FORT MYERS, Fla. – It is not too often that you find a team with its history dating back to a pair of Hall of Famers in Al Kaline and Reggie Jackson.
Based out of the Baltimore area, Youse’s Orioles dates back to 1952, when they started out as a collegiate summer team and Kaline used the Orioles as a stepping stone before he signed with the Detroit Tigers and embarked upon his career making his major league debut in 1953. The Baltimore native would go on to play 22 years, collect 3,007 hits and blast 399 home runs on his way to Cooperstown.
Jackson played for the Orioles in 1965 before being selected second overall in the 1966 draft by the Kansas City Athletics. “Mr. October” would debut the following season and played 21 years while hitting 563 home runs and claiming the 1973 AL MVP on his way to the Hall of Fame.
Those two players, along with a host of thousands who have come through the program have Walter Youse to thank for bringing high-caliber baseball to the amateur ranks.
Youse was a baseball-lifer, from a scouting perspective to coaching the program whose name changed numerous times through the years. After he passed away in 2002, the program honored Youse by renaming the team to Youse’s Maryland Orioles, who competed in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League with current big leaguers Justin Bour and Chad Kuhl amongst many other professional players coming through the program.
In 2014, the Orioles left the Ripken League in order to return to the amateur ranks and provide the Baltimore area with a place for college and professional baseball hopefuls with a place to develop.
Brooks Norris now is at the helm of the Orioles, and this venture into Florida for the 17u PG Super25 National Championship is the first for his team and they have opened the eyes of the competition with a 3-1 start in their first three days of action.
“This is a great opportunity to play in an event like the Super25 to compete against the best and get our name out there in the Perfect Game landscape,” Norris said.
Norris is the head coach of Archbishop Curley High School, and 10 of his current Orioles play together which provides familiarity within the core of the roster as they venture their way towards the Super25 playoff bracket starting on Saturday.
“With our core group of guys playing together so long, it’s a really nice thing to have in events like this.”
After outscoring their first two opponents 26-1, including an 11-run first inning in their first game, the Orioles faced stiffer tests on Thursday as they battled against the Rawlings Xtreme 17u and Scorpions South 2018 Purple.
Leading the Xtreme 4-1 through three innings, the Orioles’ surrendered five runs in the fourth to fall behind 6-4. However, in the bottom half of the inning, with two on and two out, Paul Nixon (2018, Baltimore, Md.) strode to the plate.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder blasted the first pitch he saw for a majestic go-ahead three-run home run to left to push the Orioles back in front, 7-6.
Cameron Kalandros (2018, Bel Air, Md.) was terrific in relief, tossing 2 1/3 innings and striking out five but departed for Steve Spencer (Abingdon, Md.) in the seventh.
Spencer danced in and around danger with traffic all over the bases and found himself with the bases loaded and two outs but struck out Zack Hurwitz on a 3-2 fastball to seal the victory.
“Paul came up big for us there,” Norris said. “We’ve got 5-6 guys who are capable of a moment like that, and he certainly is one of them with his size. It was a huge moment.”
The Orioles had a quick turnaround as they took on the Scorpions and found themselves ahead 3-0 going to the bottom of the sixth. Jeffrey Calderon (2018, Glen Burnie, Md.) had been brilliant on the hill through five innings, but the first four men for the Scorpions would reach, resulting in a run before Noah Hogue went the opposite way for a double in the left-center field gap to tie the game at 3-3.
Corey Burton (2018, Nottingham, Md.) would come on in relief and picked up a strikeout but would allow a two-out, two-run triple to Andrew Johnson to relinquish the lead. The Orioles couldn’t manage a seventh-inning charge as they would fall 5-3 as both teams ended the day with 3-1 records in Pool A play.
Through four games, Nick Brown (2018, Pasadena, Md.) is leading the charge offensively as he has five hits in nine at-bats for a .556 average. Nixon has driven in seven runs while Burton and Tyler Locklear (2019, Abingdon, Md.) have five RBI apiece.
Cory Poulsen (2018, Bel Air, Md.) had a strong outing on Wednesday, striking out seven in six innings to help the Orioles’ pitching cause.
With his team in good position to possibly win their pool and take a top seed heading into the playoff rounds, Norris joked that his players might enjoy the Southwest Florida weather a bit too much but knows his team is all business.
“We’ve got a tight-knit group and they know we’re not on vacation down here.,” Norris said. “To go where we want to go we’ve got to take care of our business. We’ll have to try and keep them out of the pool and away from the beaches the best we can.”