PEORIA, Ariz. – The team members gathered on one of the Seattle Mariners’ practice fields at the Peoria Sports Complex promptly at 9:30 Friday morning in eager anticipation of their 10:30 opener at the inaugural Perfect Game WWBA Upperclass Fall National Championship Protected by G-Form.
The CAB Soldiers traveled south and east from their homes in Northern California, looking to make some big-time noise with their wood bats at this PG national championship event. They’re here with 79 other teams from a dozen states hoping to take home PG championship banners, T-shirts, trophies and, of course, those coveted rings.
“It’s one of those tournaments where we can get out here and play against the top competition,” top 2018 shortstop/right-hander Ricky Martinez told PG Friday morning. “We have a great group of guys out here right now, and I always love coming out here and competing with these guys.”
The Soldiers showed fine form in getting out of the gate with a 7-3 tournament-opening win over the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based MVP Baseball Red, a victory fueled by the bat of Martinez.
A Baylor commit, Martinez singled, doubled, tripled, drove in a run, scored three others and stole a base to pace CAB. He was one of six Soldiers to account for nine hits and was also one of six to record an RBI; Martin Chavarria blasted a solo home run in the top of the sixth.
Three 2018 right-handers – Connor Robinson, Kevin Pence and Luke Tillman – combined to allow the Red’s three runs on seven hits while striking out five in a game called after six innings because of the 2-hour time limit rule.
The CAB Soldiers were at this event’s precursor the last two years, and those teams previously enjoyed a fair amount of success. This will be the final tournament in 2017 for this Soldiers team, although quite a few of the players will hook up with various scout teams and play at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., in late October.
“The guys that are already committed (to colleges) are here helping out the guys that are not committed, so this way we can attract more college coaches to come out and watch our games,” head coach Amador Delgado told PG on Friday. “And the timing of this (tournament) is perfect.”
He said that because a lot of his players – primarily his pitchers – are starting to shut their games down for the season. The CAB organization encourages their players to do just that from late October through the end of December, and then they’ll be back in the west Phoenix suburbs in January for the PG MLK Upperclass Championships. These guys are a tight-knit group that really seem to enjoy playing together.
“It’s just been a great time getting to know these guys personally beyond the baseball level,” top 2018 third baseman/right-hander Alexander Williams said on Friday. “It’s just been a lot of fun and I look forward to hopefully continuing relationships with them in the future; it’s been a blessing to be able to play some baseball with them.”
This Soldiers’ roster of 2018s has been playing together all summer and Delgado noted that about half of the players have been together since they were 10 years old. They are all Northern California kids, coming from cities like San Jose, Sacramento and San Francisco, and the official roster lists nine different high schools that the players attend.
Four of the prospects on that roster are already committed to NCAA Division I programs: No. 125-ranked catcher/third baseman Albert Hsiao (Washington), No. 255 right-hander/corner-infielder Joe Ammirato (California), the top-500 shortstop/right-hander Martinez (Baylor) and the top-500 Williams (Stanford). Hsiao and Ammirato were not with the team Friday but will be joining it on Saturday and should be available for the duration of the tournament.
“They’ve got their high school teams which is great, but these guys can’t wait to get together during the summer and play together and hang out,” Delgado said. “As long as these kids all know each other and come out here and play together, we’re going to have fun.”
When asked to describe this group of Soldiers’ shared personality, the first word to come out of Williams’ mouth was “comical.”
“We have a lot of fun; we joke around a lot,” he said. “That’s the best part, having fun. If you forget about that then why are you even out here? But we know when it’s time to take it serious and when it’s time to play ball. Some of the best times with these guys come off the field in the hotel room or just hanging out; it’s a lot of fun and we have a good time.”
Former MLB national crosschecker Butch Baccala runs the Rancho Cordova-based California Academy of Baseball (CAB) and brought Delgado on board in the summer of 2016. Baccala has been very hands-on with this team and makes himself readily available to the players. The organization he runs also assists with a players’ college recruiting when asked to do so, according to Delgado.
“I’ve been a part of other academies and (Baccala) is the one I’ve stuck with for two years in a row,” he said. “I hope he can keep it going, because he’s delivered. All I care about is the players and exposure, and he’s delivered.”
The association between the players and program has been mutually beneficial it seems: “Back in my eighth-grade year, they pushed me to be my best all the time,” Williams said. “Everybody around me is very encouraging; they expect me to do my best just like I do for them. So, we push each other to be at our best and that definitely helps with the recruiting process.”
This team is trying to make a name for the CAB organization, which by every standard is just starting to get its feet wet as a travel-ball program. But if this group of guys can come in here and compete on equal footing with the more established California programs like California Baseball Academy (CBA), Garciaparra Baseball Group (GBG) and Trosky Baseball which have teams here, that would go a long way toward the program establishing its own brand.
Getting a win in their pool-play opener Friday got the Soldiers headed into the right direction but with only the 20 pool champions advancing to the playoffs, there is still a lot of work to do. They play a double-header on Saturday, with their first game against the AZ T-Rex Baseball Club, a program that won the 2016 version of this event.
The players are confident they can compete with anyone in the field. CAB might not have a historical record of success that some of the other programs that are at the PG WWBA Upperclass Fall National Championship but its prospects know how to compete and win games, and they have the mindset of champions.
“When we come out here we always expect to do really well,” Martinez said. “We’ve got a lot of guys lined up with our pitching and we’ve got a lot of depth, so we always have high expectations.”
His sometimes partner on the Soldiers’ left side of the infield, Williams, agreed: “We expect to win, always. If you don’t expect to win you shouldn’t be here,” he said. “We expect to win, we expect to play well and I expect nothing less.”