EMERSON, Ga. – The two Southern California ballplayers stood tall and straight, a couple of top-drawer prospects and University of San Diego recruits who this weekend found themselves on the other side of the country with the unenviable task of trying to achieve something twice in the span of 12 months that is very difficult to achieve only once.
The pitcher, Jonathan Worley, and his catcher, Nathan Walker, came to Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint with their Team California Warriors teammates looking to win the national championship at the 16u Perfect Game World Series a year after they captured the title at the 15u PGWS in Fort Myers, Fla. The Warriors were as any team to be found in the stellar 25-team 16u PGWS field.
“I think that definitely helps us,” Worley said Saturday evening when asked if the experience the team gained at last year’s 15u PGWS would be beneficial a year later. “We know as a team we have what it takes to get the job done. We have a quality pitching staff overall – everyone is solid – and we know we can go out there … and really compete against the highest-level competition.”
Walker, Worley’s colleague, compatriot and catcher, was reading from the same page of the Team Cali Warriors’ handbook as what might be his future San Diego Tereros’ teammate:
“It’s really just kind of like a feeling. It’s knowing that you’re good enough to go play with all these guys,” he said. “There’s a lot of really good teams out here that have really big names, but we learned last year that we can still hang with all of them and beat all of them.
“It makes us almost more relaxed this year knowing that we have done it, so we just have to do it again instead of trying to prove ourselves the first time.”
And this conversation needed to include the Team California Warriors’ founder and head coach Mitch Spiers, who has built a strong program he bases in Carlsbad, Calif.
“The chemistry with this team is through the roof; they’ve been playing together since they were 14,” Spiers said. “Now it’s a year later, we’re bigger and stronger and they’re very excited to be here … to ‘quote-unquote’ try to defend their title.”
Now is the appropriate time to note that Worley, Walker and Spiers made those comments before the Warriors played their tournament-opener Saturday evening against the Select Sun Devils Ingram out of Dallas, Tex.; the Sun Devils won the contest, 6-0.
Later Saturday night, the Warriors watched almost any hope they may have harbored of winning a second PG national championship – or even qualifying for the eight-team playoffs – slip anxiously away when they dropped a 3-1 decision to the Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Orlando Scorpions. This was not the way this trip was scripted when these guys left their Southern California homes late last week.
The TC Warriors team here this week has at least nine roster spots filled by players that were also on last year’s 15u PG World Series champions’ roster. Four of those are occupied by prospects named to the 2014 15u PGWS all-tournament team, including Most Valuable Player Damien Rinehart, a 2017 top-600 left-hander from Watsonville, Calif.
Kevin Abel, a 2017 right-hander from San Diego who has committed to Oregon State and is ranked No. 75 nationally; team captain Sam Wezniak, a 2017 shortstop from Carlsbad ranked No. 280; and Worley were also named to the all-tournament honor squad. 2014 15u PGWS Most Valuable Pitcher Jack Melton is not with the team this week. This roster also features 2016 infielders Joseph Ortiz and Tommy Acuna, who have committed to New Mexico State and Arizona, respectively.
When Worley and Walker stand next to each other – or face-to-face during rare mound visits – they appear as reflections of one another, and their three-year long PG playing careers are also mirror images.
Worley is a 6-foot-5, 205-pound 2016 right-hander from San Diego who will be a senior this fall at San Diego’s High Tech High School and is ranked No. 180 nationally. The 16u PG World Series is Worley’s 19th PG event and the eighth PG tournament he has played with Spiers and the Team California Warriors.
He started his association with the Warriors right in front of his freshman year in high school, so it’s been a long, mutually beneficial relationship.
“It’s been a really positive experience,” he said. “Coach Mitch has been really helpful working on the competitive level and the mental level of my game. Just bringing us out here to events like this gives us great exposure and being around other quality players has really helped me grow as a pitcher.
“It’s a lot of fun just being with the guys and having these experiences and performing at high level, as well as the exposure that is given at Perfect Game events.”
Walker is a 2016 catcher and a right-handed pitcher and comes in at 6-foot-4, 185-pounds. He lives in Carlsbad and is entering his senior year at Carlsbad High School, and is ranked No. 212 nationally. This is his 16th PG event and he has played in the same eight PG tournaments with the Team California Warriors as Worley has. Walker simply enjoys everything involved with these cross-country trips.
“It’s fun to get on the airplane with all your teammates – sitting in the back of the plane and screwing around during the flight – and then getting to the hotel room, it’s just fun to be with your friends,” he said. “It’s an excuse to get away – San Diego’s awesome, I love that place – but coming out here for a week isn’t bad either.”
Spiers always tries to get his teams over to Arizona every summer for the Junior Olympics, but he especially likes to get them over here to Georgia or down to Florida to experience the world of baseball on this end of the country.
The players love it because they’re seeing teams and style of play they don’t see very often if at all in California, and since this field represents what PG believes to be the top 25 16u teams in the country, they know they’ll be competing against the best. It’s a measuring stick for the kids from Cali.
“This is a great group of kids … and they’re now growing into their own and becoming the players I thought they would be,” Spiers said. “Our style is, we pitch good and we play catch, but our tempo is phenomenally fast – it’d very, very fast. Our tempo is very quick. Our goal is to finish a seven-inning game in an hour-and-a-half; we’re looking to try to shave off 30 minutes.”
The problem the Warriors faced in their two opening losses here on Saturday didn’t have as much to do with tempo as it did with a simple lack of offensive production. They scored only one run on six hits, with Kaiser Weiss collecting a single and a triple and Wezniak a double.
It’s true they faced some pretty good arms – that goes with the territory at the 16u PGWS – but they also wasted a pretty fair outing by Abel, who allowed one run on three hits while striking out 10 and walking five in the 3-1 loss to the Scorpions. Overall, it was an uncharacteristic day for the Warriors.
“I always tell them that no matter what, we’ll go out and compete,” Spiers said. “Just walk out on the field – it’s your field – and go compete and do your job, and if you pitch and you play catch you’re going to be there in the end. We’re going to have to score a run anyway, but if we pitch and play catch – which is our strong suit – we’ll be there in the end.”
At this particular moment in time, unlike so many others, the Warriors weren’t there in the end, but they’ll live to fight another day. Worley realizes that the 16u PG World Series may very well be his last with Coach Spiers and his Team California Warriors’ teammates. For that reason, he was mostly just looking forward to soaking in the entire experience that comes with playing at a PG national championship tournament.
It’s worth noting that Walker and Worley have also been very good at PG showcases throughout their high school years. They were named to the prestigious Top Prospect List at both the 2014 and 2015 PG Sunshine West Showcase and Walker earned TPL recognition at the 2014 PG Underclass All-American Games; both were at the PG National Showcase in Fort Myers in mid-June.
“Nate Walker does special things on the mound and behind the dish,” Spiers said. “Jonathan Worley, he’s the guys that’s always been the consummate pitcher, and now he’s doing very, very well.”
They are exactly the type of players Spiers tries to find for his program, and now they’re moving on. The 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft will have a say in the matter, but it’s possible Walker and Worley will be reunited at the USD in the fall of 2016.
Regardless of what happens, they’ll always have more good memories than bad ones of their time spent with the Team California Warriors, even if their pre-16u PGWS confidence now seems completely unfounded. But even while sounding a confident tone before he had a played a game, Walker was quite aware of the challenge that was laid out in front of them at the 16u PG World Series.
“You come out here and anyone can really beat anyone,” he said prophetically. “The team at the bottom of the (playoff) bracket can beat the team at the top of the bracket; it’s just one of those things. I’d rather play a team and have a hard-fought game until the seventh inning than blow out a team 20-to-nothing, just because that’s not fun anymore. It’s fun to come out here and compete with kids that are really on the same level as you.”