The numbers are similar. The Canes National 17u outscored their pool-play opponents by a combined 32-2 and their three playoff foes by an 18-2 margin. They beat a very solid Dirtbags 17u Camo club 4-1 in the quarters behind a combined nine-strikeout six-hitter from top 2023 left-hander Mason Yokum and ’23 righty Jonah Conradt.
It’s the type of challenge Baldwin knows his players will embrace, and his pregame message to them will be very simple: “Just continue to do what you’ve been doing and we’ll just coach accordingly.
“Eventually you’re going to run out of arms,” he added with a laugh. “We’re just going to keep putting them out there and hopefully they keep pitching well and we’ll see what happens.”
The uncommitted Farley, ranked No. 187 overall nationally, won’t be available but it’s certain Baldwin will have several suitable arms at his disposal despite his reference to eventually running out of pitching.
“We’re such a good team here and we all just love to hang out with each other,” Farley said. “It’s just great chemistry and honestly it’s just something fun to do. … It’s going to be more of the same. Just move on to the next person and everyone’s got to do their job: Throw strikes, get people out and move on inning-by-inning, out-by-out.”