FORT MYERS, Fla. – If there was a trophy awarded at the conclusion of the Perfect Game WWBA Underclass World Championship that went to the team with the most fortitude – the team that got the most out of its roster – it’s difficult to think there would even be a runner-up. Team Louisiana, this one is all yours.
Erath, La.-based Team Louisiana, making do with a roster numbering 12 hard-nosed prospects who seem impervious to the rigors presented by a high-profile, five-day PG national championship tournament, won three times at two separate venues on Sunday and now finds itself playing on into Monday.
No. 12-seeded Team LA rallied from an early four-run deficit to beat No. 4 US Elite 17u National by a 10-5 count in a quarterfinal-round contest played at the jetBlue Park Player Development Complex Sunday afternoon. It will return to jetBlue Monday morning for the playoffs’ semifinals and will be greeted by three other equally gritty and determined teams, each of which will also be looking to take home that coveted PG national championship trophy.
Team Louisiana (6-0-0) has the unenviable task of facing off against the No. 1 Scorpions 2020 Founders Club (6-0-0) out of Florida in one of the morning’s semis. No. 11 Canes National 17 (6-0-0), based in Virginia, and the No. 2 East Cobb Astros (6-0-0) out of Georgia are paired in the other semifinal.
Coached by former big-league right-hander Ben Sheets – he pitched 10 seasons in the majors, the first eight with the Brewers, and was a four-time All-Star – this compact, 12-man Team Louisiana roster is made up about 50/50 with guys who played for Sheets on the Sheets Baseball 15u/16u team this summer and others who played with Team Louisiana.
That Sheets squad finished as runner-up at the PG 15u WWBA National Championship and advanced to the round-of-16 at the PG 16u WWBA National Championship, with both national tournaments being held at the LakePoint complex in Georgia.
2020 Brody Drost and 2021s Seaver Sheets – Ben’s son – Connor Simon and Matthew Russo were on that Sheets Baseball team that achieved success on two of PG’s biggest 15u and 16u WWBA stages. They brought that winning attitude down to Southwest Florida with them this weekend, and they also know how to get by with the minimum number of hands on deck.
“Speaking for the guys I brought, they’re used to (playing short-handed); they’re winners, they’re competitors,” Ben Sheets said. “And I think with the other guys from Team Louisiana, the kids that we got there as a whole are the same type of players because that’s what Team Louisiana is about, too.
“It’s getting the guys out there, letting them play, letting them be a part of the action,” he added. “We’re out here and we’re competing, and I feel like anytime we step on the field we’ve got a chance to win, personally.”
These kids from Louisiana won impressively over the first four days of the tournament. They earned the No. 12 seed – and a bye out of the playoffs’ first-round – by outscoring their three pool-play opponents by a combined 20-3.
They got past No. 21 MLB Breakthrough Series, 6-4, in the playoffs’ second-round and blanked No. 4 FTB Tucci-Berryhill, 4-0, in third-round play before dispensing U.S. Elite 17u National in the quarters.
Team Louisiana scored its 10 runs on 14 hits against U.S. Elite, and did all of its damage after facing a 5-1 deficit at the end of three innings. Just like clockwork, it scored two in the top of the fourth, three in the fifth and four in the sixth, which proved to be more than enough.
Michael Fontenot was a home run short of hitting for the cycle, with a single, double and triple in four trips; he drove in two runs and scored three. Matthew Russo singled, doubled drove in one and scored two; Braden Hough singled twice, had a couple of RBI and scored twice; Drost, an LSU commit, singled twice and scored twice; Charles Burchfield had a pair of one-base hits, drove in a run and scored another. Through these first six games, Dakota Harris has also been a valuable contributor at the plate.
Seaver Sheets, a 2021 right-hander, surrendered the five runs on five hits while striking out two and walking two in four innings. It was more than a serviceable outing if for no other reason than he gave his team four innings. The 2021 righty Simon, another LSU commit, pitched the last two innings without giving up a hit or a run, striking out three and walking three. By the end of day-four, six of the 12 players Coach Sheets had used had both pitched and played the field.
“We’ve got guys filling in out there, and we’ve got position players pitching; we’re having a whole hell of a lot of fun, honestly,” Ben Sheets said. “It’s kind of old-school in a way, and that what I liked about (Team Louisiana director) Jeremy Picard … because he kind of sees it the same way that I did.
“We bring kids to play,” he continued. “They want to play in front of scouts, they want to play against the best competition. They don’t want to sit (in the dugout) and cheer the whole time – not saying they can’t be great teammates – but they want to compete.”
The loss ended a great tournament run for US Elite 17u National, which had pocketed the playoffs’ No. 4 seed on the strength of outscoring its pool-play foes by a combined 26-2. It recorded victories of 4-1 (No. 29 Canes Gold 17) and 3-0 (No. 13 Gatorball 17u) in the second and third rounds of the playoffs, respectively, to set up the meeting with Team Louisiana.
The team boasts a roster of predominately class of 2020 prospects, five of which have already committed to NCAA Division I schools.
“We’ve played complete baseball,” head coach Jeff Grande said of his team’s journey to the quarters. “We’ve gotten tremendous pitching – it all starts with pitching – and we’ve gotten some dominating performances from our pitching staff.
“We’ve played solid defense behind them and we’ve had some really timely hitting,” he added. We’ve just played complete baseball and I think when you do that at this age it puts a lot of pressure on the other teams.”
Grande did make an interesting observation about how challenging bracket-play can be at these PG national championship tournament events. The 15 teams that received first-round byes played three games over the first three days, and then, if they kept winning, were asked to play three games on Sunday alone. Not that anyone is complaining …
“When you get to this day and into tomorrow, the tournament is just starting,” Grande said. “The way I equate this is, they’re just now lining up the horses in the starting gate. We’re trying to figure out how close to the rail do we get to start and now we’re going to run, and we’re going to run and see who’s the top dog, basically.”
It is worth noting that the No. 1-seeded Scorpions 2020 Founders Club was finally scored upon Sunday, but it didn’t happen until the quarters. After outscoring its pool-play opponents 26-0, they kept the scoreless streak going with a 3-0 win over No. 33 FTB Tucci Black in the playoffs’ second round and a 2-0 win over No. 17 Ostingers in the third.
They then moved into the quarters where they faced the No. 9 Richmond Braves National, who promptly put up a six-spot in the top of the first. The Scorps answered with two in first, two in the second, three in the third and one in the fifth on their way to an 8-6 win.
Sheets said that coming into this event he had a simple message for his “dirty dozen.” He simply sold them on the four-game guarantee, telling them that they were going to be playing a minimum of four games over three or four days.
That should give them ample opportunity to play in front of scouts and college coaches and they should make the most of that opportunity. Now, if they wanted extra at-bats or a couple more innings on the mound, they could do that by making a deep run into the playoffs and extending their stay; that will also show those people that they’re winners.
And what about playing two more games on Monday, Sheets likes his team’s chances because he likes his team – all 12 of them.
“I feel like I’ve got good players and if you’re better than my team then you’re pretty damn good, in my opinion,” he concluded. “You might have 20 commits – I don’t know what you have – but I’ve got winners in my dugout and I’ve got great players in my dugout and they find a way.”