FORT MYERS, Fla. – Before the first pitch was thrown at the 15u Perfect Game BCS National Championship last Friday, the people interested in doing such things identified the top prospect-laden Elite Squad Underclass Prime as one of the pre-tournament favorites to win the whole thing.
That wasn’t misguided thinking at all. The Underclass Prime’s roster features six prospects from the class of 2020 that PG ranks in the top 97 nationally, and most of those guys were on the team that won last year’s 14u Perfect Game World Series national championship up in Georgia.
But when looking at the four teams Elite Squad Baseball entered in this week’s 15u PG BCS, the handicappers must have been temporarily blinded by the light emanating from that Squad Underclass Prime roster.
They should have instead taken a closer look at the Elite Squad 15u Prime, a two-loss team during pool-play but one that knocked-off the No. 2-seeded Underclass Prime, 4-2, in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round of the playoffs. And after the events of Wednesday morning, it is the Squad 15u Prime that will be playing for a Perfect Game national championship Thursday morning.
“We’ve been preaching all summer just to stay with us and focus on energy and focus on doing our job no matter who the opponent is,” 15u Prime head coach Scott Morrison said Wednesday morning from the jetBlue Park Player Development Complex where his No. 7-seeded team took on the No. 11 Top Tier Roos 15u Americans in semifinal game action.
“I know the outside world was probably thinking that the Underclass Prime would kind of run through this (tournament), but was I surprised (his team won the head-to-head)? No. I knew that as long as we did our job it would be a close game and whoever came out on top at the end would move on.”
The Elite Squad 15u Prime (7-2-0) escaped the never-say-die TT Roos 15u Americans, 8-5, on Wednesday and can now look forward to meeting the No. 1-seeded Team Elite 15u Prime (9-0-0) in Thursday’s 8 a.m. championship game at jetBlue Park. Team Elite worked its way past No. 5 Stealth 2020 Founders, 11-5, in a game also played on a jetBlue Complex back-field.
The game between the Squad 15u Prime and the Roos 15u Americans featured a ton of offense – the 15u Prime totaled 14 hits, the Roos 15u Americans 10 – and plenty of drama at the end.
Top Tier jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first but Elite Squad plated three in the bottom of the third, one in the fourth and four in the fifth to take an 8-2 lead in to the sixth. The Roos 15u Americans pushed one across in the top of the sixth to cut the lead five at 8-3 before making t\things particularly interesting in the seventh.
A flurry of activity at the plate cut the lead to 8-5, and at that point they had the bases loaded – the tying run at first and the go-ahead run at the plate – with no one out. Enter Joel Perez, the Squad 15u Prime’s regular shortstop turned right-handed reliever, who promptly induced an infield pop-fly out and an infield double-play ground ball. Game over.
“They’ve been swinging it well all week; we keep preaching ‘keep swinging, keep swinging and good things are going to happen,’” Morrison when asked about his team’s hot bats. “We kind of have an organizational motto – ‘Swing hard in case you hit it’ – and they played today the way Elite Squad is supposed to play, no matter which team, no matter which age-group.
“But hats off to Top Tier; they gave us a great run there,” he added. “That’s a great ballclub over there on the other side of the field.”
D’Mani Scarbriel led the Squad Prime 15u with a triple, two singles (one a bunt single) an RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base; Riley Rosario doubled, singled, drove in a run and scored a run. Additionally, Luke Orlando tripled and had two RBI and Kolby Avens singled and drove in a pair.
“They came out and got that early lead, but then we came back and we fought through it the whole game and put up some runs; we didn’t give up at all,” Scarbriel said. “This win means a lot to us – we’re like a family – and just to get to the championship game and (hopefully) bring home a ring, it means everything.”
Logan O’Brien and Alexander Haire each doubled and singled for Top Tier; O’Brien drove in a run, scored two and stole two bases and Haire scored twice and swiped two bags. Tony Watson delivered a pair of singles and scored a run.
“I’ve been real pleased with the way we’ve been performing,” Top Tier Roos 15u Americans head coach Davidson Peguero said during pregame comments. “We’ve been in tight games where we’ve really battled back, and it’s been ‘they score, we score; they score, we score.’
“Just the adversity our guys have went through and how they’ve been able to battle through that, it makes me feel good as a coach that these kids really do care; we’ve had a great summer.”
The Roos 15u Americans were 19-3 this summer before playing in Wednesday’s 15u PG BCS National Championship semifinal game, according to Peguero. As the end of the summer season approaches, his young players are getting used to the grind that is part of the reality at these weeklong tournaments, although it can begin to take its toll.
But he’s been extremely proud of the way they’ve faced any and all obstacles simply by taking the tired-but-true “one-game-at-a-time” approach.
“When it comes to 15-year-olds, it can hard for them at some points because their brains are still developing and they’re still wandering at times,” Peguero said. “We as a coaching staff try to keep them focused on what our main goal is and what we’re trying to achieve here.”
Morrison sensed as the tournament went on – and despite a loss in each three-game segment of pool-play – that his players were gaining more and more confidence. Over the last three days, in particular, the team started getting hot and playing much better as the players became more comfortable in their roles and their ability to do their jobs.
“We started off with a down game on (June 30) and since then it’s just kind of been, ‘Next guy up, do your job,’” he said. “We continuously preach as an organization about a culture revolving around energy, and playing the game correctly and fundamentally sound.”
The specific challenge with the 15u age-group is keeping the young players on track and on pace – on task, really – while reminding them of the tremendous opportunities they’ve been given, both as members of the Elite Squad organization and the larger baseball community as a whole.
No one is trying to fool anyone else; Morrison knows his squad will have its hands full with the Team Elite 15u Prime Thursday morning, and that’s all right. He feels like if his guys just keep playing what he calls “Elite Squad baseball” – making the routine plays, coming up with some timely hits and just playing fundamentally sound – the PG national championship trophy will be totally up for grabs. And that’s true even when the opponent is the undefeated, No. 1 seed.
“This is almost like a ‘March Madness’ type of event because I don’t think the seedings mean too much, to be honest,” he said. “There are a lot of good teams and there are always a lot of upsets early on, and that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
And as far as the Elite Squad 15u Prime being the “other” Elite Squad that no one paid any attention to at the outset of the 15u PG BCS National Championship? That conversation and conjecture is better left all in the family.
“We don’t look at it as one team being better than the other,” Morrison said. “I think, more than anything, it’s a statement about just how deep (the) Elite Squad (organization) is. We had two teams (in the playoffs) and while one was more heavily favored than the other, we still got one into the final game.”