SURPRISE, Ariz. – The first and quarterfinal rounds of the playoffs at this week’s Perfect Game WWBA Underclass Fall National Championship Protected by G-Form were contested Sunday at the Surprise Stadium MLB spring training complex, and there was a lot of familiarity among the combatants.
College coaches/recruiters and other knowledgeable observers can always expect to see representatives of notable western programs like GBG, Southern California Bombers, MountainWest and PNW competing in bracket-play. And, not to be forgotten, CBA.
The California Baseball Academy’s lone entrant in the 16-team bracket this weekend were the CBA Bulldogs, which are based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and they came in as the No. 1 seed. The guiding light for the Mustangs at this particular event was the popular and well-respected Joe Spiers, a director for the CBA organization and the Bulldogs’ head coach.
It’s a team that claimed the No. 1 seed because over the last two days it outscored its three pool-play opponents by a combined 29-1, and it’s also a team that has bought into Spiers’ “First of all, let’s have some fun” approach to the game.
“They’re talented, but I think they’re probably one of the more blue-collar groups we’ve had,” Spiers told PG on Sunday, speaking from the Royals’ side of the Surprise Stadium complex. “All the while, whatever the score is, whether we’re winning or losing, they seem to have fun with what they do, which is a big part of what brings their best to the table. … Probably not one of the most talented groups we bring out but definitely one of the hardest working.”
Despite Spiers’ breakdown, this is a talented team. 2021 No. 297-ranked catcher/third baseman Danny Briones and 2021 top-500 infielder/right-hander Sebastian "Pollo" Flores have both committed to San Diego State; 2021 shortstop/outfielder/right-hander Elvin Delic came in ranked No. 301. Infielder/outfielder/right-hander Tate Shimao is the most highly regarded 2022, ranked at No. 289.
For a team to finish pool-play at 3-0-0 and outscore those three foes by a combined 29-1, it obviously had to be doing a lot of things pretty well. Those numbers were a bit skewed, however, by a 21-0 tournament-opening win over Advanced Baseball Academy 2022 Boegel, a game that featured a 14-run fifth inning and five ABA 2020 errors that resulted in 19 of the runs being unearned.
But there were solid performances throughout pool-play. Six pitchers allowed only one earned run over 19 innings (0.37 ERA) on 13 hits with 25 strikeouts and eight walks. Flores threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout striking out 10, and 2021 righty Ruben Vera III delivered five shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out six.
“They competed well,” Spiers said of his pitchers. “We don’t have any flame-throwers, but they’ll go out there and throw strikes with their fastball and their secondary pitches. Our defense does a good job behind them, and our pitchers kind of loosen up a little bit and they attack the zone, and it really helps them out just to know that they have defense behind them.”
Shimao tripled and drove in five runs in those three wins (4-1 over the PNW Freshmen and 4-0 over perennial power AZ T-Rex Easton were the others), Davis Hildebrandt collected four hits, including a double, and drove in four and Nathan Thompson also doubled and drove in four.
“Our coach (Spiers), he gives us good advice on how to play the game and playing smart,” Flores told PG on Sunday. “I know we’re not the biggest team here, but he (talks about) executing plays and making the right decisions, and that’s how we win games, basically.”
Added Briones: “We’ve all played with each other and we all go to similar high schools, so playing with each other now it was pretty easy just to get along and just come out here and play.”
This Bulldogs’ roster represents a nice assemblage of 2021, 2022 and 2023 grads who were motivated to travel to the west Phoenix suburbs and compete for a PG WWBA national championship trophy and get fitted for PG WWBA national championship rings. Spiers likes having the opportunity to get the younger guys under the older guys’ wings.
“It’s kind of been like that since we began, when our 2015, ’16 and ’17 grads kind of led the way and set the example for these guys that are here now,” he said. “It’s really kind of cool to see how the players get it and they want to give back to the guys that are underneath them and they take command and teach them the ways, so to speak. We kind of expect that from every generation when it comes to our program.”
As evidence of that, former CBA Marucci player Cody Freeman joined Spiers in the dugout during Sunday’s game as a very interested observer. Freeman was a fourth-round pick of the Texas Rangers last June and spent the summer playing in the Rookie Level AZ League and he is currently taking part in the Arizona Instructional League, which runs through October; the Royals and the Rangers are neighbors at the Surprise complex during spring training.
It’s a recent history of success that resonates with the current players:
“I don’t know if I can really explain it, but it’s a great feeling understanding that you get the chance to be able to play with some of the best guys, and you get some of the best coaching that you can possibly get around here,” Briones said when asked about having the opportunity to slip on a CBA jersey.
“I love CBA; I’ve been playing with CBA since I was about 11 (years old),” he added. “I’ve been sticking around with CBA for quite a while. Everybody here, they’re just great people.”
Flores acknowledged that CBA is a big organization with dozens of teams at all age-levels but he also described a distinct feeling of “family” among all the players and coaches. He took a moment to look back on Friday when the team got together for the first time and went out and won, 21-0.
“That first day we all clicked, especially with our coach, too, because of how he is – (Spiers is) always fun and energetic, so we really clicked with each other, basically,” he said before adding that Spiers also stresses a disciplined approach to the game.
“If we don’t communicate (the coaches) get on us about it. If there’s somebody that we don’t know, they want us to introduce ourselves to them just to make them feel welcome.”
Spiers built on that theme: “Their success is contagious amongst their peers. They see that one kid is doing something well and then they feel like they can do it themselves. Just the belief they can come out here and beat anybody kind of moves them along.
“I definitely believe success breeds success especially when you have a good group of kids that work hard at home and they come to these events and they want to show well.”
After that relative waltz through pool-play, the CBA Bulldogs faced No. 16-seeded GBG Vegas in the playoffs’ first round. The guys from Vegas pushed across three runs in the top of the third but the Bulldogs tied it with two in the fourth and one in the fifth; Hildebrandt, Shimao and Briones each drove in a run.
With the Bulldogs 2021 left-hander Nick Zellers and 2021 righty Tyson Patrick, and GBG Vegas 2022 right-hander Adrien Martin doing a nice job of shutting the opposing hitters down, the game was still tied at three after seven, putting in place tie-breaker rules (bases loaded, one-out) to start the eighth.
Vegas 2022 proceeded to score three runs in the top-half of the frame, the Bulldogs couldn’t answer in the bottom half, and the No. 16 seed advanced to the quarterfinals with the 6-3 eight-inning win.
The ‘Dogs were defeated and down, but certainly not out.
“It’s a part of our culture,” Spiers said. “We have fun and obviously we go about our business the way we feel is the right way. We try to go hard and all the while we’ve got to be laughing and having fun and joking around, otherwise there’s no point in playing the game if it’s not fun.
“That’s our culture, I think, and at the end of the day whether we win or lose we know we got a lot out of the day we know we competed for the most part, and we get to go home and hold our heads high.”
Underclass Fall semifinal pairings set
Semifinal games at the PG WWBA Underclass Fall National Championship Protected by G-Form will be played at 8 a.m. Monday on the Dodgers’ side of the Camelback Ranch MLB Cactus League spring training complex.
The No. 8 AZ Athletics 2021 Founders Club (5-0-0) from Peoria, Ariz., and the No. 5 So Cal Birds (5-0-0) out of Corona, Calif., will meet in one semifinal. The other semi matches the No. 15 Southern California Bombers 2021 (4-1-0) from Murrieta, Calif., against No. 3 GBG Marucci Navy 2021 (5-0-0) from Manhattan Beach, Calif.
GBG Marucci Navy 2021 will look to give GBG Navy teams a clean sweep of the PG Fall National Championships. The 2020 and 2022 teams won last week’s Upperclass and Freshman events, respectively.