GOODYEAR, Ariz. – The thought of entering his Baseball Performance Academy (BPA) DeMarini Elite squad in last weekend’s Perfect Game/EvoShield Underclass National Championship was never considered by head coach Jared Sandler.
Despite the fact that 70 percent of the team’s roster spots are filled with high school sophomores (class of 2017), Sandler had no doubts the team belonged at this weekend’s PG/EvoShield Upperclass National Championship. The group has always performed well beyond its years.
“We want to play the best competition all the time,” Sandler told PG early Sunday afternoon. “As much as it’s nice to win tournaments, we always try to play ‘up’ and compete as hard as we can.”
Thanks to three dazzling starts from three of its ultra-talented 2017 arms and a “quality” start from one of the few 2015s on the roster, BPA DeMarini Elite zipped through pool-play with a 3-0 mark, earned the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye in the 21-team playoffs and then cruised to a comfortable win in a second-round playoff game Sunday.
Only a quarterfinal contest against No. 5 GBG Orange County (Anaheim, Calif.) late Sunday afternoon stood between BPA DeMarini Elite and a date in Monday morning’s semifinals.
“We’re young and we’re just trying to take it game by game, but we’ve played well so far,” Sandler said before his team took the field against the 20th-seeded CBA Bulldogs in that second-round playoff game on a Cleveland Indians’ spring training practice field at the Goodyear BallPark Complex.
“We have four really good 2017 pitchers so, really, we just try to take it game by game, get a quality start (and) take care of the ball the best we can.”
BPA DeMarini Elite, based in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., reached the quarterfinals thanks in large part to three suburb starting pitching outings:
2017 left-hander Jack Owen (Laguna Hill, Calif.) threw five innings of two-hit, shutout ball in a 5-0 win over Canyon Thunder Purple (Phoenix) in the team’s first pool-play game; 2017 right-hander Hagen Danner (Huntington Beach, Calif.) threw a complete game, two-hit shutout in a 4-0 win over Slammers North-Malkin (Broomfield, Colo.) in the second pool-play game; and 2017 righty Hans Crouse (Dana Point, Calif.) scattered five hits and allowed one run over six innings while striking out 10 in a 7-1 playoff win over the Bulldogs (Temecula, Calif.).
“This is a lot of fun with the really good competition we’ve been playing,” Danner said Sunday. “We’re the four-seed but we’re going to have to play some tough teams to get through this. … We play such good teams and every player we see are mostly top-line high school players, and it’s great playing such good competition.
“We’re very hard-working,” he said of his own team. “We work together – we’re really good team players – and that’s how we get it done.”
As good as the 2017 arms were through the first four games, a lot of the heavy lifting at the plate was being done by a couple of 2015s. Infielder/outfielder Jay Schuyler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) was 6-for-10 (.600) with three doubles, two RBI and six runs scored; third baseman/right-hander Zach Wolf (Dana Point, Calif.) was 5-for-8 (.625) with a pair of doubles. Wolf also pitched eight innings in two appearances, allowing four earned runs (2.62 ERA) on 11 hits with 11 strikeouts.
Owen, Danner and Crouse are three of six BPA DeMarini Elite 2017 prospects ranked in the top 162 nationally: Danner, a right-hander/catcher, comes in at No. 2; left-hander/outfielder Nicholas Pratto (Huntington Beach, Calif.) at No. 10; Crouse at No. 37; catcher/utility Tyler Lasch (Lake Forest, Calif.,) at No. 48; shortstop Isaiah Parra (Stanton, Calif.) at No. 66; Owen at No. 162.
Crouse, Lasch and Owen have all committed to Mississippi State; Pratto is a Southern Cal commit.
“These guys are really serious about their baseball,” Sandler said. “They play hard, they practice hard; this is what they want to do, they want to be baseball players. Some of them are committed to (colleges) already so their big focus is just getting better. They love to play and they play hard.”
Many of these same players were on the BPA DeMarini Elite squad that won the PG WWBA 16u National Championship in Emerson, Ga., in July; Danner was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and was named co-MV Pitcher.
A lot of this roster was also on hand when BPA Team DeMarini 2017 finished runner-up at the 2013 16u West Memorial Day Classic played here in the West Valley, losing to the So Cal Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning in the championship game.
“If we would have played in the (14u West Memorial Day) we probably would have come out OK, but we got second and we played six or seven really good games,” Sandler said. “That’s what we try and do here. … It’s better for us to come here and compete the younger kids have to play a better game when they’re playing guys that are older and more physical.”
Added Pratto: “Playing on varsity last year (as freshmen), me and Hagen, this is all we’re going to face the rest of our high school careers. We might as well just stay at this level and keep getting better and progress.”
The Mississippi State connection first developed when a couple of prospects who were playing for Sandler with Team Rawlings California at the 2012 PG WWBA 17u National Championship – catcher Gavin Collins and shortstop Dale Burdick – were being recruited by the Bulldogs and head coach John Cohen. Since those two committed to Cohen, more of Sandler’s players have followed.
“There are a lot of great colleges and we have guys that are UCLA and Oregon and USC and a lot of other places,” Sandler said. “We don’t push guys in one direction or another but (Mississippi State has a) great program and a lot of our guys are interested in being there.”
As this was being written Sunday afternoon, BPA DeMarini still faced some unfinished business. To a young prospect like Pratto continued success required nothing more than duplicating what had already been accomplished.
“We’ve been getting on base; we’ve been taking (extra) bags. We’ve had really good situational hitting and it’s really just like small ball: bunting, moving runners over, stealing bases, driving runners in – just great baseball,” he said.
“The competition is great; everybody we’ve played has been good. Even if you don’t know the team, as long as they’re out here you know they’re going to be good. Being the number-four seed, we just have to come out and just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
And Sandler could already take a lot of pride in what in his largely underclass team had accomplished the PG national championship upperclass event.
“This has been a great test,” he said. “The Perfect Game tournaments are run real well, the competition is great and really has been a great test. We know we have a tough road ahead of us, but we’ll take it game by game and play hard; these are great events.”