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Tournaments  | Story | 7/22/2020

Canes on cruise early at 14U PGWS

Jeff Dahn
Photo: Zach Edwards (Perfect Game)

SANFORD, Fla. – The high level of baseball being played at the 14 and under age level these days is absolutely through the roof with 14U teams from across the country showcasing teenaged prospects whose skill levels often match those of players two or three years their senior.

This week’s invitation-only Perfect Game 14U World Series is a PG national championship tournament that includes a collection of 28 teams and those top 28 have rosters stocked with 13, 14 and 15-year-olds who fans can expect to watch perform at a high level for many, many years to come.



And no organization does a better job of providing those young prospects with an opportunity to compete for national championships then Virginia-based Canes Baseball.

The Canes National 14U is at the BOOMBAH Sports Complex this week looking to improve on the semifinal-round finish they picked up at the PG WWBA 14U National Championship in Hoover, AL, just over a week ago.

The PG 14U World Series is a different animal from the WWBA 14U mega event and that’s by design. Every team here as earned its elite status based on past performance which dramatically levels the playing field. No days off here, folks, and if today was a bad one the players’ and coaches’ memories have to be short because it won’t be any easier tomorrow.

“It’s just baseball and on the days you struggle you just get to comeback,” Canes 14U top 2023 prospect Campbell Smithwick said on Wednesday. “That’s what you want because you get another chance right away the next day. In football, you’ve got to wait a week but in baseball you get right back at it the next day. It’s good and I think it helps out everybody getting to play day after day.”

The first two days here were good ones for the Canes 14U. They topped the Team Colorado Braves, 7-0, on Tuesday with 2024 lefthander BJ Etheridge throwing 3 innings of one-hit, six strikeout ball (no walks) and 2023 righthander Cade Cosper following with 3 2/3 innings of work without allowing a hit and striking out four (one walk); Will Dart singled and drove in two runs, Drake Piersall doubled and drove in one.

On Wednesday, the Canes rallied to beat Team Orlando 14U, 7-3, with Zach Edwards belting a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth that erased a 3-2 deficit. Smithwick doubled and drove in a run and Dillon Adkins and Coy James both contributed singles and RBIs; PJ Morlando doubled and singled.

Winning the championship at any exclusive PG World Series event, regardless of age group, is a tall order. But it may also come as a surprise that winning titles – however satisfying that may be – isn’t what drives the Canes Baseball program and its players, especially at the 14U level.

The biggest thing that Canes Baseball founder and 17U head coach Jeff Petty and the other coaches within the organization, like National 14U head coach Dan Gitzen, talk about with their players are the many steps they’ll have to take along the way in terms of their development as top prospects.

Gitzen expects that many people look at what organizations like Canes Baseball can provide and they think it’s only about exposure to college coaches and pro scouts. In fact, it goes well beyond that.

“We really hit the development side of it,” Gitzen told PG Wednesday morning. “We feel like whether it’s 14, 15, 16 or 17 years old, if this is the biggest step in these kids’ life, then we’re doing them a disservice. They should be developing to go play baseball beyond their high school careers and beyond their amateur careers. And when we have kids at this level, we talk to them about (how) you’re going to hit bumps in the road along the way.”

The top guys on this young roster have so far managed to keep those bumps in the road to a minimum; Andre' Modugno, a 6-0, 190 pound 2024 third baseman from Upper Saddle River, NJ, is a good case in point.

Just a month shy of his 15th birthday, the alumnus of the 2019 PG 13U Select Baseball Festival has already committed to Duke and has risen to the No. 3 spot overall in the PG class of 2024 national prospect rankings.

“Being a part of the Canes program is really a blessing,” Modugno told PG Wednesday. “Playing with all these amazing kids that are already committed to different schools and things like that, it’s really fortunate for me to be able to play here. … It’s really a privilege.”

Edwards, a 6-2, 190 pound righthander/utility out of Riverton, Utah, is up to No. 10 in the 2024 prospect rankings. Smithwick, a 2023 catcher/outfielder from Conway, SC, is an Ole Miss commit ranked No. 93 nationally; Morlando, a 2024 catcher/utility from Landon, SC, has committed to Mississippi State; Litarris Murray, a 2023 outfielder/infielder is ranked No. 137 nationally.

“We really approach the field with a lot of energy,” Modugno said of the mindset he and his Canes 14U teammates try to maintain. “Keeping the dugout nice and loud and keeping (all) the players in the game at all times. We really take the game seriously and whatever happens in the end happens in the end; it’s baseball.”

It’s obvious that this particular group of 2023 and 2024 grads (there are also a couple of 2025 grads rostered) is very talented, an assertion that can be made just by looking at the prospect rankings alone. But is it, from a coach’s perspective, an easy group to work with?

“From a character standpoint, absolutely,” Gitzen said without hesitation. “With any 14-year-old group it’s 14-year-old baseball; they’re going to make mistakes just because they’re 14 years old. But from a character standpoint I don’t have a kid who doesn’t want to work and get better. … There’s never a kid who doesn’t want more swings, there’s never a kid who doesn’t want more instruction, there’s never a kid who doesn’t want to play hard.

“When you have 20 competitors who want to compete, it’s very easy to coach in that retrospect. The hardest thing to do is to figure out which 10 you’re going to put in the lineup.”

This is the third summer that the Canes have fielded a 14U national team beginning with the 2022 grad class, which has now won three straight PG WWBA National Championships (14U in 2018, 15U in 2019 and 16U just last week).

Gitzen explained that it’s relatively easy to find the talented kids who want to come in and be a part of the Canes program. It’s much more difficult to make the decision as to which ones are the right players that should come in, especially at the 14U level when there are still so many unknowns.

“When we bring in a certain type of kid, we try to make the right decision the first time,” Gitzen said. “We really do our homework on what the kid’s ‘fit’ level is. Obviously, we want them to be really good baseball players but we also want it to be a really good fit.”

The Canes National 14U’s experience at the PG WWBA 14U National Championship was bittersweet in some ways. They zipped through pool play, earning the No. 6 playoff seed in the process, and advanced all the way to the final four where they were beaten by the eXposure 14U Prime, 14-10, to finish with a 9-1-0 record.

“Tip the cap to those guys from eXposure – we couldn’t get them out,” Gitzen said. “There aren’t a whole lot of baseball games where you score 10 runs and put up 15 hits and lose. … We talked to (our players) about that, that the next opportunity we’ve got to do something a little bit different … and when it comes to be your turn, you’ve got to be ready to go.”

There’s no catch-phrase for that philosophy, nothing like the “Canes Way” or anything like that. It’s just a culture built on player development starting at a young age and if some PG national championship trophies are collected along the way – and there have been dozens – then, well, that’s all the better.

“The coaches want to develop us players just like they want to develop every other (age group) player in the organization,” Modugno said. “It’s really a blessing to have that type of a coach that cares.”
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