FORT MYERS, Fla. – the voice came through from somewhere near the back of the dugout just at the US Elite 2017’s broke their huddle before the start of their pool-play opener Friday at the Perfect Game WWBA Underclass World Championship. “All right,” came the cry, loud and clear, “let’s play some baseball!”
And so it began for the US Elite 2017’s, a solid outfit out of Philadelphia boasting a roster stocked with high school juniors from cities and towns in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Virginia, with a heavy emphasis on PA as opposed to NY, NJ or VA.
The Elite 2017’s are in Southwest Florida this weekend matching their skills against players from 263 other teams that arrived here from all points of the country near and far. This team’s mission is as difficult as it is uncomplicated and it is no different than that of the other 263.
“We come down here with the intention to win ballgames, to advance (in the playoffs) and to get those college looks,” US Elite 2017’s head coach Mike Capaldi told PG Friday morning from just outside the dugout on Field 2 at the Player Development 5-Plex. “… We come down to get the scholarships and to win games.”
Securing college scholarship offers and winning ballgames is on just about every team’s to-do list when it comes to the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship. Most of the games feature twice as many college coaches and recruiters standing behind home plate as there are players on the field, and that scouting fraternity only enhances the festive nature of the event. For the guys from Philly, everything here is just about perfect.
“Every Florida tournament that we come to is just so much different than up north,” US Elite 2017’s top prospect Alex Tappen said Friday. “It’s nicer weather, nicer fields, and just playing in a Perfect Game tournament is always a great thing. I’m very excited; I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.”
Tappen is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound third baseman from Lower Gywnedd, Pa., who has committed to the University of Virginia and is ranked No. 357 in PG’s class of 2017 national prospect rankings. He was standing alongside his Elite 2017’s teammate Brian Morrell, a shortstop from Wading River, N.Y., who has committed to Notre Dame and has climbed up to No. 107 in the national rankings.
“Playing down here with this team and everything is just a great experience, especially Perfect Game tournaments; they’re probably one of the best tournaments for recruiting in the nation,” Morrell said. “I just love coming down here and playing baseball in some of the best weather.”
Tappen and Morrell are two of five Elite 2017’s that have already made college commitments. The others (s the name indicates, every player on the roster is a 2017) are left-hander/first baseman Brandon Knarr, another Notre Dame commit ranked in the top-500; right-hander Conor Larkin (Royersville, Pa.), Penn State, top-500; and catcher/outfielder Justin Vought (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.), Maryland, top-500.
Some may wonder why the guys that have already made their college commitments even bother to come and perform at this event. The people who wonder that simply don’t get it.
“It’s important to be here for the team” Morrell said. “You shouldn’t just come down here and play for yourself. We play as a team, we work hard and we play hard and we just want to come down here and hopefully win this thing.”
Added Tappen: “One of the great things about our team is that we can run with anybody. We come into every tournament with the mindset that we’re going to go far and we’re going to compete with the top teams in the country. That’s something that we pride ourselves on.”
Left-hander/outfielder Zack Kokoska (Latrobe, Pa.), right-hander/first baseman Will Lozinak (Hollidaysburg, Pa.), right-hander/third baseman Antonio Menendez (Herndon, Va.) and middle-infielder August Samek (Teaneck, N.J.) are among the Elite 2017’s that are ranked in the top-550 nationally and haven’t yet committed to a school.
With five scholarship players already on the roster, Capaldi said he expects from three to five more to make commitments when they return home from this event. Those are prospects that probably could have made their commitments already, but are taking their time and enjoying the process.
They’ve been telling the college recruiters that they were going to wait until after the Under World before making a decision and invited the coaches to come down and watch them play one more time. For years, the players from the Northeast were victims of a stigma that assigned them a rung on prospect ladder just below the players from the warm-weather states. That seems to be changing.
“I don’t think that’s the case anymore,” Tappen said. “One of the thing we pride ourselves on up North is that we work; we practice in 40-degree weather because it’s our job. I think a strength of ours is that we have to fight through the cold weather and the adversity and it shapes into the type of hard-working players that we are today.”
There is a core of eight to nine players on the US Elite 2017s roster that have been playing together under Capaldi since they were 13 years old. There have been a few players that were presented with other opportunities and moved on, but that’s to be expected with just about any program.
The holes are filled through a tryout process that looks to find not only the best ballplayers but also kids who will take care of business in the classroom; a 3.0 GPA is required. “I love it; I love the kids,” Capaldi said. “We work in the offseason together and during the season; we have great families and that’s kind of what it’s all about.”
“We’re a team; we’re not individuals whatsoever,” Capaldi continued. “We come down here as a group and those kids are part of the team. Just because they’ve committed doesn’t mean they quit playing baseball; they have to keep getting better every day and that’s how it works.”
Capaldi said he finds it interesting that when a prospect commits to a certain school as a third baseman or a catcher or a center fielder, the coaches also tell them to experiment playing at other positions as much as it can be allowed. That becomes a luxury for Capaldi, who can move his committed players around and insert his committed guys into their primary positions.
US Elite Baseball was founded by Mark Helsel in 2006 and the organization has operated under a series of other names in the past; Capaldi said he’s sure the US Elite name is here to stay. The group has a second team here this weekend – US Elite 2018’s – that is also stocked with some top talent.
Shortstop Phillip Dull (Alum Bank, Pa.) has risen to No 73 in the class of 2018 rankings; shortstop Nic Kent (Gordonville, Va.) is a Virginia commit ranked No. 91; 2019 outfielder Troy LaNeve (Gibsonia, Pa.) is ranked No. 7 in the fledgling class of 2019 rankings.
The tournament did not get off to a good start for the US Elite 2017’s. They opened pool-play with a very untidy 9-5, five-inning time limit loss to the Florida Burn 2017 out of Sarasota, a contest in which the two pitching staffs combined to walk 16 batters – nine from the Elite 2017’s; the combined 14 runs were scored on a combined eight hits.
It wasn’t the way the Elite 2017’s wanted to get of the gate, but the team’s tightness just might be enough to keep them together while they try to rally and gain a spot in the playoffs.
“We have great camaraderie; that’s our thing,” Morrell said. “We go out for dinner as a team, we play as a team; we do everything as a team. Being around each other for a bunch of years makes us different from just about every other team that has a bunch of kids that they just brought down for one tournament. With us, our camaraderie is just amazing.”
On the flipside, the US Elite 2018’s opened play with a resounding 11-2 victory over Deep South from Key West, Fla., and Capaldi feels very comfortable knowing that he will have this 2017 group together for one more summer and the 2018’s will be around for two more.
It is probably inevitable that there will be defections and holes will need to be filled, and Capaldi doesn’t think that will present a problem either.
“When you win, people want to come play for you,” he said. “You see it with the Tri-State Arsenal, you see it with the Canes and other groups like that. When you win, you get emails: ‘Hey Coach, I want to play for you … I saw that you won this, I saw that won that.’ And you have to win at Perfect Game (tournaments); it’s important and Perfect Game is big-time.
“We want to come here and win, that’s our goal, and we expect to win. It’s just an expectation that the kids have of themselves.”