FORT MYERS, Fla. – Defending champion …

Those two words, which kind of roll off the tongue, resonate across the country’s sports conversations and it doesn’t really seem to matter which sport is being discussed. When a team is identified as the “defending champion” it tells the listening audience that this is a group that has been there and done that and understands what’s involved – what it takes – to win a championship.

Amateur travel baseball is kind of a different animal simply because of age-group divisions. It is rare, indeed, for the “defending champion” to return to an event with the same team that brought home championship hardware the year before.

And such is the case with the Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Elite Squad, a nationally prominent organization that one year ago wore the crown at the 2017 Perfect Game WWBA Underclass World Championship.

The Squad is back here in Southwest Florida this week with a roster that doesn’t really resemble the one that took home the title a year ago. But that doesn’t mean the 2017 championship has lost any of its relevancy.

“It’s relevant in terms of a standard, with the expectations for these kids,” Elite Squad president/general manager/head coach Richie Palmer told PG Friday morning, speaking from just outside of George Brett Field at the Terry Park Complex.

“Now, it is a completely different group and we can’t go out and assume because we won it last that, hey, we’re just going to be back in the finals,” he continued. “There are too many good teams out here for us to go out and be like, ‘We’re going to be (playing) on the final day; we should win it again.’”

Palmer knows from where he speaks because it was his Elite Squad 16u team that played the role of spoiler a year ago. It went 2-1-0 in pool-play, entering the playoffs as the No. 42 seed, and then rattled off six straight wins including a 4-1 victory over the Florida Burn Platinum 2019 in the championship game.

“Last year was special,” 2017 PG WWBA Under World Most Valuable Player Gavin Casas told PG on Friday. “We came out here and we knew we had a good team, and we knew that the competition is always good here. We expected to go deep in the tournament and we just kept performing and things went our way.

“Things just keep rolling and everything just goes your way, it seems,” he recalled. “Everybody plays as a team and then you just end up winning.”

There are four top 2020 prospects on this weekend’s Elite Squad roster that were part of the that championship run a year ago: left-hander/outfielder Timothy Manning (No. 55-ranked nationally, Florida commit; shortstop Jordan Carrion (No. 63, Florida); the corner-infielder Casas (No, 108, Vanderbilt) and right-hander Nate Thomas (No. 307, Miami).

Those guys got a taste for what it’s like to battle right up until the last pitch at a PG national championship tournament is thrown, and they responded. Carrion and Thomas joined the MVP Casas on the all-tournament team.

They were younger underclassmen in 2017 but this weekend they will be asked to show their leadership skills. Palmer has brought up five 2021s to fill some roster spots: right-hander/ infielder Nick Anello (No. 24, Miami); infielder Alex Ulloa (No. 55, Miami); infielder/right-hander Juhlien Gonzalez (No. 65, Florida International); utility Justin Webster (t-1,000, Miami) and right-hander Connor Manning (t-1,000). The 2021s will look to all of the 2020s for some guidance along the way.

“Last year, (the four returnees) kind of got to get their feet wet and go through the experience; this year we’re going to look to them for leadership,” Palmer said. “When the tough moments come up, whether it’s talking to their teammates or whether its stepping up in a big moment because they’ve kind of done this before.

“It definitely helps to have that experience, and the fact that they’ve gone through this before, we’re going to lean on them, to be honest with you.”

The shortstop Carrion agreed: “With me and Gavin and the other guys that have been here, (the younger players) look up to us and we’re trying to do the best we can for the team,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge for us, too, because we’ve never been in this role, but I expect us to get the job done at the end of the day. We’re hard workers and we’re a group of guys who like to win. We’re a hard-working team so I expect us to make a (long) run at this tournament.”

This roster is peppered with highly ranked 2020s who have already made their college commitments, with guys like Jamar Fairweather (No. 46, Miami), Ben Vespi (No. 87, Central Florida), Coby Mayo (No. 98, Central Florida), Giuseppe Ferraro (No. 168, Miami), Nelson Berkwich (No. 181, Vanderbilt) and Alex Rodriguez (No. 238, Southern California). Colin Flynn (Central Florida) and Christopher Kahler (George Washington) have committed but are outside the top-500 in the rankings.

There are also some top prospects here that haven’t yet committed: Lucas Nido (No. 457), Kolbe Aven (No. 477), Alan Espinal (t-500) and Matthew Ruiz (t-500), to name a few. Those are the guys who can really benefit from their participation at the PG WWBA Under World, with hundreds of colleges sending coaches here to recruit the best available talent.

“If you’re uncommitted, this is the most important event of the fall for you,” Palmer said. “I know a lot of people talk about Jupiter (PG WWBA World Championship) … because it’s such great event, but I tell these underclassmen, this is your Jupiter; this is for you. If you’re lucky enough to go experience Jupiter as a junior, great, however this is what you guys have to prepare for.”

The roster that Palmer brought here in 2017 – the players that won the whole darn thing – was not the most talented roster his program has ever had, he admitted. But it was a tight-knit team with players that had played a lot of games together before arriving at this event and one that competed the right way. It was, in Palmer’s words, a “battle-tested” group and it went out and played like it.

On the other hand, this 2018 roster is one of the better groups he’s had from a talent standpoint, Palmer said. But even though the players all know one another – they all played in the program this summer, most at 16u level but several at 17u – this event also marks the first time most of them have played on the same team together which can present challenges.

“We have a bunch of good guys, but I personally haven’t played with a lot of them yet,” Casas said, noting that he played up with one of the Elite Squad 17u teams this summer. “I know they’re a good group of guys and hopefully we can pull together and achieve what we did last year.”

Carrion remembers that last year’s WWBA Under World became, in his word, a “grind” but also remembers what a great feeling it was when the team prevailed in the end. Everyone worked hard, he recalled, and they were able to pull it out even when the players were running on fumes.

“I’m excited to go out and defend our title but I know it’s not going to be easy; no Perfect Game tournament is ever easy to win,” Palmer said. “I’m grateful that we won it last year because it was such a good experience for those kids, and it kind of set a precedent with the expectations.

“I think it’s good because when they go to college there are going to be expectations … and even though it’s going to be a new team every year, the expectation never changes.”

The Squad got off to a good start in defense of their championship when they run-ruled the New York-based Niagara Thunderwolves Showcase, 9-1 in six innings, on Friday. Ruiz singled twice, drove in a pair of runs and scored one, Winston Parke singled and drove in two and Vespi tripled, had an RBI and scored once.

The 2020 left-hander Berkwich and the 2021 righty Gonzalez combined a one-run, three-hitter striking out seven and walking two. Gonzalez pitched the last 3 2/3 shutout innings, allowing one hit, striking out three and walking one.

Coming into the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship, and coming in as the defending champion, Palmer wasn’t really sure what the conversation he was going to have with his players was going to sound like. This is a whole new group, after all, and one that really didn’t have much to do with last year’s championship.

“I don’t know if I’ll go out here and focus on the results of it as opposed to just playing the game the right way,” Palmer concluded. “If this was the same exact team (from last year) that I was bringing back, I’d talk about defending the title, I’d talk about the expectations that come with it. But with these guys I think my approach is going to be, hey look, just go have fun.”