GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Sweet 16!
The Canyon Thunder 17u proved to be much more formidable than the 16th-seeded team they were designated to be entering the 16-team playoffs, and on Monday afternoon won the championship at the inaugural Perfect Game WWBA Underclass Fall National Championship Protected by G-Form.
The Thunder 17u, with their base of operations in Phoenix and a roster made up entirely of local prospects, stunned the No. 2-seeded Florida-based SACSN National Team by a 6-1 count in the championship game played at Goodyear Ballpark, the MLB Cactus League spring training home of the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds.
It wasn’t a romp but it also wasn’t as if the opportunistic Thunder 17u had to use smoke and mirrors to complete their championship run with a 5-1-1 record. They rose to the occasion time and again in four “upset” victories during bracket-play, and kept the PG national championship trophy – and those individual PG national championship rings – right here in the Valley of the Sun.
“These guys, they’re just a bunch of baseball players,” Thunder head coach Greg Bordes said while his players were getting fitted for their championship rings. “Our organization, we’re not about going out to get the most talented kids, we’re out there looking for baseball players, and that’s what these guys showed this weekend.”
The Thunder 17u got on the board in the top of the first inning of the title tilt when Wyatt Berry delivered a line-drive, two-out, RBI single to centerfield. The SACSN NT (6-1-0) answered immediately in the bottom of the frame after Dylan Crews lined a one-out double into left field and then came around to score when Ethan Long followed with a line-drive single, also to left.
The final five runs scored in the game – all by the Canyon Thunder 17u – didn’t come quite so conventionally. The Thunder 17u added a single run in the top of the second on the strength of four straight walks and the two runs the Thunder scored in the third came thanks to two SACSN infield errors, a walk and an RBI single from Cam Glosser.
They pushed across two more in the fourth on a lead-off single from Cade Verduso, a walk, another SACSN infield error and an RBI fielder’s choice groundout from Berry. The Nationals’ infield committed four errors during the game and only three of the Thunder 17u’s runs were earned.
They collected just five hits in the game, two off the bat of Glosser. Bryan Webb, a 2020 left-hander, threw a complete-game six-hitter, giving up just the one run while striking out six and walking three. Six SACSN hitters had one safety apiece.
Despite the 1-1-1 record during pool-play, Bordes and felt like his guys played very well. They only allowed five runs in those three games but only scored nine themselves which resulted in game scores of 6-0 (win), 2-2 (tie) and 3-1 (loss). It also resulted in having to get into the 16-team playoffs with an at-large berth as the No. 16 seed.
“We gave ourselves a chance and we got in as the 16-seed,” Bordes said. “In the game of baseball, it doesn’t matter, and I challenged these guys going into this playoff bracket: just keep coming out and playing the game. We preach, ‘play the game hard, respect the game’ and with those things good outcomes always come to fruition.”
The Canyon Thunder 17u’s Nolan Brooks, a 2019 shortstop from Phoenix, was named the Most Valuable Player after delivering 11 hits – 10 singles and a double – in 20 at-bats (.550) and driving in five runs. Brooks was proud of the way he and his teammates fought back from that 1-1-1 start.
“We just started settling down and playing our own game, and the results showed that; we came out on top,” he said. “This is only our second tournament together and we’ve bonded really well and we’re doing really well playing together.”
Glosser and Peyton McGregor matched Brooks’ five ribbies over the course of the four-day weekend; Glosser had three doubles, McGregor two doubles and three triples.
The SACSN National Team’s Chandler Freeman – a 2019 right-hander/third baseman from Texas who is ranked No. 120 nationally and has committed to Dallas Baptist – was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher. He went 2-0 despite working just six innings and didn’t allow an earned run on three hits, striking out 13 and walking two.
Freeman was also one of the SACSN NT’s most productive offensive players, hitting 6-for-15 (.400) with two doubles and five RBI. Ethan Long – a 2020 infielder/outfielder/right-hander from Arizona who is ranked No. 11 nationally and has committed to Arizona – was 8-for-13 (.615) with two doubles, a home run and four RBI.
In semifinal game action Monday morning, the SACSN National Team blanked No. 11 CBA Nevada 2019 (4-2-0) from Henderson, Nev., 3-0, and the Canyon Thunder 17u topped No. 13 AZ T-Rex Rawlings (4-2-0) out of Scottsdale, 4-1.
The 2019 right-handers Freeman and Jackson Moltz combined on a five-hit, 15-strikeout shutout for the Nationals in their victory; Freeman had 10 K’s in his four innings of work. Freeman also delivered a two-run single in the fourth and Long singled twice, accounting for half of SACSN’s four hits off a trio of CBA Nevada 2019 pitchers.
Brooks stroked RBI singles in both the first and sixth innings, Mead was 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the fifth and Cam Glosser also singled and drove in a run in the first to pace the Thunder 17u.
2020 right-hander David Utagawa allowed the one AZ T-Rex run by scattering eight hits over seven innings of work, striking out five and walking one. Cameron Jowaiszas was 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI single in the third to pace AZ T-Rex Rawlings.
At the end of a long four days spent playing in 100-degree heat, the 16th-seeded Canyon Thunder 17u had managed to secure four straight playoff wins against the Nos. 1, 2, 8 and 13 seeds. And that’s pretty much how they had things mapped out going in.
“You always want to play the best,” Bordes said. “It’s good for my guys to go up against the best; it kind of gives them a test of where they’re at. And it gives these kids good exposure, and that’s what it’s all about. These Perfect Game tournaments do an incredible job of exposing these kids … and we couldn’t be more thankful to be a part of this Perfect Game tournament; I’m very proud of these guys.”
2017 PG Fall Underclass National Championship protected by G-Form runner-up: SACSN National Team
2017 PG Fall Underclass National Championship protected by G-Form MVP Nolan Brooks
2017 PG Fall Underclass National Championship protected by G-Form MV-Pitcher: Chandler Freeman
