EMERSON, Ga. – The Georgia Jackets 15u made their debut in the WWBA Freshman World Championship on Friday night and this will be the first night this fall that the team is playing together at a Perfect Game event.
“We’re ready for it,” said Corey Collins, the No. 56 player in the class of 2020. “We’ve been looking forward to this all fall long, we haven’t played in a while. All of us are ready for this tournament.”
The team is loaded with talent all throughout their roster and even had a few players who attended the 14u PG Select Baseball Festival earlier in the fall. Josh Shuler, the No. 8 overall player in the class of 2020, (was not attending on Friday night) and Travis Hamrick, the No. 27 overall player in the class of 2020, were both participants in the event and Hamrick thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“It was a great experience and you can’t ask for anything better than that,” said Hamrick. “Playing with the best 40 in the nation was great and it taught me that you need to take it and help the other guys to get to that point. It was a lot of fun and maybe next year I’ll get to do it again.”
The inaugural 14u PG Select Baseball Festival was one of the headlining events for the class of 2020 late in the summer and the WWBA Freshman World Championship contains a lot of the same elite talent from the class. With a lot of the teams closing out their fall season, or even starting it, this event kicks off with many teams still trying to feel out the core of their team and hoping to improve. The Georgia Jackets are one of those teams and manager Jeff Auterson is excited to see what his team brings to the table.
“We just go out and play good baseball like always,” said Auterson. “This is our first tournament of the fall and our objective was to get some guys out in certain positions and help identify who they are so next year we can continue helping them to be successful.”
The strength of the Jackets team lies in their offensive capabilities, according to Auterson. The Jackets have three teams participating in this event but this team specifically has a lot of offensive firepower and top ranked players.
“Right now we have three teams at this age, as well as a lot of guys who are 2019 grads,” said Auterson. “What we did was combine our rosters together and split them into three teams. This specific team is fairly strong hitting-wise. Some of the stronger pitchers aren’t here, because they’re 2019 grads, but these guys can really swing the stick. If we can come out and do what we normally do, be hot, and make our presence known then we should have some success.”
With many teams from different areas participating in this event, teams can be caught off guard by talented and unfamiliar teams. The Jackets won’t be disrupted by any opponent as they focus on playing their own method of baseball and staying within themselves. Auterson is confident in his team and their style of play.
“To be honest with you we just play our game,” said Auterson. “We have a plan in place for the boys in terms of how we’re going to rotate them in and out, how we’re going to tee them up for being successful, and each team we play we’re going to look to give them our best effort every day. However it unfolds, it unfolds.”
Although their strength lies in their lineup, the pitching helped the Jackets down the Charlotte Nationals on Friday night. The final score was 5-4 and starting pitcher William Underwood helped set the tone early. Underwood tossed 2 2/3 innings of hitless baseball and allowed no runs while striking out three batters. Daniel Fischer came on in relief and pitched 3 2/3 of the final 4 1/3 innings while only allowing two earned runs.
Offensively, Josh Wood led the way in scoring for the team. He finished 2-for-2 with one run scored to lead the team in hits on the day. The entire lineup contributed to the win and were constantly working counts to disrupt opposing pitchers. After blowing the two-run lead in the top of the seventh, the Jackets came back to win in walkoff fashion in the bottom half of the inning. After two walks to start the inning, the Jackets eventually got a run to score on a wild pitch to clinch the game.
The Jackets started off the tournament on the right note and look to keep this momentum heading into the weekend. Having not played together as a team since early in the summer, the wait between tournaments have only made this team hungrier. Collins noted before the game that they have had this tournament circled on their calendar for a long time and are ready to go out and perform.
“We’re ready for it,” said Collins. “We’ve been looking forward to this all fall long, we haven’t played in a while. All of us are ready for this tournament.”
The confidence this team displays both on the field and off it seems to be a motivating factor in their dugout. They know how talented they are, how eager they are, and how well they can perform when they are at their best. At this point all of the preparation is complete and all they have to do is get on the field and let their abilities shine through.
“We play to the best of our ability,” said Hamrick. “Whoever we play we’re just going to go at them and a lot of these guys are talented but we’re just going to see how it goes.”