GLENDALE, Ariz. – The CBA Marucci family tree first established its roots in the summer and fall of 2014 when a Perfect Game national championship-caliber team consisting of elite class of 2015 prospects and representing the California Baseball Academy started making some noise in PG’s West Coast tournaments.
The tree really branched out this past summer when a different CBA Marucci team stocked with premier class of 2016 talent captured the 17u PG WWBA National Championship in Emerson, Ga., and won 16 straight PG national championship tournament games before losing in the semifinals at the 17u PG World Series in Goodyear, Ariz.
Now, with a lot of winning having taken place before them, it’s time for the CBA Marucci 2017s to enter stage-left and carry the banner into the fall and the summer of 2016.
Temecula, Calif.-based CBA Marucci is one of 78 teams fighting for Perfect Game national championship rings at this weekend’s PG/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass) with games being played here at the Camelback Ranch Complex and to the southwest at the Goodyear (Ariz.) BallPark Sports Complex.
These Southern California high school juniors and seniors came into this tournament with a sense of both purpose and pride, looking forward to not only maintaining a culture of winning within the organization while also continuing to appreciate how special it is just to slip on the CBA jersey.
“Wearing CBA across my chest is honestly the most important thing about being out here,” standout 2017 middle-infielder Tyler Freeman said Saturday morning. “I’m here to represent CBA the right way and the best way possible, and that’s the most important thing.”
He added that he also hopes to play to the absolute best of his ability over the tournament’s four-day run: “If I do great, that’s great; if I don’t, I’ll come back the next game and try to better.”
It’s that sort of approach that has already led this underclass CBA Marucci team to some notable successes. In July, when the upper-class CBA Marucci squad won the 17u PG WWBA National Championship, this team finished 6-1-2 after a loss in the third-round of the playoffs at the 16u PG WWBA National Championship, also played in Emerson.
After that performance, CBA founder and head coach Jon Paino saw a lot of the same positive attributes in this team of 2017s that he had noticed with great satisfaction in his previous rosters of 2015s and 2016s.
“Those two groups really kind of embody the way we play; embody our values on the field as a program,” Paino said Saturday. “This ’17 group, in coming together and really jelling as a group, I think in Georgia this summer they proved they can be a national-type contending team.
“These guys are going to be right there with the last two groups we’ve had and I don’t think we’re going to miss a beat.”
This CBA Marucci roster features 14 class of 2017 prospects ranked in the top-600 nationally, six of whom have already committed to elite NCAA Division I programs. Freeman, a 6-foot, 170-pound middle-infielder from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., headlines the group with his No. 72 national ranking and his commitment to national power Texas Christian University (TCU) of the Big 12 Conference.
Other top 2017 prospects on the roster – although not all of them are here this weekend -- include infielder Ben Ramirez from Chula Vista, Calif. (No. 78 nationally, Southern Cal recruit); right-hander/first baseman Charlie Nies from Colo De Caza, Calif. (No. 147, San Diego State); outfielder/left-hander Matthew Rudick from San Diego (No. 223, San Diego State); outfielder Ezele Wicks from Whittier, Calif. (No. 252, uncommitted) and right-hander Johnny Kuhn Jr. from Lakewood, Calif. (No. 286, Long Beach State).
Other noteworthy players include No. 415-ranked right-hander/outfielder Isaiah Paige from Diamond Bar, Calif.; No. 482 middle-infielder Josh Zamora from Foothill Ranch, Calif.; top-500 outfielder Donta Williams, an Arizona commit from Las Vegas, Nev.; top-500 Jonathan Schiffer from Irvine, Calif., top-550 Chris Jimenez from Fontana, Calif., and top-550 Tyler Hardman from Lake Elsinore, Calif.
“This is a great weekend, and playing with these guys – this is phenomenal talent,” said Williams, a 5-foot-10, 155-pound left-handed swinging leadoff hitter. “To wear the CBA jersey – I can’t really explain it. It’s great and I really can’t put it into words.”
The Maruccis opened pool-play Friday with an 8-3 win over the Easton Blackdogs Black 2018 out of Chino Hills, Calif.; they rapped out 11 hits in the victory and also used three Blackdogs’ errors to scored four unearned runs. Schiffer doubled twice, singled, drove in two runs and scored one, and Hardman doubled, singled twice and scored three runs to lead CBA’s offense.
“Everything is so loose with this team; when we play loose we play very good,” Freeman said. “We know each other so well and that’s how we’re able to play such good baseball. Once we’ve learned how each other acts and how we respond to each other, we’re one of the best teams (out there).”
While most of the winning previous CBA teams did at PG tournaments came at events in Arizona and California – CBA Marucci teams won both the PG California World Series Upperclass and Underclass tournaments last October – the success in Georgia this summer established the CBA group’s standing on more of a national level.
What Paino finds most rewarding is that a lot of the former players from the 2015 class – guys like Chris Betts and Tyler Nevin – stop back around and take the time to work out with these younger guys. Young players like Freeman and Kuhn Jr. have played up with the older guys and that, in turn, leads to a bonding between the classes.
“They get a feel for the atmosphere, and they get a feel for what a real ‘team’ is about and how teams look out for one another. This group is no different,” he said.
“We look up to them and the energy (with this team) is definitely the same,” Freeman added. “We look up them and I’ve learned from them, and then I bring it down here to this team and try to pass it on to them how the ‘16s play the game.”
Williams just joined the team in December but he learned to appreciate very early on what the two CBA teams before this group had established; he took special interest in following the 2016s this summer.
“Every time something gets posted about our older team, we just kind of get that mentality that we’re going to be just like them,” he said. “We’re going to try to (follow) in their same footsteps, and seeing them get drafted makes us want to be at that next level.”
The PG/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass) arrives at the point on the calendar when these young ballplayers are just getting back into their respective school schedules and routines and can easily get caught up in all the distractions that come with the arrival of new school year. Those distractions are healthy and should be enjoyed by every teenager, by the way.
But make no mistake, these guys are happy to be here in the 100-degree desert heat competing against many of the other top underclass teams from across the country, distractions notwithstanding.
“Anytime we can get together the guys are glad to do it; they’re happy to come out and play,” Paino said. “I think for a lot of them they want to come out here and prove that they’re as good as or better than our past groups, and at the same time the colleges that (Perfect Game) brings out and these events attract, makes it that much better.”
“Seeing people that you haven’t seen in like two years and going out and playing with them and seeing how they improved, it’s just really great,” Williams said. “Getting to interact with them and getting back on the same page is really a lot of fun.”
CBA Marucci used a nine-hit attack in an 11-5 victory over Midwest Elite 17u-Navy from Norman, Okla., early Saturday afternoon. Hardman homered and drove in three runs, Freeman and Anthony Boetto each had a pair of hits and drove in two runs and Schiffer stroked another double as the Maruccis moved to 2-0 in pool-play with one game left Saturday afternoon.
“We expect to be successful,” Paino said. “We don’t expect, necessarily, to win every game. We’d like to, and that’s our goal going in is that we’d definitely like to be one of those last programs standing on Monday. But baseball is a funny game and it can go with you one day and against you the next day, so we’re just trying to put ourselves in a position to succeed and our kids in a position to move on. For us, that’s the most important piece is seeing the kids move on and play at a higher level.”
Concluded Williams: “We have the mindset to take it all the way, and that’s what we came to do.”