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Tournaments  | Championship  | 7/29/2019

Canes earn rings at 17u PGWS

Jeff Dahn     
Photo: Canes National 17 (Perfect Game

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – After winning the championship at the 17u Perfect Game World Series here Monday afternoon, the players and coaches from the Canes National 17 were presented t-shirts emblazoned with the words “RING SEASON” across the front. There wasn’t an exclamation point but an argument could be made that maybe there should have been.

The Canes National 17 snapped a scoreless tie with a single run in the bottom of the third inning, then added six more in the fourth and the fifth, and pushed past the San Diego Show, 7-0, in the 17u PGWS championship game played on the D’backs’ side of the Salt River Fields-Talking Stick MLB spring training complex.

It was the second time in just over three weeks that these players got to hang around postgame to be fitted for Perfect Game National Championship rings. It’s been that kind of summer for this Canes National 17 squad.

The Canes took home the title at the PG WWBA 17u National Championship in Atlanta and reached the semifinals at the PG WWBA 17u Elite Championship in Hoover, Ala., earlier this month. According to program owner and National 17 head coach Jeff Petty, when non-PG events are factored-in, this team finished the summer at 40-3-1.

“These guys just find ways to win,” he told PG during postgame comments on Monday. “It’s just been a pleasure to be around a very unselfish group of guys.”

The Canes National 17 (6-0-1) earned the playoffs’ No. 1 seed, and after a pair of one-run wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals, they were ready to get after it the championship game against the No. 15 San Diego Show (5-2-0). Remarkably, they scored all seven of their runs with two-outs.

The scoring started in the third when Jake Geloff rapped a lead-off single and eventually came across on an RBI single off the bat of Johnny Castagnozzi. The two-run fourth happened after Cooper Ingle reached on an error, moved over on a single from Cole Messina and scored on a two-out Wyatt Langford RBI single; Messina later stole home uncontested for the second run.

The National 17 then broke it open with a four-run fifth. Mac Horvath led-off with a solo home run – his third bomb of the tournament – and two outs later Dominic Johnson reached when he was hit by a pitch.

Eddie Park singled and he and Johnson both scampered home when Kyle Teel delivered a two-out, two-run triple; Ingle then singled to chase Teel home. Ingle also doubled in the game, accounting for two of the Canes National’s nine hits.

PG All-American right-hander Maxwell Carlson made the start for the Canes and worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits while striking out nine and walking four. 2020 righty Jason Savacool threw the final 2/3 scoreless frames, giving up two hits and striking out three.

The Show were limited to the five hits and Nathan Nankil doubled and singled to lead the way. PG All-American Jordan Thompson made the start for the Show and allowed only the one unearned run on three hits, striking out three without a walk.

“I didn’t expect the game to have that kind of a score,” Petty said after his players had doused him with a celebratory cooler of ice water. “(The Show have) a great, great baseball team and they’ve got a rich history and you know what you’re going to get when you play them.”

Ingle, a 2020 catcher and a Clemson commit from Asheville, N.C., hit 6-for-15 (.400) with three doubles, a triple, four RBI and three runs scored. He also threw out numerous base-runners from his position behind home plate and was named the Most Valuable Player.

“He’s such a good player; he’s such a hard-nosed kid,” Petty said of Ingle. “He’s a winner and he’s a hell of a catcher defensively; our pitchers love throwing to him.”

Despite all the success this summer, in Ingle’s mind the team still had something to prove when it arrived in the desert:

“We won the WWBA and came up short at the Elite Championship in Hoover, and I felt like we needed to come out here – despite the 115 to 120 degree weather – and just pull through and play hard every day,” he said.

The Show’s Joseph Ingrassia, a 2020 lefty and UC Santa Barbara commit from El Cajon, Calif., was named the Most Valuable Pitcher. He surrendered three earned runs over eight innings (2.60 ERA) in two appearances on four hits, with 15 strikeouts and five walks.

This was the second time Virginia-based Canes Baseball won the championship at the 17u PGWS and the first time since 2013. Petty admitted it isn’t easy for a team – even a very talented one – to safely navigate its way through the elite 32-team field without getting derailed. The Canes National 17 did finish unbeaten but they were tied once.

“If you look back at this week, we played so many good teams with so many good baseball players,” he said. “We’ve been coming here since the inception of this event (in 2012) and this is only the second time we’ve won it. … It’s a very difficult event to win at.”

But win it they did, and they came through with a team that has made Petty proud since the very beginning of the summer season. Get out the ring-sizer, PG, these guys were ready to add to their collection.

“We all get along and we all play hard together,” Ingle said of the team’s recipe for success. “If we get down in a game we don’t think about it too much, and we just play together and we always find a way to win. This has definitely been the best summer of my life and I got to (enjoy) it with some of my best friends.”

In a side note, GBG Marucci Navy (5-1-1) won the Silver Bracket (consolation) championship at the event Monday afternoon with a marathon 15-8 victory over Sticks Baseball Academy/North East Baseball in the championship game.

PG All-American Kevin Parada went 3-for-4 in the game with a grand slam, six RBI and four runs scored. For the tournament, he went 11-for-21 (.524) with three doubles, a home run, 13 RBI and six runs.


2019 17u PG World Series runner-up: San Diego Show



2019 17u PG World Series MVP: Cooper Ingle



2019 17u PG World Series MV-Pitcher: Joseph Ingrassia
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