GLENDALE, Ariz. – Many of the SY Titans coaches and players left their homes in the Santa Ynez Valley region of south-central California late in the day Thursday in a recreational vehicle, and rolled into the Valley of the Sun at about 2:30 a.m. Friday after a nearly 8-hour drive.
Not looking a whole lot worst for the wear, they arrived at the Camelback Ranch spring training complex at 7 a.m., ready and willing to play their 8 a.m. opener at the Perfect Game/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass) against the Colorado-based Slammers-Loseke. The Titans would have liked to have gotten on the road from their California homes a little earlier on Thursday but were determined to miss as little school as possible.
“We tried to get some sleep on the RV on the drive over and then (more sleep) once we got here, so hopefully that will pay off,” the Titans’ 2018 middle-infielder Max Jung-Goldberg said Friday morning before he took the field with his teammates for their game against the Slammers, played on the Chicago White Sox side of the Camelback Ranch complex. “We did it a lot this summer. We’re just trying to play baseball, that’s about it.”
The Titans are one of 72 top underclass teams from across the country that have gathered here to play some baseball on the fields at Camelback Ranch and the Goodyear Ballpark Sports Complex at this year’s PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship over the next four days. The PG/EvoShield National Championships in the upperclass and freshman age-groups will be played over four days next weekend (Sept. 16-19).
The games kicked off Friday morning under sunny skies and also in comparatively high humidity (27 percent at noon MST) for the desert. One Titans player that seemed totally unaffected by the travel, the heat or the humidity was 6-foot-1, 190-pound 2019 right-hander/infielder Javier Felix from Watsonville, Calif., who had actually arrived in the Valley at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, hours ahead of many of his teammates.
Feeling quite rested, thank-you, all that nationally No. 51-ranked and uncommitted Felix did was throw six innings of no-hit ball in the Titans’ 2-0 win over the Slammers-Loseke; he struck-out 13 and walked three, including the first two batters he faced in the top of the first inning. Felix also had two of the Titans’ five hits – both singles – and drove in a run.
“In the bullpen, I really tried to work on my mechanics but once I got out on the mound it was whatever happens, happens,” Felix said of his outing. “I walked those first two batters and after that I just tried to ease it in there and find a strike, and then I tried my off-speed and that was working. The next inning, I started out with fastballs and everything was fine.”
2018 right-hander Alejandro Murillo needed only 12 pitches to retire the side in order in the seventh, completing the no-hitter; he struck out one of the three batters he faced.
Like just about every other team in attendance here this weekend, the Titans have had a long, laborious summer and are getting ready to shut things down for the year. They’ve been doing a lot of traveling and playing a lot of baseball and head coach David Lawrence likes to give them at least three months off to pursue other endeavors. Many of these young men will move into other sports, something Lawrence encourages, but for right now, the Titans are happy to be here.
“This has always been a good tournament in the past,” Lawrence said. “It’s very competitive and there’s a lot of exposure; it’s one of the (tournaments) we mark on our calendar from the get-go as one of our targets.”
“We came to this tournament last year,” Jung-Goldberg added. “… We’re always looking for the best competition possible and Perfect Game always offers that. Coming out to these tournaments where you can try to compete for a championship, you can’t ask for anything more.”
Typically, the SY Titans teams of the past have hung their hats on pitching and defense, and this team is no exception. It can be a streaky team at the plate, according to Lawrence, but when the bats do get going the hitting can become contagious up and down the lineup. And when the pitching and hitting come together like one big symphony, the Titans can compete for a championship where ever they’re at on any given weekend.
“We always come in with that expectation,” Lawrence said. “This past year we really haven’t focused too much on winning games, it’s more about getting seen and getting these kids the opportunities for college and beyond. It’s all about pitching and opportunities and how the ball bounces, usually. These teams are very competitive so I don’t know if you ever come in here expecting to win; you never know what you’re going to face because these teams come from all over.”
There is some familiarity between the teams at an event like this, with so many of the heavyweights from Southern California, Arizona, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest in attendance. It’s always good to see the new faces, too, the ones that over time will become familiar as well.
Between Perfect Game tournaments and showcases and USA Baseball events, a team like the SY Titans can be exposed to hundreds of different teams over the course of the summer and fall seasons, but plenty of old friends come calling, as well.
“We’ve played teams like CBA and GBG a bunch of times, so now when we play them it’s almost like you know all of their guys,” Jung-Goldberg said. We know we have to this out on the mound or this up at the plate, and it’s really kind of cool. You get to meet and get to know all these guys, so coming out here and playing against the best, it’s like I said, you can’t ask for anything more.”
The Titans have proved time and again they have can hold their own against the hardiest of opponents and can do so while playing the game and enjoying each other’s company at the same time. The players come from California cities like Palo Alto, Bakersfield, Santa Ynez and Santa Cruz, and there are even a couple of prospects from Las Vegas on the roster.
One of those is 2019 first baseman/left-hander Campbell Holt, a Southern Cal commit who attends national power Bishop Gorman High School and is ranked No. 255 nationally in the same class as Felix; he is expected to join the group on Saturday.
“it’s an amazing team,” Jung-Goldberg said. “I feel blessed that I’ve been able to meet these guys and come out to these tournaments. It really is an amazing experience. … You don’t really think about it, but with travel ball and going with kids to a lot of different states, it really allows you to spend time with them and get to know them away from the field. And then on the field, the chemistry is second-to-none.”
Jung-Goldberg, a University of San Diego commit, is the highest ranked 2018 on the roster at No. 378. He said he couldn’t be sure he would have received his offer from USD if Lawrence hadn’t brought him on board and put him in a Titans’ uniform:
“Especially playing with Perfect Game and getting that exposure with all these (college) coaches coming and seeing us play, being with the Titans has by far given me more exposure than I could of ever imagined,” he said.
It’s very possible several more Titans will leave here with offers or pick a couple up in the coming weeks. One of the best ways to get noticed by college recruiters is to win ballgames, and even though Coach Lawrence said winning isn’t always the main focus of the coaching staff – getting the players scholarship offers is their main focus – it is certainly a priority with his players.
“Every time we come in, we’re trying to win a championship,” Jung-Goldberg said. “We try to play like we’re the best every time, and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing or who we’re facing on the mound. We always feel like we have an opportunity to win and we’re trying to come out here and compete.”
A well-rested Felix was instrumental in making sure the Titans took a step forward, not backward, in Friday’s opener. His teammates should join him in that “well-rested” category for the duration of the tournament, which will be a good place to be if or when the CBA’s and the GBG’s of the world come calling.
“That was a perfect way to start the tournament,” Felix said. “We’re pretty much trying to go one game at a time and not worry about who we play or what time we play. We have to be ready and be prepared to play about an hour before the game time.” With any luck, that will come after a good night’s rest.