GLENDALE, Ariz. – There seems to be something about the hot September sun here in the appropriately named Valley of the Sun that gets the young prospects from the Los Angeles area all heated up and fired up to compete for Perfect Game national championship trophies and rings.
And not only compete, but conquer.
After surviving their only close call in the second round of the playoffs Sunday afternoon, the L.A.-based Garciaparra Baseball Group (GBG) Marucci Navy made quick work of a couple of final-four opponents on Monday and won yet another PG national title at the 6th annual Perfect Game/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass).
A GBG-affiliated team won this championship in 2012 and the organization returned last September to win the national title at the 2013 PG/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass). GBG Marucci Navy earned the playoffs’ No. 1 seed and finished 7-0 after beating the No. 6-seeded SACSN National Team, 10-2, in five innings in Monday’s championship game played at Camelback Ranch Stadium.
“We knew we had a pretty decent team coming in, for sure,” GBG Marucci Navy head coach Zak Krislock said after his team clinched the title with a run-rule walk-off in the bottom of the fifth inning. “The pitching really set the whole thing up – our pitchers really commanded the strike zone most of the tournament and we did a great job of playing defense. You put all of those ingredients together you’re going to get a good result.
“They showed a lot of heart, they played hard, they did all the things the right way and they got what they deserved.”
GBG Marucci Navy and the Florida-based SACSN National Team (6-1-0) were generally acknowledged as the pre-tournament favorites based on rosters that featured more than a dozen high school sophomores and juniors that have already committed to NCAA Division-I schools. Neither disappointed as they arrived at the title game undefeated but it was GBG Navy that was able to take it to the end.
Zane Chittenden went 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI; Spencer Steer was 2-for-2 with a double and two RBI; Jordan Prendiz was 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and two runs scored, and Ben Baird was 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead GBG Marucci’s 14-hit attack in the championship game. Daniel Jung delivered an RBI single to cap a four-run fifth inning and give the Navy a 10-2 lead that ended the game.
2016 right-handed starter Christian Longoria did everything asked of him, allowing the two runs over five three-hit innings while striking out five and walking two.
“Coming out here, I knew I was going to face some good competition playing with a good team like GBG Marucci,” said Prendiz, a 2016 left-handed swinging outfielder from Visalia, Calif., and a UCLA commit. “We just needed to be ourselves because that’s what works best and we did that. We tried to be a team with everybody chipping in and that’s what wins games.
“GBG is a great program with great athletes and baseball players. We knew we had a good team and we could make it far in this (tournament).”
GBG Marucci Navy earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs by outscoring its three pool-play opponents by a combined 29-1 and earned a bye into the second round. Once there, the Navy faced a tough test in a 6-5 win over CBA Marucci 2017 which in turn offered a bit of a wakeup call. They responded with a 10-5 win over Phenom 14u in Sunday’s quarterfinal round.
“Coming out of pool-play we were a little upset with this team,” Krislock said. “We had kind of cruised through the pool and we were kind of lackadaisical in the dugout and things like that. We weren’t playing poorly by any means – we were playing great – it was just some of the secondary things we knew were going to hurt us.”
As much as Krislock credited the pitching staff for this championship – it did compile a 1.80 team ERA, allowing 10 earned runs over 39 innings – it was difficult to ignore the offensive prowess of this group. GBG Marucci Navy hit .488 as a team (73-of-163) with 25 extra-base hits, compiling an on-base percentage of .525 and an on-base-plus-slugging (OPS) percentage of 1.169.
“They had good approaches (at the plate) all the way and we played the game from gap to gap – we didn’t pull a lot of ball unless it was against off-speed pitchers –and against the good fastball pitchers we were just trying to play the game through the middle,” Krislock said. “We found a lot of gaps – we’ve got a lot of team speed especially at the top of the order – and they’re all aggressive.”
Prendiz led the parade, turning in a performance over the past four days would be described as “video game-like” by younger fans and simply “storybook” by the older observers. Prendiz, listed at 5-foot-10 and 165-pounds, went 11-for-17 (.647) with four doubles, four triples, seven RBI, nine runs scored, four walks and four stolen bases.
His on-base percentage came in at .739 and his OPS at 2.092; he was named the event's Most Valuable Player.
“I felt real comfortable the whole tournament; I tried to stay relaxed and be myself,” Prendiz said. “I felt like at other PG events I wasn’t myself but I felt like that over these last four days I was really true to myself and that really shined.
“When you’re playing with guys of this caliber – guys committed to (colleges) from all over the nation – it really makes you want to show yourself,” he added. “I think everybody did that really well.”
Prendiz wasn’t the only GBG Marucci Navy hitter with eye-popping numbers. Kyle Cuellar, a 2016 from Aracadia, Calif., finished 9-for-12 (.750) with a double, triple, two RBI, seven runs scored and an OPS of 1.800, and Chittenden wound up 11-for-19 (.579) with six doubles, six RBI, six runs and a 1.495 OPS.
Cooper Gallion, a 2016 righty from Redondo Beach, Calif., made two starts for GBG, finished 2-0 and didn’t allow a run on nine hits over nine innings while striking out 14 and walking none.
The SACSN National Team also received some outstanding performances from some of its top prospects en route to the championship game.
No one was more impressive than 2016 right-hander Colton Rendon from Jupiter, Fla., who went 2-0 over two starts and 10 innings pitched, didn’t allow an earned run on two hits, and struck out 12 without walking a batter. He was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher but had to leave for home before the championship game and was unavailable for comment.
2016 left-hander Jake Wilson from Las Vegas, Nev., pitched a complete game, two-hit shutout in his only start for SACSN, striking out seven and walking one.
SACSN’s top hitters included Tyler Duvall, 6-for-13 (.462) with a pair of doubles and five runs; Daniel Bakst, 5-for-14 (.357) with a double, triple, seven RBI and five runs; Logan Boyer, 4-for-10 (.400), with a double, home run and seven RBI; and Nicholas Quintana, 5-for-17 (.294) with three doubles, a triple, six RBI and five runs.
One of Monday morning’s semifinal games was a backyard family feud, with GBG Marucci Navy getting the best of No. 12-seed GBG Blue, 7-0. 2016 right-hander Cooper Gallion got the start for Navy and worked six, eight-hit, shutout innings with 11 strikeouts and no walks to pick up the win.
Navy took an early 1-0 lead when Steer delivered a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first. It then struck for five runs in the bottom of the fifth on the strength of an RBI triple from Prendiz, an RBI double from Chittenden and a run-scoring single off the bat of Griffin Keller.
Navy totaled 10 hits and left eight runners on base; Blue (5-1-1) had eight hits and left 10 on.
An epic pitcher’s battle took place in the semifinal game between SACSN and the No. 10-seed West Coast Clippers 2017 (5-1-0), with SACSN emerging from the fray with a 1-0 victory. The game’s only run was scored in the bottom of the first on an RBI single from SACSN’s Bakst, and the pitchers took over from there.
Rendon was brutally efficient, allowing just one hit, striking out 8 and walking none during his seven shutout innings. Fifty-nine of his 75 pitches (79 percent) were delivered for strikes and he produced 10 groundball outs to three fly-ball outs.
On the other side, Clippers’ 2018 right-hander Conner McBride allowed just one run one hit in six innings, struggled with his control, walking eight and striking out five. SACSN left eight runners on base.
By the end of the day Monday, GBG was in possession of its third Perfect Game national championship. The organization will have teams in the field at next weekend’s PG/EvoShield National Showcase (Upperclass) so there will be another opportunity under the hot September desert sun to add to the collection of hardware.
“This experience is just going to improve all of their baseball careers,” Krislock said of his young players. “This is a wonderful tournament, a wonderful event put on by great people. Great teams show up to play us; you can’t get this kind of competition over a weekend anywhere. That’s the best thing about it – being able to play such high quality teams in this type of atmosphere is just super.”
2014 Perfect Game/EvoShield National Underclass Championship runner-up: SACSN National
2014 Perfect Game/EvoShield National Underclass Championship MVP: Jordan Prendiz, GBG Marucci Navy
