EMERSON, Ga. – To be considered one of the top 13-and-under teams in the country is not something the Camp Hill, Pa.-based GoWags National team and head coach Kyle Wagner take for granted. And when it comes to being part of the exclusive 20-team field at this weekend’s 13u Perfect Game World Series, they feel downright honored.
Being invited to PG national championship tournament was the easy part. The hard part started Friday morning and continued into the early afternoon at Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint. That’s when the GoWags Nats had to prove to everyone in attendance they truly belonged in this elite field of 20.
As the day played out, the “hard part” turned out to not be all that difficult after all, at least relatively speaking. GoWags National started its day by dumping the Memphis (Tenn.) Tigers, 12-0 in five innings, and then got past Vision Baseball out of Olive Branch, Miss., 6-2. By the time Friday was in the history books, the ‘Wags were one of only a handful of teams that won both of their pool-play openers.
“If we play up to our potential I think we can play with everyone here, but I also know it will be very challenging; today was a good start,” Wagner told PG on Friday. “I think every out in our lineup is going to be a tough out. I think if there is an arm out there that can run through our lineup, that’s going to be a very talented arm. At some point (in every game) I’d like to think we can break through.
“We’re probably more offensive than we are defensive but we’re hoping we can find a way to piece it all together at the same time.”
GoWags National hit .353 (18-for-51) with four doubles and two triples in its opening wins, proving Wagner knows of what he speaks. 2020 Austin Hendrick from Pittsburg was 5-for-6 (.833) with a double, triple, two RBI and two runs scored; 2019 Liam Cleary from Hopewell, N.J. was 3-for-5 (.600) with a triple, five RBI and two runs; and 2020 Christian Kane from Bellmawr, N.J., doubled, drove in three runs and scored more three more.
The pitching staff also did its job on opening day. Wagner used six pitchers in the two wins and they combined to allow only one earned run in 12 innings (0.58 ERA) on seven hits. They struck out nine and walked eight, but that lack of command is generally to be expected with 13-year-olds throwing from 60-feet, 6-inches.
“Our expectations are to play well,” Wagner said. “Certainly, we can’t control who the other team throws out on the mound, and the game of baseball is obviously determined by who the pitcher is. … The expectations will go where ever they lead, but I think we’ll play well and I think we’ll be a challenge for teams.”
This is the first tournament this GoWags National roster has played together as a unit, although the team was brought together from two succinct groups. It combines seven Pennsylvania players from Wagner’s local team in Camp Hill, Pa., the GoWags Lumberkings, with six New Jersey ballplayers from a team called the Central Jersey Warriors.
A couple of acquaintances from Texas – 2019 David Taylor (Humble) and 2020 Robert Richardson (Kingwood) – were added to fill out the roster. Several of the GoWags Lumberkings players aren’t necessarily PG novices, either, having played in three PG Super25 regional events this summer.
Kyle Wagner has a son on the team, 2020 Luke Wagner, and the dad credits the son with doing a lot of the legwork in getting the team put together for this PG national championship tournament. Social media and good old word-of-mouth can be pretty powerful recruiting tools.
“When we assembled this team, we knew this was going to be the group that was going to play in this tournament, so we’ve been anticipating (the trip to) Georgia and we’ve been looking forward to it,” Kyle Wagner said. “But we haven’t played together yet, so today was day-one together.”
Wagner played collegiately at Wake Forest in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference in the early 1990s, and he even shared a baseball-related story with his young team after Friday’s game-two victory (one youngster, perhaps to Wagner’s dismay, said he had never heard of Wake Forest).
It is the coach’s hope that his experience playing at college baseball’s highest level might add some credibility to his words when he speaking to his young, teenaged played, possible lends to his credibility, but as any adult knows, that’s usually a hit-and-miss proposition.
But one thing Wagner is pretty sure about is that his players from Pennsylvania and New Jersey are bound to return home with some pretty special baseball lessons. For most – if not all – of them, this is their first experience playing against kids from other regions of the country.
Today’s modern world of non-stop social media seems to make all of these youngsters aware of each other, but nothing beats seeing them in person.
“Our guys from the Northeast are aware of Southern baseball and they follow a lot those guys … but to be among the 20 teams (at the 13u PGWS) and start to see some of those guys, it’s absolutely helpful,” Wagner said. “There’s definitely curiosity where they recognize names and they recognize faces.”
Having already beaten teams from Tennessee and Mississippi, it would appear the ‘Wags have made a statement to at least two of their distant cousins from the Southeast. On Saturday, they’ll face Baseball Northwest from Salem, Ore., before turning around for another Southeast matchup against the Florida Stealth from Del Ray Beach. The “hard part” never gets any easier.
The 13u PG World Series is GoWags National’s first experience at a PG national championship tournament. Wagner is hoping a strong showing here will ensure it is not the last.
“Perfect Game has definitely created a (tournament) model that people aspire to play in, and we’re no different,” he said. “Coming to Georgia is certainly a thrill for our guys and we’d like to play at this level as often as we can.”