MARION, Iowa – A pre-tournament perusal of the roster belonging to the Green Bay-based Velocity Baseball 2023’s gave no indication of what the rest of the field at the Perfect Game Underclass Midwest Labor Day Classic would see over the event’s abbreviated three-day run.
Only two rostered players, catcher/third baseman Grant Gill and right-hander/utility Nathan Vela appeared in PG’s class of 2023 national rankings, and they were listed as “Follows”. None of the players on the 13-man roster has yet to make a college commitment, really not that unusual for juniors in high school, especially those who haven’t been afforded the opportunities that await so many others with different circumstances.
It’s likely that’s about to change. Armed with a can-do attitude that produced solid performances during pool-play, the Velocity Baseball 2023’s outscored their two opponents by a combined 23-1 and earned the No. 1 seed in Underclass bracket-play. They then blanked the Athletes HQ-2023, 7-0, in a first-round playoff game late Sunday afternoon to move into the semifinal round, putting their run deferential after four games at 30-1.
Quite an accomplishment for a team from a relatively new program headquartered in northern Wisconsin that really only came here so its players could get noticed, get scouted and possibly earn those scholarship offers head coach Jack Collins feels they so richly deserve.
“The exposure, obviously, is pretty important,” Collins told PG Sunday afternoon. “This gives [PG] a chance to look at some of our guys and then their profile can get put together by Perfect Game. A lot of it is just getting them out here, especially the new guys who haven’t played a lot of travel ball. Get them out here to see what kind of competition out of the state, out of the area, they can face...
“That’s kind of the biggest thing, that exposure piece. And then also being able to see everybody not just in our area but in the Midwest and compete against the better teams.”
That was the only expectation coming in, but these guys went above and beyond. Unranked and uncommitted players like Caden Rybicki, Jaden Diller, Christian Counard, Bryce Erdmann and Vela collected multiple hits. Strong arms belonging to Jake Lucas, Kyle Olson, Josh Bowe and Vela delivered precision outings (Vela, who was not present Sunday due a family obligation, threw a 6-inning, two-hit 12-strikeout gem).
Lucas, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound lefty, threw three one-hit, seven-strikeout (5 walks) innings in the playoff victory and had five, three-hit, nine-strikeout shutout innings to his credit overall. They accomplished all of that because that’s what they do when the appropriate opportunities and the platforms present themselves.
“It’s just cool being here again to play in front of all these people,” said Rybicki, who was here with Velocity Baseball at last year’s PG MW LDC. “Getting out there is huge just to let people see how you’re doing and how you play with a team...It’s crazy how it just clicks right away and it’s huge to be able to get out there and be seen by people.”
Gill agreed whole-heartedly with his Velocity Baseball teammate.
“We just all wanted to be here so we were all working hard all over the summer, all over the spring, all over the winter; we all just worked our butts off to get here,” he said. “Our pitching has been great; we got our bats going and we just kept on competing."
The Velocity Baseball program came into being two years ago with two teams, 17u and 15u groups, grew to four teams in 2020 and this year has five in the 13u-17u age groups. Their facility in Green Bay has limited space and the last thing the directors want to do is make the setting too crowded, which would effect more personalized training.
“We definitely are going to continue to go in the right direction and hopefully add some teams once we get a new building going,” Collins said. “We’re going in the right direction.”
It’s a program that seems to be operating in a different universe than the highly respected Wisconsin outfit, Hitters Baseball out of Racine. The Hitters 2023’s earned the playoffs No. 2 seed after outscoring its pool-play opponents by a combined 19-1 and also won a first-round playoff game late Sunday afternoon.
The difference is that the Hitters organization, under the direction of RJ Fergus, is firmly established. The Hitters 2023’s roster boasts seven prospects ranked as top-500s or better in the ’23 class, including JT Kelenic (No. 235), Thomas Curry (No. 448) and Alex Alicea (No. 463).
Yet only Alicea (Louisville) and top-500 TJ Schuyler (Indiana) have made college commitments at this point. Exposure remains important to these young players, too, even while it’s been served to them in ample portions throughout their careers.
“It’s been an honor; I definitely think a lot of us wouldn’t be [in this position] without Hitters,” said Kelenic, the younger brother of former PG All-American and current Seattle Mariner Jarred Kelenic. “It’s definitely given us exposure and it’s given us a new light to see a lot of things a lot of kids won’t see.
"I’ve been used to it; I’ve seen it through Jarred and it’s made me a little more used to it and I’m a little more accustomed to it. I’ve definitely been a little more relaxed coming through here and seeing this stuff.”
It’s likely every player on the Hitters 2023’s roster will be committed by the start of next summer if he wants to be, and to Curry, that’s an important distinction. Everyone, he told PG Sunday, has their own timeline.
“Some people are meant to commit early; some people are meant to wait because they’re not built into their body yet,” he said. “Every person is different. Some people have got to take their time, some people are ready for it right away. I’ve just been kind of taking my time.”
It could be said that the guys wearing the Velocity 2023’s jerseys have been taking their time, as well, and maybe that’s because they feel like they’re really just getting started. Collins said he wants his players to be relaxed when they go out to perform because he knows that when they’re in that frame of mind they’ll be at their best.
Most of the guys took some time off before coming to Eastern Iowa this weekend and the way they played proved to Collins they used that down-time wisely. And that, in turn, will work to their benefit.
“Obviously, being the one-seed helps and that kind of gets them noticed a little bit,” Collins said. “I’m sure they’re all proud of how they’re doing but like I was telling them [Saturday], this is the best baseball I’ve seen from this group of kids, which is awesome to see.”
It’s another way of saying that this neighborhood band of “upstarts”, if you will, has found that they belong on this sort of platform. But they also know that where this all leads will be a result of their own work habits, their own desires and determinations and their own abilities to stay grounded.
Rybicki may had said it best when he stated, simply, “You’ve got to make plays.” It’s important to stay calm, cool and collected under difficult situations when all those eyes are on you and it’s important to remind your teammates to stay that way as well.
Gill agreed: “It’s great to come here because there’s tons of scouts are here; lots of eyes on you,” he said. “Everyone’s doing their best to get those eyes on them so everybody just wants to come out here and (perform)...You need to stay relaxed and just play the game the way you know how to play it.”
The Velocity Baseball 2023’s magical run at the PG Underclass Midwest LDC ultimately came to a somewhat brutal end when they lost to the Stiks 17u Black, 22-2, in one of the two semifinal games played Sunday evening. Not the softest of landings, to be sure, but these players from the Green Bay area learned valuable lessons here this weekend as they continue on the journeys to earn college scholarship offers.
“With the scouts, I always tell these guys...that you’re starting to get to this age where there’s going to be schools watching you guys,” Collins said. “For me, it’s just telling them that you guys never know when a coach is going to be watching. You could be at a field in the middle of nowhere and he could be down the third baseline just taking notes.
“I always tell them to play like there’s going to be someone there and always expect someone to be there,” he concluded. “They really took that to heart and they’ve been playing really well since I kind of mentioned that stuff.”