FORT MYERS, Fla. – Elite Squad Baseball has a history of sending talented teams carrying rosters that are stocked with elite prospects to the Perfect Game BCS National Championships – regardless of age-group – every year, and this year’s ES 15u National team certainly lives up to that expectation.
With just a couple of exceptions, it’s a team made up of class of 2022 prospects – players who will be high school sophomores in the fall – who for an eight-day period are looking to come into their own and establish themselves as a legitimate Perfect Game national championship tournament contender.
There is already star-power on this team with Logan Forsythe, a right-hander/infielder/outfielder who PG ranks as the No. 20 overall national prospect amongst the 2022s (No. 6 right-hander) and who has already committed to Mississippi State.
He’s not on a one-man island, either. Forsythe is complemented very nicely by at least a dozen of other highly regarded prospects just in their second summer seasons of really getting on the PG scouting department’s radar. They’re thrilled to be here, too, playing in the first of three 15u PG national championships that will bring an end to their PG summer of fun.
“It’s super fun, playing against all these good teams and playing against all these ranked players,” Forsythe told PG on Saturday, noting that on Friday the Squad 15u National faced No. 17-ranked 2022 left-hander Blaise Grove, who was with Forsythe at last year’s PG 14u Select Baseball Festival here in Fort Myers.
“It was just a lot of fun playing against him and everybody else who is ranked,” he added, “and all the scouts that are here makes everything competitive and fun.”
This roster includes No. 131-ranked 2022 middle-infielder Blake Cyr, but Cyr is sitting this one out with a minor injury before returning to play at the PG 15u WWBA National Championship in the Atlanta area early next month. No. 156-ranked 2022 right-hander/outfielder Maison Martinez, top-1,000 2022s in outfielder/left-hander Mel Rubiera and outfielder/infielder Ryan Cainzos are here and suited-up, adding to the everyday fun.
Other key contributors five games into this thing include 2022s KC Anchors, Blake Gollott, Aiden Macks, Hunter Pankey, Abdriel Delgado, Matthew Mesa, Jake Santos and Patrick Galle, and 2023 Bryant Zayas.
It should come as no surprise that the Elite Squad 15u National roster is dominated by Florida players – the organization is based in Pembroke Pines – but a trio of Mississippians have infiltrated the ranks with Forsythe leading the way. The others are the left-hander Gollott from Saucier and 2022 righty Patrick Galle from Biloxi.
Macks, a 2022 high-follow outfielder/corner-infielder, is another interloper, of sorts, joining the Squad 15u National by way of Robertsdale, Ala.
“It feels really good being around these guys because you’re a lot more comfortable when you go out there,” the right-hander Martinez said, speaking to the talent level of his teammates. “You’re like, I’m playing for a really good team and I’ve got these guys behind me … and I can relax and let my team play with me because they’re all so good.”
Head coach Scott Morrison has been coaching at the 15u level for Elite Squad program founder Richie Palmer for several years now and has a pretty good read on these guys who have now reached their mid-teens and living the baseball life as they know it. There are, like just about anything in life, plenty of ups and downs.
“It definitely can be difficult,” Morrison said. “Fifteen years old is a great age and it’s a difficult age to manage. With the rain that we experienced and having to play three (games) on the last day of the first pool-play (set) was a struggle.”
The Squad 15u National’s tournament opener against FTB Tucci-Orlando 15u on Wednesday was suspended by rain in the third inning and had to be completed the following day. The Squad already had games scheduled with the Kentucky Mustang Arsenal and The Commanders Baseball Academy on Thursday, but it was no big deal. Technically, it was just 2½ games in one day and most importantly for the Squad, they won all three.
It was a lot of baseball in about a 12-hour period but as the summer goes on these 15-year-olds begin to mature and gain an appreciation for what needs to be done in order to stay focused and make a deep run into the playoffs.
This is a team, Morrison said, with hitters that are very good at extending at-bats by working deep into counts. The coaching staff stresses the importance of getting on base because nothing can happen until there are baserunners who are then moved into scoring position.
“I think we do a lot of the little things right most of the time,” he said. “We can’t go deep at any point (in a game) like some of our teams in the past as far as the power is concerned, but we can run and we can play defense. We’re able to do some things maybe a little bit differently than a prototypical Elite Squad team from the past.”
These guys are also aware of the Elite Squad program’s history of success at the PG BCS National Championships – titles at 15u in 2009, 16u in 2014 and 17u in both 2015 and 2018 – and are starting to realize what is all involved in becoming a PG national champion.
Logan Forsythe, the top player on this team, can bring valuable perspective. The 6-foot, 160-pound prospect from D’lberville, Miss., is a month shy of his 16th birthday and has already been a part of more than 30 PG events, including last year’s PG 14u Select Baseball Festival.
“It’s fun with this group all the time,” he said of his teammates. “The coaches are awesome; the players are awesome. They’re always making jokes but they’re always into the game, too, and that makes it easier to have fun. … Here, you get to hang out with the players the whole time and then go out and play against all these good teams.”
Forsythe has generally played up an age-group since joining the Elite Squad program and has been named to seven all-tournament teams since 2016. He won three PG Youth tournament championships with Elite Squad in 2017 and three WWBA championships with the group, one each in 2017, ’18 and ’19.
All of the exposure and all of the accolades accelerated his college recruitment and he wasted no time in deciding to become an MSU Bulldog.
“I never expected to commit so early,” he told PG with a smile. “I was going to wait, look at everything and then make my decision, but I just fell in love with Mississippi State. With the new stadium and everything they’ve got it was just awesome.”
The Squad 15u National won their first three-game, pool-play set by a combined score of 37-7 and then won its first game of the second set on Friday by a 9-5 count. They hit a speed bump on Saturday, dropping a 6-3 decision to Upper Deck Select 15u at Terry Park but are still in good position to secure a playoff spot in the top-tier Championship Bracket.
The PG 15u BCS National Championship uses a unique format and an explanation of the format can be found by following this link. It requires everyone, including the coaches, to make an adjustment in the way they go about things.
“It’s definitely different and I think experience definitely plays a big role from a coaching perspective and a planning perspective,” Morrison said. “When your top arms have to throw and making sure that they’re available later on in the tournament.”
This tournament is also a “very good warm-up” for the 15u WWBA National Championship and the 15u PG World Series in July, according to Morrison, because it requires a team to play 10 games just to reach the championship game. It can become a war of attrition with even more of the same to follow.
“I just go out and play; it’s not that big of a deal to me,” Forsythe said. “It kind of gives our arms a little bit of rest, so it’s all good.”
Added Martinez: “It’s been a really good experience; there are a lot of good teams out here. We’ve had to play hard and we’ve played a lot of baseball, and I’m looking to play a lot more.”
The BCS National Championship is also the only one of the three national championship events (BCS, WWBA, World Series) that uses metal bats. Morrison likes putting metal back in his hitters’ hands for this week in early summer because it can help the guys who might have been struggling a little bit with wood bats to regain some of their confidence.
“The two events after this are the biggest of the summer between the WWBA and the (15u PG) World Series and we need to be clicking on all cylinders, so playing 10 games to win it all with the metal bat is definitely a benefit,” he said.
For the next four days, these guys’ sole focus will be on winning the PG 15u BCS National Championship; the WWBA and World Series can wait.
“We need them to keep doing what they’re doing, just playing hard, playing one pitch at a time and keep playing for the other guys on the field,” Morrison said. “Whatever happens, happens, but as long as they leave it all on the field, you can’t really ask for anything more than that.”
“We just need to go out there and play hard; play as a team,” Martinez concluded. “Just go out do what you love.”