GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Over its first 15 innings of work during pool-play games played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic (18u PG WWBA WMDC), the AZ PROspects 18u pitching staff did not allow an opponent to score a single run.
When the PROspects walked onto Indians Field 6 at the Goodyear Ballpark Complex Sunday afternoon before their third and final pool-play game at the event, they had outscored their first two opponents by a combined 20-0 in just 10 innings of play. They found themselves the leader at the clubhouse turn to capture the playoffs’ No. 1 seed and receive a bye straight into Monday’s semifinal round.
This was uncharted territory for the program from Peoria, which sits no more than a 20-minute drive on East I-10 and the North 101 Loop from Goodyear Ballpark. The AZ PROspects 18u were going to be in the 18u PG WWBA WMDC playoffs regardless of how they fared in their pool-play finale against winless Kings Baseball (Litchfield Park, Ariz.) but this whole notion of securing a No. 1 or No. 2 seed and a free pass into the semis had never really occurred to them.
“This is the first tournament of the year so you don’t know exactly where your guys are,” PROspects 18u head coach Ray Holbert said before his guys took the field against the Kings. “We had some good workouts (coming in) and we were feeling pretty confident with some of the guys, but you never know what’s going to happen until you face another jersey, another hat out there.”
Holbert did tell PG he was going to use the final pool-play game to insert a couple of guys into the lineup who hadn’t seen much playing time in the PROspects’ first two games, perhaps revealing for the first time that securing the playoffs’ No. 1 seed and a bye into Monday’s semifinals wasn’t of the utmost importance.
Yet things went so well at the outset. 2017 right-hander T.J. Ems started the game for the PROspects 18u and pushed the scoreless innings streak to 15 with five innings of one-hit, shutout ball. He left the game with his team leading 3-0 and the No. 1 overall seed still very much a possibility.
That fairytale evaporated with the collapse of the bullpen, which allowed eight runs – seven earned – in the final two frames. The 8-3 final score left the AZ PROspects 18u’s seeding numbers at 23 runs scored, eight runs allowed, totals that dropped them from No. 1 seed consideration down to No. 6, the highest in the six-team playoffs.
With the PROspects 18u falling by the wayside, a couple of big boys moved into the two top spots. All-Star Baseball Academy 17u (El Mirage, Ariz.) snagged the No. 1 seed by outdistancing its three pool-play foes by a 20-0 count, and AZ T-Rex Baseball Club (Scottsdale, Ariz.) is No. 2 after squeezing by its three pool-play partners, 20-1.
All-Star Baseball Academy 18u (El Mirage) earned the No. 3 seed and faced the AZ PROspects 18u in one of Sunday evening’s first-round playoff games. The other matched No. 5 AZ Athletics 17u (Peoria) with the No. 4 So Cal Halos (Santa Paula, Calif.). Five of the six playoff teams operate out of the Valley.
“We are pretty familiar with some of these teams,” Holbert said. “Some of these organizations have a good following and we’ve played against them for several years now, so you have a pretty good idea of what you’re facing quality player-wise. The names and the faces change, and we felt pretty good going into this tournament with what we had, but we hadn’t faced anyone so those first two games were interesting for us.”
Despite losing out on the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, the AZ PROspects 18u program is worth looking at. Holbert went through an interrupted five-year MLB career, playing in 115 games total in 1994-95 and 1998-2000. He and former minor-leaguer Derrin Ebert started AZ PROspects Baseball in 2011 and have a core group of guys that have been with them since they were 13 or 14 years old.
Those are the feature guys, players like 2017 catcher Britt Fitzgerald and 2016 first baseman Isaiah Leach. There are new additions, as well, guys like 2017 middle-infielders Jake Castaldo and Anthony Medrano, both of whom have fathers that played minor league baseball.
“We’re pretty pleased,” Holbert said. “Our pitching staff is coming along better than we thought, and while it’s still early for us and our main concern, obviously, is to throw strikes. They’ve been doing a good job of that, getting ahead of hitters.”
The AZ PROspects coaching staff does not call pitches. That’s something the pitchers and catchers work out amongst themselves. They go in with a game-plan of what they want to do the only directive from Holbert and his staff to their pitchers is to attack the strike zone. It’s important to get ahead in the count, to see some activity in the first two or three pitches and if that doesn’t work they’ll for a putout a little later in the count. A catcher like Fitzgerald enjoys having that responsibility.
“When you’re calling the pitches in a game as a young kid, you’re able to understand the game a little bit better and understand how baseball is at the higher levels in college and (professional) baseball,” he said. “It’s all about being able to understand hitters and being able to understand the situation at hand.”
Fitzgerald is beginning his fifth summer playing with the AZ PROspects, and he believes the time he’s spent with the group has been especially beneficial. He’s been part of program that emphasizes improvement in each individual player while using the team concept to attain that improvement.
“This weekend, we’re all starting to understand how each other plays and we’re starting to believe in each other that we can do the job were put in there to do,” he said.
The AZ PROspects 18u didn’t earn the No. 1 seed at the 18u PG WWBA WMDC but they also didn’t run away and hide. They got a combined six-hitter from 2016 right-hander Garrett Radeja and 2017 righty Noah Huerta and topped No. 3-seed All-Star Baseball Academy 18u, 4-2, in first-round play and moved into Monday’s semifinals with a 3-1 record.
A tall task awaits them there, where they will face No. AZ T-Rex Baseball Club (3-0-0); the No. 4 So Cal Halos (3-1-0) take on the No. 1 All-Star Baseball Academy (3-0-0) in the other semi. The So Cal Halos escaped the No. 5 AZ Athletics 17u (Peoria) in Sunday’s other first-round playoff game.
When the day started, before a single playoff seed had been planted, the AZ PROspects 18u’s Fitzgerald didn’t sound convinced his team belonged in this whole playoff discussion. Any talk about a No. playoff seed was idle, at best.
“Usually, we’re just here to play the game, we’re just here to get better and we’re just here to try to get as much playing time as we can get,” he said. “If we make the playoffs we do, and if we don’t we don’t. We’re just here to have fun and play the game.”
Holbert, also speaking before a game had been played on Sunday, took a similar, albeit more philosophical approach.
“We expect the guys to work hard and we expect the guys to be ready to play once they go out there on the field,” he said. “This is supposed to be fun; the hard work and all that other stuff is done in practice. This event supposed to be fun, and it’s for these guys to showcase what they can do. We want these guys to go out and enjoy themselves but to also play hard.
“We’re out here to develop first, but once we step on the field we’re trying to win the ballgame,” he concluded. “It doesn’t matter which one of the guys we put out there, we expect them to the same job. I know they say in football a lot, ‘Next man in,’ that’s kind of the philosophy we have.”
Monday’s 16u, 14u semifinals set
Monday’s four semifinal pairings at the 16u and 14u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classics are set after the completion of early playoff rounds on Sunday.
The 16u semifinals pair No. 5 Wilson Sandlot (4-0-0) from Chandler, Ariz., with No. 1 Phenom Signature (4-0-0) from Riverside, Calif., and No. 3 AZ T-Rex Baseball Club (4-0-0) out of Scottsdale against defending champion Warriors Baseball Academy 18u (4-0-0) from Glendale.
In a full slate of quarterfinals Sunday afternoon, Phenom Signature downed the No. 8 Tucson Champs (Tucson, Ariz.), 6-1; Warriors Baseball Academy 2018 got past No. 7 Canyon Thunder (Phoenix), 8-3; AZ T-Rex Baseball Club escaped Mountain West Horns Select (Cottonwood Heights, Utah), 3-2 in eight innings; and Wilson Sandlot destroyed the El Paso Arsenal (El Paso, Texas), 13-0.
The four finalists in the 14u PG WWBA WMDC bracket are the No. 5 California Aces (4-0-0) from Los Alamitos, Calif., versus No. 1 LVR 14u (3-0-0) from Las Vegas, Nev., and No. 3 FBC/DeMarini (4-0-0) out of San Dimas, Calif., meeting the No. 2 San Diego Stars (4-0-0) from Coronado, Calif.
LVR 14u received a bye into the semifinals. The San Diego Stars beat the No. 7 Tucson Champs (Tucson, Ariz.), 6-0; FBC/DeMarini took care of De Mar Powerhouse 14u (San Diego), 7-4; and the California Aces dropped No. 4 Wilson Sandlot 14u (Chandler, Ariz.) in early round playoff action Sunday.