FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Molina Stars, a team based in McLean, Va., that carries a roster made up of some pretty heady incoming high school sophomores from five states along the East Coast, are guided by a head coach with a refreshing approach to teaching baseball to 15-year-olds.

The approach is nothing radical, by any means, it’s just one that Pete Greenwood has obviously spent some time considering. After victories in both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the playoffs at this week’s Perfect Game 15u BCS National Championship that has the Stars playing for a PG national championship in Sunday’s PG 15u BCS title game, his words were insightful and to the point.

“When you’re dealing with 15-year-old kids, it’s kind of who makes the fewest mistakes and who takes advantage of the other team’s mistakes; that’s it,” Greenwood told PG not long after the Molina Stars had pulled off the upset of the PG 15u BCS playoffs by beating top prospect-laden Team Elite Prime in the quarterfinals, 8-5 in eight innings; the game was played at the jetBlue Player Development Complex.

“It’s summer baseball and the kids go out there and play,” he added, “and you hope they do well and you hope you don’t get in their way.”

That victory over Team Elite, armed with a roster whose spots were filled by many of the same prospects that won last year’s PG 14u BCS National Championship, sent the Stars into a semifinal against the Tennessee-based eXposure North Prime 15u. It’s a team that also had some history with Team Elite, and many of its top players know their way around some of PG’s biggest national championship tournament stages.

The Molina Stars (7-2-0) were able to stop the North Prime 15u’s (7-2-0), 5-2, and will face Sticks Baseball Academy 2021 Elite (8-0-1) out of Little Rock, Ark., in Sunday’s 8 a.m. championship game at jetBlue Park; Sticks BA 2021 Elite beat the Florida Rebels (6-2-1), 9-1 in Saturday’s other semifinal.

This year’s PG 15u BCS final-four included anything but the usual suspects with pre-tournament favorites Elite Squad 15u National bowing out in the playoffs’ second round and both Team Elite 15u Prime and 5 Star National Black being shown the door in the quarters.

But that only served to make the semifinal pairings all the more intriguing, with four teams not quite so much on the national radar as the aforementioned, but certainly relevant by anyone’s standards.

The Stars’ roster isn’t brimming with nationally ranked prospects. 2021 left-hander/first baseman Dean Kampschror is a Virginia commit ranked No. 194 in his class, and right-hander/outfielder Dan Merkel and catcher/infielder David Zamora are both top-1,000’s in the 2021 class.

But they have some guys who can hit, pitch and play defense, including 2021 infielder Nathan Williams. The 5-foot-10, 145-pounder ripped what proved to be a game-winning three-run triple to the left field corner in the top of the eighth against Team Elite – tie-breaker rules were in place where each half inning starts with the bases loaded and one out – and it was more than enough.

It’s plainly obvious that the Molina Stars really enjoy playing baseball; it’s a game and those who pursue it are supposed to be having fun.

“That’s something we talk about a lot,” Greenwood said. “You go out there and something bad happens, so what? Well, OK, something good might happen, too. In all honesty, these kids are all trying to play at the next level and they’re all trying to make their games better, so this is just another opportunity to get better at baseball. If you play well and you win, great; if you play well and you lose, you still played well.”

Greenwood explained that the Molina Stars program was established when two other programs with players from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia decided to join forces and become one formidable group.

This is the first summer season that this 15u team has played together, but they’ve certainly jelled well, taking an overall PG tournament record of 14-3 after Saturday’s 15u BCS semifinal win.

“What’s really nice is the longer they play together the more of a team it becomes,” Greenwood said. “It’s nice to see how much they really enjoy being around each other.”

The Stars used a big three-run fourth to launch themselves to victory over the North Prime 15u Saturday. Merkel was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Colin Tuft doubled, drove in a run and scored one and Zamora singled and drove in a run. Kampschror made the start and was efficient over 4 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run on five hits while striking out three and walking three.

“A lot of it is the idea of what the purpose of being here is, and that’s how can I improve my game; how can I improve as a baseball player and how I handle myself?” Underwood said. “A lot of it is about what happens when things aren’t going well, and that’s kind of what we preach. …

“A lot of this really does have to do with how you can handle fear and how you can improve when things don’t go well,” he added. “That’s what we’re hoping they get out of the summer.”

EXposure North Prime 15u head coach Chris Goodrich spent the last couple of years coaching the Tennessee Nationals, which finished as runner-up to Team Elite 14u Nation at the 2017 PG 14u BCS National Championship; that was basically the same team of Team Elite top prospects that Molina Baseball eliminated in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.

2021 left-hander Hunter Merrick was named the Most Valuable Pitcher at that event and eight other prospects that are on the eXposure North Prime 15u roster were named to the all-tournament team. Merrick, 2020 Walker Trusley (an East Tennessee St. commit ranked a top-1,000) and 2021s Elijah Galyon (Kentucky, No. 185), Connor Jurek and Derek McCarley were named all-tournament as both hitters and pitchers.

“We’ve kept this core group together and we’ve kind of added a few players each year, but most of these guys have been together … since they were 12-years-old,” Goodrich said. “They’ve been able to compete (at a high level) at 12, at 13, at 14 and now at 15.

“It’s just a testament to them how good of ballplayers they are, and I think what’s undervalued is just the chemistry that these guys have,” he added. “We practice together, we train together, they play together, and that’s all part of the deal.”

Goodrich did point out that he had only 11 players available this weekend including just one catcher, Joey Leo, who started each of the nine games. He actually believes being undermanned helped his team become closer together and win some ballgames because the players embraced the underdog role.

And, it helps that nine of the 11 players could walk out to the mound and contribute some valuable innings if called upon.

Both Underwood and Goodrich spoke about the expectations they have of these young players and how they try to temper those expectations. They are very much on the same page, as it turns out.

“We talk about expectations of effort,” Underwood said. “We don’t talk about expectations outcome; in fact, outcome is rather irrelevant in summer baseball. It’s very much of what you put into it and what you can take away from it.

“What happens at the end of the game, that will take care of itself, but you have expectations of effort,” he continued. “When you walk off the field and you feel of yourself ‘I could have given more’ that’s not a good day.”

“I think sometimes we all get too caught-up (on outcomes) and how we’d all like to make it to the finals, but we’ve just been really relaxed this week,” Goodrich said. “We’ve tried to limit our expectations … and I really think this team enjoys more than anything coming out here and playing together; going through the successes together, going through the failures together.”

Having worked with players at just about every age-group, Underwood has reached the conclusion that age can oftentimes become irrelevant, as well. He believes that no matter if you’re working with players anywhere from 14-years-old up to players performing professionally, it simply comes down to whether that player is receptive to the information he is being provided; it’s about having an open mind.

“I don’t want guys that are looking to be told what to do, I want guys that are trying to learn what to do,” Underwood concluded. “I don’t believe a coach in summer ball should be coaching, they should be teaching; I want guys that want to be taught.”