CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The 16th annual Perfect Game WWBA Kernels Foundation Championship enjoyed its official kickoff at chilly and overcast Perfect Game Field-Veterans Memorial Stadium on Friday evening in what is becoming traditional fashion.
The Iowa Select organization’s premier upperclass entry – this year playing under the name Iowa Select Black 2019 – serves as the event’s unofficial host and for the last several years has been the home team in the opener at PG Field-VMS, the summertime home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Twins Class A affiliate in the Midwest League.
While the Iowa Select Black’s appearance in the opener has become traditional, the event format this year is anything but. Instead of teams being divided into pools and then earning a spot in the playoffs, this year’s 64 teams are competing in bracket-play from the get-go.
A loss immediately eliminates a team from championship contention and sends it into consolation play; simply put, there are no do-overs. That looms large because the champion of the Kernels Foundation Championship is awarded a paid berth into next month’s exclusive PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.
“Now, you have to win every game,” Iowa Select Black 2019 head coach Jack Sole told PG on Friday before his team took the field against West Chicago-based Force Elite Baseball. “You can’t just play for tomorrow, you’ve got to play for today and then make sure you’re able to play tomorrow with a purpose.
“Not that you don’t play every game here with a purpose – we’ve got a lot of schools and pro (scouts) here to watch – but today is what matters.”
The Select Black 2019s dropped Force Elite 8-0 in five innings to comfortably move into Saturday’s round-of-32 but that doesn’t mean the pressure is off. They will have to win that game to keep advancing, which means winning round-of-16 and quarterfinal games on Sunday if they hope to play in Monday’s semifinals (and, ultimately, the championship game). This Iowa Select Black 2019 team looks to have the make-up and chemistry to get the job done.
The core has been together for nearly three years now and won last year’s PG WWBA Underclass Qualifier held here in Eastern Iowa. Iowa Hawkeyes commit Peyton Williams from Johnston was the event’s MVP and uncommitted left-hander Tate Kuehner from Marshalltown was the Most Valuable Pitcher.
“Jack does a great job with them,” Select Black 2019 assistant coach Leo Frazier told PG Friday, speaking of Sole. “He’s got a ton of experience, he knows the game, he can teach the game, and he teaches them how to play it the right way for them to move onto the next level. That’s what we’ve always been about is trying to help them to understand what it takes to get to the next level and be prepared for that level.”
The Select Black 2019s are dealing with some minor injuries that have kept players like Williams home. And, since these are Iowa kids, many of them are multi-sport athletes who missed Friday night’s game because they playing for their school’s football team.
“What’s been awesome about this group is that everything we’ve done they’ve been really interested in being there and playing hard,” Sole said. “Ultimately the other guys that are playing are just as good. There are no excuses on who’s good or bad or any of that. We’ve got guys that are just doing things at the right time and they enjoy what they’re doing; it’s a real team atmosphere here.”
This Iowa Select Black roster was constructed using the same blueprint of the Iowa Select Black teams that came before it. Twenty players are listed on the event’s official roster and 19 of them attend Iowa high schools, most of the Class 4A (big school) variety.
These guys are the epitome of meat-and-potatoes performers, each of whom is a senior at his respective high school (class of 2019). Williams, a first baseman/outfielder, leads the national prospect rankings parade at No. 432 (No. 2 Iowa) but a minor injury has sidelined him this weekend; eight others are ranked as top-500 prospects nationally.
Right-hander/third baseman Jackson Vines, another Iowa commit from Johnston, is a top-500 who comes in at No. 5 in the Iowa state rankings.
The other top-500s are Dubuque middle-infielder Sam Link (No. 7 Iowa, Iowa commit); Cedar Falls catcher/corner-infielder Casey Tole (No. 9, SW Missouri State); Robins catcher Garrett Ries (No. 10, South Dakota State); Cedar Rapids outfielder Drake Frazier (No. 11, South Dakota State); Ely right-hander Clayton Hromidko (No. 13); Dubuque left-hander Zachary Bierman (No. 16, Creighton) and Chicago middle-infielder Lorenz Elion, the only non-Iowan on the roster.
Unranked Marion left-hander Richard Atkins is a South Dakota State commit and Altoona infielder Adam Schneider has committed to Minnesota State.
“The thing about this group is that it’s a ‘team,’” Sole said. “Everybody just gets a long really well, everybody has their role and everybody seems to play their role; it’s just kind of fun. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve been through the groups with the (A.J.) Puks and (Mitch) Kellers and (Keaton) McKinneys and my own kid, J.T., but this about as much of a ‘team’ as I’ve been involved with.”
The prospect rankings are what they are and as the tried but true saying goes should be used the same way an intoxicated person uses a street lamp pole: more for support than illumination. But a player ranked in the top-500 nationally and in the top-15 in his state is obviously someone the respected PG scouting department holds in high regard.
“Our Iowa guys are always going to be a little bit behind the curve in those rankings because they just don’t get to play enough,” Frazier said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are kind of hidden gems who will be a lot better in college than they are today and who will progress very quickly throughout college.”
Sole was in complete agreement:
“These are the kind of Iowa players that a lot of people don’t see as that big (impact) player,” he said. “But they all individually really carry themselves well and all of them are going to have some opportunities someday. … I could see four or five, even six or seven of these guys playing professional baseball someday.
“Most of these guys have not hit their spots yet; they’re a couple of years away. They’re big, physical guys that once they hit their stride they can be impact guys with their programs and at the next level.”
The Select Black 2019s showed they felt right at home in the win over Force Elite Baseball. They used 14 hits – all singles – to plate their eight runs, and seven of the eight were earned despite four Force Elite fielding errors.
Elion collected two of those singles, drove in a pair of runs and scored one; Austin Simpson was 2-for-2 with a ribbie and a run; Schneider had two hits and scored twice; DJ Heck was 2-for-3 with an RBI; Drake Frazier singled twice and scored, as did Bryce Phelps; Casey Sole and Link had a single apiece while also driving in two runs apiece. And Kuehner, the 2019 lefty from Marshalltown, threw four, two-hit shutout innings, striking out three and walking two.
“We always want to have a great team showing, that’s number-one; it’s always our goal to win this tournament,” Leo Frazier said. “And, with that, we should have some very solid individual showings so they can showcase their talents in order to either solidify their standing within the program they’ve already committed to. Or, for the uncommitted guys, impress the programs that are wanting to see them.”
While Iowa Select Black 2019 can rightly be identified as the “flagship” team of the Iowa Select program, it is not the program’s only entrant in this event: Iowa Select Royal 2019, IS Black 2020 and IS Royal 2020 are also competing for that coveted Jupiter berth. Getting used to the new single-elimination bracket-play format requires a different mindset, and Frazier thinks these Iowa Select Black 2019 players understand what it’s all about.
“It’s win (today) or you’re not going to be able to win it all, so it makes a big difference in how you approach every game,” he said. “You’ve got to win every game from the start and you can’t take any time off and we’ve got to have the guys ready to go immediately. There’s no time to slack off and make it up in pool-play.”
And these Iowa guys? Well, one thing is for certain: they are not slackers.