GLENDALE, Ariz. – The CBA Marucci outfit that on Monday afternoon won the Perfect Game national championship at the PG/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass) tournament is talented, skilled, aggressive and smart when it comes to playing the game of baseball. It is also very opportunistic.
On a hot and unusually humid Monday afternoon at Camelback Ranch Stadium, No. 12-seed CBA Marucci could muster no more than four singles but took advantage of the wildness of a couple of young pitchers throwing for No. 3 BPA DeMarini Elite and walked away with a 6-3 victory in the championship game of the four-day event.
Temecula, Calif.-based CBA Marucci (7-0-0) was able to effectively blend its four safeties with six walks, two hit batsmen and three wild pitches issued by the BPA hurlers, and that proved to be more than enough to secure the win.
“This has been quite a ride,” CBA Marucci middle-infielder Tyler Freeman said before stepping in line to get fitted for his PG national championship ring. “We’re a special group, and if you put us up against any competition, we’ll hang, no matter what; the only way we’re going to lose if we beat ourselves. We play as a team – we do the little things – and no one’s selfish with this team; we always do it for each other.”
The Maruccis put two runs up on the board in the top of the first inning and the way they did it provided a tidy microcosm of the entire game – they plated the two runs on the strength of two walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch and an RBI single from Josh Zamora.
Zamora drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the third and CBA scored three more in the fifth on an RBI single from Freeman, a steal of home by Kenny Oyama (it was part of a double-steal in which Freeman also stole second) and yet another sac fly from Zamora.
“We don’t have anybody who is going to consistently put the ball out of the ballpark … so we’re kind of a slow, grinding machine and if you’re going to give us opportunities we’re going to take advantage of them,” CBA Marucci head coach Jon Paino said. “These guys never give up; they never say die.”
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based BPA DeMarini Elite (6-1-0) had seven hits in the game, with Jayson Gonzalez blasting a solo home run, Nicholas Anz stroking a double and driving in a run and Trevor Windisch contributing a single and an RBI. The Elite just simply gave the Maruccis too many free baserunners to overcome.
Freeman, a 2017 middle-infielder from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., was 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored in the championship game to put a nice capper on a very nice tournament. A Texas Christian University recruit ranked No. 72 nationally, Freeman went 8-for-16 (.500) with a double, seven RBI and seven runs scored in CBA’s seven games, and was named the event’s co-Most Valuable Player. He deferred to his teammates.
“We play loose and that’s when we always play our best,” he said. “We played loose this whole tournament and we didn’t care if we were the underdog or if were the overdog, either way we were going to come out fighting. No matter what situation we were in, we always found a way to get it done.”
Freeman shared the MVP award with BPA’s Gonzalez. A 6-foot-2, 205-pound 2017 middle-infielder from Corina, Calif., who has committed to Vanderbilt University and is ranked No. 19 nationally, Gonzalez finished 9-for-16 (.552) with three doubles, two triples, two home runs, 13 RBI, four runs and a mind-numbing 2.025 on-base-plus-slugging (OPS) percentage.
The Most Valuable Pitcher award was also shared between CBA Marucci’s Johnny Kuhn Jr. and BPA DeMarini Elite’s Jack Owen.
Kuhn Jr. was the starter in CBA’s playoff opener against the No. 5 SACSN National Team Sunday afternoon and responded by allowing only one earned run on five hits in a complete game, 3-2, CBA victory. The 6-foot-3, 160-pound 2017 right-hander from Lakewood, Calif., -- ranked No. 278 nationally -- has committed to Long Beash State and struck out eight SACSN batters and walked two.
“We opened with the SACSN National Team in the playoffs and in a game like that you never which way it’s going to go,” Paino said. “We got a championship performance out of Johnny Kuehn.”
Owen, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound 2017 left-hander from Coto De Caza, Calif., who has committed to Mississippi State and is ranked 149th nationally, made two appearances and didn’t allow an earned run on two hits while striking out seven and walking none in 8 2/3 innings of work; he also hit 421 (8-for-19) with six RBI and five runs scored.
A Sunday night thunderstorm brought heavy rain to the entire Valley of the Sun and wet grounds delayed the start of Monday’s semifinal games four hours from 8 a.m. until noon. Even when the fields were deemed playable, only one of the scheduled semifinals was played.
CBA Marucci advanced to the championship game by virtue of a forfeit when No. 1-seed Phenom Signature cited travel conflicts and left for home in Southern California. PG record books will show that CBA won the semifinal game by an 8-0 count over Phenom Signature (5-1-0) and took a 6-0-0 record into the championship game.
“We always try and take the high road,” Paino said of the way he and his staff handled the situation. “I had to talk to (the team) about not letting the moment get away from them because when something like that happens you can kind of lose your focus a little bit and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t do that. We got them inside, sat them down and had a little talk with them. You know, they like to have fun, too, and I think they accomplished that.”
BPA DeMarini Elite rolled into the title tilt with a 6-0 victory over the No. 2 San Diego Show Black (5-1-0) in the semifinal game that was played. The Elite jumped on the Show early with five third-inning runs, coming on the strength of RBI singles from Tyler Lasch, Gonzalez and Owen, and a run-scoring triple off the bat of Preston Hartsell. Their other two runs were scored on a wild pitch and a fielding error.
While Owen did his part with a bat in his hand, it was his contribution from the pitcher’s mound that had the biggest impact. He delivered a complete-game, two-hit shutout, striking out four and cementing his co-MV Pitcher status.
The PG national championship the CBA organization won this weekend was its second during the 2015 summer and fall seasons. An older team won the 17u PG WWBA National Championship in Emerson, Ga., in July, and many of those same players are expected to be on hand next weekend at the PG/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass) to be contested on MLB spring training fields here in Glenwood, Goodyear and Peoria. This weekend, however, belonged to the underclassmen.
“This group really came together as a team,” Paino said. “We really came together as a group of guys who care about one another and who have each other’s backs at all times, and we’re just super proud of them. We appreciate having the opportunity to come out and play against the best and showcase our talents and our abilities as a team. We’re proud of the whole program.”
2015 PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship runner-up: BPA DeMarini Elite
2015 PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship co-MVP: Tyler Freeman
2015 PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship co-MVP: Jayson Gonzalez
2015 PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship co-MVPitcher: Johnny Kuhn, Jr.
2015 PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship co-MVPitcher: Jack Owen
