JUPITER, Fla. – As the 16-team playoff field was determined late Sunday afternoon at the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship, an interesting question surrounded one of the 16 finalists. At what point is a team that is annually described as a “surprise” team finally not considered a surprise any longer?
The Reds Midwest Scout Team completed pool-play Sunday afternoon with a 4-0 record and earned a spot in the playoffs for the third time in four years at the elite 85-team 16th annual extravaganza.
Every year, the team put together by Cincinnati Reds Midwest scouting supervisor Andy Stack comes into this event with a head of steam usually built by championships or top-four finishes at the PG WWBA Kernels Foundation Championship qualifying tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Yet every year there are folks that are surprised to see them in the playoffs.
What makes that sense of surprise even more questionable is that in 2011 and 2013 the Reds MWST not only earned a playoff berth but advanced all the way to Monday’s semifinal round before bowing out with style and class.
“It was a long time before we really broke through,” Stack said Sunday. “Obviously, the competition is top-shelf and we made the playoffs for the first time back in 2006 … and since then we’ve had some pretty good success.
“This is the best event in the world,” he added. “We gear our whole fall for this and I think some of the success we’ve had is attributed to that. These kids really come together as a team and play hard for each other and I just try to stay out of their way.”
The second-round playoff pairings are pre-determined as far as which two pool champions will meet – there is only one first-round or “play-in” game – and this year’s draw didn’t do the Reds MWST any favors. They were scheduled to play the intimidating Orlando Scorpions/Mets Scout Team in a playoff opener early Sunday evening.
That was of no consequence early Sunday afternoon however, as a team with only two players back from the 2013 final-four team looked forward to another deep playoff run.
“It’s exciting being back down here, seeing some of the kids we played against the whole summer and fall,” 2015 middle-infielder Cole Daily, one of those returning players, said. “It’s good being back with the team just playing all this good competition and hopefully getting a shot at making a run again.”
The other returning player and another 2015 middle-infielder, Ethan Skender, is the prospect around which this team’s success this fall has revolved. Skender is a 5-foot-11, 170-pound Kansas State recruit from Metamora, Ill., who is ranked 281st nationally, just behind the ranking of Daily, a Notre Dame commit from Springfield, Ill., who comes in at No. 202.
“Being back here is definitely an advantage for me and Cole,” Skender said. “Last year was just an amazing run, and having everyone on this team reaching for the same goal I think we can make just as good of a run if not win it all. We definitely have the talent and we’re definitely a really good working team and there’s no reason we can’t win it all.”
Stack bases the Reds Midwest Scout Team in Milwaukee but 19 of its 24 roster spots are filled by prospects from Illinois with only one from Wisconsin. That is a reflection of the area that Stack scouts for the Reds.
Skender and Daily rank among the top 2015s on the team and are joined by outfielders Joshua Stowers (No. 170) and Chris Botsoe (No. 273), both Louisville commits hitting better than .333 after four games here. The top 2016s are right-hander Anthony Holubecki (No. 36, Notre Dame), catcher Cooper Johnson (No. 103, Ole Miss) and third baseman/right-hander Cal Coughlin (No. 194). All of those players are from Illinois.
Rankings aside, any discussion of this roster has to start with Skender. He was named the Most Valuable Player after the Reds MWSCT won the PG WWBA Central Labor Day Classic championship held in the Des Moines area, and repeated as MVP after the Reds MWST won their third PG WWBA Kernels Foundation Championship since 2009 a couple of weeks later (they were runner-up at the Kernels in 2010 and 2012).
Should the Reds MWST make another trip to Monday’s final four and Skender stays hot, he may be in the running for a third MVP. After the four pool-play victories he was 5-for-9 (.556) with a home run, double, seven RBI and five runs scored.
“Ethan Skender has done a great job driving in runs when he gets his opportunities and in the first three games he’s always been up when we needed him,” Stack said. “He finds the barrel more than a lot of kids that we’ve ever had. It’s not the most orthodox swing, but he’s got a really good feel for the barrel and he’s got some strength and some bat-speed and when he gets it, it comes off the bat.
“He’s finding ways to getting good counts and hitting pitches that he can handle. If you asked me right now who I’d want up with the game on the line it would be him.”
Skender, in a colossal understatement, added: “I’ve been seeing the ball really well this fall.”
The Reds MWST rolled into last year’s semifinal round behind the big bat of Evan Skoug, who earned MVP honors despite not playing in the championship game, a rare occurrence, indeed. The group here this weekend is different.
“This year’s club has some speed at the top of the lineup so we’re able to play a little bit more small-ball,” Stack said. “We don’t’ have that big-banger like Evan Skoug last year who is going to carry us with his bat. For me as a manager, it’s kind of fun to play the speed game – put some stuff on, get some guys moving, put some pressure on some teams.
“I don’t think we’re as prone to some non-run-scoring slumps as the team was last year,” he continued. “If we didn’t hit home runs and drive doubles into the gaps we couldn’t really run to score. With this team, they say speed doesn’t slump and at times they’ve showed that.”
The players are certainly having fun playing this style of baseball. The Reds MWST stole 15 bases in their first four games – Skender swiped six – with six players stealing at least one. What’s even more fun is an event this can also be about forging new friendships while all that winning is going on.
“It’s been really good meeting the new kids on this year’s team and becoming close with them and getting to know them,” Daily said, “and we’ve been winning. We’ve been getting hits at the right time and if we’re down late in the game we’re never out of it. We always find a way to come back and win and we always make the play during a key situation; we just find a way to win.
“We’re all real close and we know how to play together. We all just want to be out here and we want to play and we want to keep winning for each other and just keep having fun.”
Skender agrees with his teammate that this team has been built by Stack to compete at a high level at the highest level events.
“We’ve played with each other a ton of games this fall,” Skender said. “Some of these other teams are all-star teams thrown together (but) we’ve been together for a couple of months and I think that’s a huge advantage for us. I think we’re a really good team and we work together really well as a team and I think that’s going to help in the long run.
“We just like to have fun and we just play loose,” he added. “Coach Stack is definitely not the coach to yell – he will get on you if you do something stupid but I can’t blame him for that – and he wants us to play loose and have fun and it’s really the only way you can play.”
“Every team is different, every team has been fun to coach,” Stack said. “We’ve had great teams personality-wise but this team is as fun of a group as I’ve had. They’re loose, they know they’re pretty good and they’re fun to be around.”
Stack asks only that his players arrive in South Florida ready to play hard and prepared to show their polished skills in front of the hundreds of scouts and college recruiters. He wants them to enjoy themselves in this big-league environment but still remember everything they learned while winning the championships at the PG WWBA Central Labor Day Classic and the PG WWBA Kernels Foundation Championship.
“This team expects to win,” Skender said. “Just like last year we came out expecting to win and we got the job done. It’s going to be a tough run but I really think we can do it with this team and I think we’re going to continue to win; that’s our mindset and I think we can really do it.”
The Reds Midwest Scout Team is no longer the “surprise” team at the PG WWBA World Championship. Stack gets them out on the field for six straight weekends in September and October, playing games and winning PG WWBA championships.
He can also use the time to monitor his youthful prospects in the event that one day his employer might want to get them to sign on the dotted line.
“For my job with the Reds it’s invaluable to see these guys play week-in and week-out, and to see how they handle success and failure,” Stack said, “and to see how they treat their teammates and how they treat their parents and how they react to us as coaches. That’s the main goal.
“The secondary benefit I get out of it is I get to see these kids make life-long friends and learn the game of baseball, and come out to the best event in the world and see how they do.”