EMERSON, Ga. — The CBA Bulldogs have found themselves across the country for the 14u WWBA National Championship, showing off some small ball and strong pitching to kick off their road trip the way previous CBA teams have, winning 7-3 against the East Cobb Braves.
“For these kids, it’s going to be one of their first big trips of their career,” said head coach Andrew Takayoshi. “It’s more about atmosphere, traveling, paying attention to the rules and the way we do things.”
The Bulldogs made their living playing station-to-station baseball and were able to keep the Braves off the board after the third inning. Starter Dylan Alanis pitched 2 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs off five hits with two walks.
That was all the Braves were able to produce, as the bullpen shutdown the remainder of the game, with a strong outing from Davis Hildebrandt, who went 2 1/3, giving up one hit and striking out one. Aaron Cazares followed with 1 2/3 of scoreless frames with two strikeouts, as Tyson Patrick got the last out of the game and sealed the first win of the tournament for CBA.
The 14u WWBA National Championship is one of the tournaments used to select players for the 2017 14u PG Select Baseball Festival. This event is similar to the Perfect Game All-American Classic, which selects the top 50 high school seniors to play a televised game at Petco Park in San Diego.
The PG Select Baseball Festival will take place over Labor Day weekend, with the top 20 East and 20 West Coast freshmen in the country playing a Fox Sports televised game at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Florida.
Offensively for CBA in their win, third baseman Sebastian Flores went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. His defense was equally strong, making several plays at third with strong throws.
“[I’m] just working on staying down on the ball and having a good approach at the plate,” said Flores. “Just drive through the ball.”
Flores and fellow teammate and catcher Danny Briones are enjoying their first trip to the East Coast.
“[It’s fun] just being able to play against different teams from different states,” said Briones, who worked two walks and scored a run on the day.
For most of the players, this was their first experience traveling to Georgia, but CBA has long been a guest at Perfect Game tournaments, winning the 17u WWBA National Championship in 2015. Three thousand miles away back in Southern California, the CBA organization has created a dynasty on the West Coast, with programs in 10 areas including Texas and Nevada.
The CBA program has 32 2017s signed with the likes of Arizona, Long Beach State, Sand Diego State, UCLA, USC, Washington, UNLV, Cal Poly and TCU. The list continues for the 2018 class, with additional SEC schools such as Mississippi State and Vanderbilt included.
“One of the things we strive on the kids is that they do everything right, down to the littlest detail because it’s going to pay off in the long run,” said Takayoshi. “If we can start creating good habits now, when they are 16, 17, 18 it’s pretty secondary.”
The 17u WWBA National Championship CBA Marucci team held six drafted players in the 2016 MLB First Year Player Draft along with 23 college commits, exemplifying a winning process in Southern California.
“One of the things we look for are the good families and kids that want to work hard,” said Takayoshi. “The kids that are always trying to get better. The big things that we like to see are the older kids giving back to the organization and teaching and mentoring them. It’s really big, and we’ve had a lot of success with that, with players coming back and helping us during the summer and showing these kids the way.”