ATLANTA, Ga. – Many
of the brightest amateur players and the best teams from around the country
traveled to Georgia for the 17u WWBA National Championship, including the
Temecula, Calif.-based CBA Marucci. The 2015 17u WWBA champions are prepared to
take the title back to their home state with a new squad of players.
“This is our fifth summer as an organization, and
we’ve had a pretty good tradition of top teams and success and some draft
players,” said CBA coach Jon Paino. “I think the strength of our organization
and team and group is the chemistry between the players. A lot of these guys
play high school baseball with and against each other.”
Much of the team is brand new, with only nine of the 21
players having been together on last year’s roster. Many of them only have the
experience of seeing each other on the other side of the diamond, which is the
case for newcomer Brandon Dieter. Ranked as the No. 33 player in the class of
2018 per Perfect Game, Dieter said that this was his first tournament playing
with the team, but that he has fit right in, which speaks to the chemistry of
the team. Even with the lack of experience with each other, the team seemed to enjoy
the opportunity to get to know each other and play with other top talents.
“That’s the cool thing about CBA, there’s a bunch of guys
out there and you never know who you’re going to play with,” said Michael Paredes, who is in his fourth year playing with CBA. “You meet a lot of new people. I’ve only played
with, I think, one or two of these guys consistently since I’ve been playing
CBA.”
Paino said that they are very selective when it comes to
picking players for this team, as they look at things such as character and
integrity, in addition to baseball skills. Many of the kids are also very good academically,
which Paino alluded to also being an important part to the players on his
roster.
Sixteen of their 21 players are committed to play at the
next level at places such as San Diego State, Vanderbilt and Cal Poly. One of
those San Diego State commits is Paredes, who said that the school was the
perfect fit for him as a person.
“They offered me, so I’ve always been in love with San Diego
State, it’s my hometown, so I’ve always been around that environment,” Paredes
said. “It’s just been a dream of mine to go to that school, so as soon as they
offered that out to me, I was just honored to take that. It was just a huge
step for me.”
A native of Covina, Calif., Dieter is committed to a top
academic school of his own, showing his prowess as a student-athlete by
committing to Stanford.
“I was going into my sophomore year and my coach actually
got them to come down and look at me, like a little private workout and it’s
just something you can’t really turn down,” Dieter said. “That kind of school
has the combination of athletics, academics and I’ve always wanted to go there.”
Development of players has been a key factor of CBA to sending
kids to top schools, and Paino said that they focus on the development part to
prepare them for the next level, whether college or professional. This year
alone, the team had 11 players drafted, making their total 29 since 2015.
Paredes said that he has improved in his time with CBA in many aspects of his
game.
“They’ve not just shown me different parts of baseball, like
just learning different things, they’re taught me how to act as a player when
things aren’t going wrong or things aren’t going right, the way I conduct
myself, just better myself in every arena in baseball,” Paredes said.
Besides Dieter, the team features two other class of 2018 players
ranked in the top 100, including Cole Winn and Dominic Pipkin, both of whom are
also new to the team. Winn checks in at No. 74, while Pipkin is ranked in the
No. 99 slot. Both players can run their fastballs up to 93 mph, even though
they are very different physically, as Winn is listed at 6-foot-2, 195-pounds,
and Pipkin is listed at 6-foot-4, 175-pounds. Dieter and Pipkin were recently
named to the PG All-American Classic watch list, and are awaiting their fates
on if they will join their peers in San Diego.
“That was great,” Dieter said of hearing the news. “They
pulled you down to that little side room in the field and you know, you get a
sense in the back of your head that you might get to play in the PG
All-American Game, and it’s just great.”
The organization has produced 12 PG All Americans since
2015, including Chris Betts, Blake Rutherford and Tyler Freeman. Those three
went on to be drafted in one of the first two rounds in their respective
drafts.
“He’s a lot like Perfect Game All-American last year, Tyler
Freeman, where he’s just a grinder, quiet, goes about his business,” said
Paino. “Never ever a question whether he’s going to give you everything he’s
got, so we’re really proud of him.”
Dieter was on the mound for CBA in their third game on
Monday, going four innings, giving up nine hits, three earned runs and two
walks, striking out five. St. Mary’s commit Kyle Velazquez would provide the
offense, driving in two runs to help CBA win the game 5-3. The team has won two
straight since dropping their first game of the tournament, good enough for
second place in their pool, and they carry a 2-1 record into their Tuesday game
against Team All American. Although it was not the start they hoped for, they are still hopeful of a playoff berth.
“I would say, right now we’re crawling ourselves out of a
hole that we’ve created for ourselves, but we’ve got full confidence in these guys
to turn it around and do what they’re capable of doing,” Paino said.