CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – The Tomball, Texas-based Banditos Baseball organization – along with a new, very successful off-shoot based in Miami, Fla. – has been winning its fair share of Perfect Game national championship trophies, banners and rings for a number of years now.
A lot of that recent success has come at the PG’s intimate World Series tournaments, which are elite events simply because they are invitation-only and limited to just the top 24 teams (14u, 15u, 16u and 17u) and 18 teams (13u) in the country.
The Houston Banditos won the 17u PG World Series out in Arizona in 2014; the Houston Banditos won the 15u PG World Series here at PG Park South-LakePoint last year; and the Florida-based MVP Banditos captured the crown at the 2015 13u PG World Series, also at LakePoint.
Now more than halfway through the 2016 calendar year, many of the same players from that Miami-based 13u MVP Banditos team are and calling themselves Tomball-based and go by the name the Banditos Elite, and are making a name for themselves at the 14u level.
The long and grinding summer is beginning to take its toll, but Banditos program founder/general manager/field manager Ray DeLeon has the group here this week looking to see if it can capture the championship at the 14u PG World Series, which began its four-day run Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve played so much (high caliber) competition over the years, they’re really starting to play at such a high level, and they’re just great kids,” DeLeon said before his team opened play at PG Park South against So-Cal based BPA Rawlings. “We’re worn out, though – we’ve played five tournaments in a row and this team is worn out. We’ll be lucky to get out of pool-play, honestly.
“We call it the ‘Skeleton Crew’ and we’re going to try to piece it together and try to make a run, but at this tournament everybody’s good and anybody can beat you, so you can’t hold back anybody.”
A lot of the players on this roster go to work for multiple Banditos teams at both the 14u and 15u level during the course of the summer season, but as either 14-year-olds or newly minted 15-year-olds, they don’t seem a lot worse for the wear, although there are tell-tale signs.
DeLeon had only 11 players in uniform Wednesday, but is hoping for reinforcements to arrive Thursday and Friday when the team has scheduled double-headers. Top 2019 outfielder Maurice Hampton Jr. – a Louisiana State commit from Arlington, Tenn., who PG ranks as the No. 3 overall national prospect in the country from the class of 2019 – is among those expected to arrive riding in a life boat; Hampton Jr. was the Most Valuable Player on last year’s 13u PG World Series title team.
In addition to the success the younger Banditos teams have enjoyed in recent years at the PG World Series events – “The future is definitely bright with all the talent we have coming up,” DeLeon said – the Banditos program has also done some winning at the PG BCS Finals in Fort Myers, Fla.
The MVP Banditos won the 2014 13u BCS Finals and this team, the one that won the 2015 13u PGWS, was runner-up at the 2015 13u PG BCS Finals. An MVP Banditos team coached by Mike Sagaro won the 15u PG BCS Finals a couple of weeks ago and Sagaro was in the dugout with this 14u group Wednesday afternoon.
Additionally, the 14u Banditos Elite are coming off a runner-up finish at the 100-plus-team 14u PG WWBA National championship held here the last week of June. Of the players that are here or are expected to be here this week, Hampton Jr., 2019 U. of Miami recruit Albert Hernandez, Joseph Cruz, Samuel Infante and Aaron Nixon were named to that event’s all-tournament team. Hampton Jr., Hernandez, Nixon, Zane Keener and M.C. Sagaro, were named to the 2015 13u PGWS all-tournament team, as well; Hernandez and Cruz were all-tournament at the 2016 15u PG BCS Finals.
“This has been a fun time playing with Ray (DeLeon) and playing with Mike (Sagaro),” Keener said Wednesday. “We’ve had a ton of great experiences, with the multiple – countless – national championships that we’ve won; it’s been a great ride.”
Like every other general manager, field manager or coach within the travel ball community, DeLeon is taking extra measures to make sure his pitchers aren’t overused, although that was almost never a problem at Perfect Game tournaments in the past. He knows whichever teams has the most arms stashed away in its savings account most likely is the one to bet on at the end. Again, that is not really not really anything different from years past, at all.
“The reason why we’re still winning this season … is that this team has a lot of arms and I can work to piece it together,” DeLeon said. “We’ve got a great pitching staff with great arms and a lot of potential, but as these kids get older things start evening out. They learn you’ve got to start working even harder and just keep getting better at it.
“It’s never an easy task to win (at the younger age-groups) and then keep winning and keep winning,” he continued. “That’s kind of what happened to my 16-year-old team a little bit. We’ve won for so many years now that everybody’s catching up.”
The 14u Banditos Elite got their defense of the 2015 PGWS title they won – a different age-group, but a title defense, nonetheless – off in fine fashion, beating BPA Rawlings, 5-2; they scored two runs in the top of the seventh to provide themselves with some much-needed breathing room.
DeLeon used six pitchers that combined on a five-hitter, striking out seven while allowing only one earned run. The righty Hernandez worked the first three scoreless innings, scattering two hits and striking out four; he also managed to drive in a run and score a run despite being held hitless. Dylan Crews was 2-for-3 with a triple, an RBI and a run; Keener was 1-for-3 with a run scored and also pitched 1 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings, striking out two; Cruz singled, drove in a run and scored one.
The 14u Banditos Elite have games on Thursday against the MVP Beast (New York) and the Elite Squad (Florida), and finish pool-play Friday with games against the Dirtbags (North Carolina) and the Georgia Jackets (Georgia). The four pool winners will play semifinal games on Saturday with the championship game played later in the day.
The Banditos’ roster is a diverse one, with 10 spots filled by Florida prospects, three with Texas kids and two with Tennessee guys, so facing players from New York, North Carolina and Georgia doesn’t really cause any reason for concern from these 14-year-old seasoned veterans: “Even on this team, we bring in kids from all over,” Keener said. “It’s awesome to get to know people from all over the United States.”
The four PG World Series tournaments (13u, 14u, 15u, 16u) being contested here in the north Atlanta suburbs this week – and the three PG EvoShield Classic events (14u, 16u, 18u) also being played here – mark the end of the 2016 PG summer season for all of the teams involved.
It’s been a long grind since PG staged its season-opening WWBA Memorial Day Classics here, in Fort Myers, Fla., and in Glendale, Ariz., in late May, and now everyone’s a little tired and a little beat up. Everybody, DeLeon pointed out, is ready to take about a month-and-a-half off before playing for several more weeks in the fall, if that’s something they decide to do.
That said, DeLeon is a big fan of these PG World Series events that emphasize quality over quantity. There are, of course, Banditos Elite teams playing in this week’s 15u and 16u PGWS, too, and there was one at the 17u PG World Series held last week in Mesa, Ariz.
“That’s what you want your team to do, is play the better competition,” he said. “It makes everybody better; it makes you better as a player, as a coach, as an organization. At these kind of events, you can’t hold back arms. You’ve got to throw your guys right away because if you lose one or two games you’re out, and everybody is throwing their top guns early.”
Yes, DeLeon readily admits the PG World Series events are among his favorites. He likes the challenges he’s presented with when it comes to managing his pitching – “It’s all gambling here,” he said – and looks forward to following his hunches from time-to-time when he knows he’s going to have to rely on a young man he can only hope rises to the occasion, both for himself and the good of the team.
“This team’s got a lot of heart, they play hard and it’s a great group of kids,” he concluded. “It’s almost like auto-pilot with them; they know what to do and they know their roles already. But again, we’re the ‘Skeleton Crew.’ We’ve played a lot of baseball and it’s catching up to us a little bit here in the end.”