GOODYEAR, Ariz. – When the 7th annual Perfect Game/EvoShield Underclass National Championship began its four-day run at the Camelback Ranch and Goodyear Ballpark complexes last Friday, BPA DeMarini Elite founder and head coach Jared Sandler turned to 2017 right-hander Ashton Goddard to set the tone for the rest of the tournament.
Coincidentally, Goddard decided on Friday to announce he had given an oral commitment to attend the University of Utah from the Pac-12 Conference. The combination of the announcement and Goddard being awarded the start for the tournament-opener made for a great storyline but the truth be told, if Sandler would have had his complete roster at his disposal, it’s likely he would have handed the ball to someone else.
It is not often that a team’s first pool-play game at a Perfect Game national championship event proves to be the most consequential in what could still become a run to the tournament title for BPA DeMarini Elite. But Goddard, a 6-foot-3, 165-pound righty from Laguna Beach, Calif., made it so by shutting out the NorCal Young Guns on one hit over 5 1/3 innings of work in a 1-0 victory. It was the only run the Young Guns allowed in their three pool-play games.
“That was kind of a pivotal point, a big 1-0 win,” Sandler said Sunday afternoon before the No. 3-seeded Elite played No. 11 MN Blizzard Blue in a quarterfinal-round game at the Goodyear BallPark Complex. “Anytime you get into tournament play, the pitcher on the other team that you’re going to face dictates a lot, and that’s what it was for us. Ashton, generally speaking, is not one of our main guys but he went out and threw a great game.”
BPA DeMarini Elite got more spectacular pitching – and produced another overwhelming offensive display – in a 10-1, five inning victory over the Blizzard Sunday and advanced to Monday’s final four at Camelback Ranch. 2017 right-hander Wyatt Boone was BPA DeMarini Elite’s go-to guy Sunday against the Blizzard Blue, coming through by allowing just one earned run on four hits over five innings in the victory.
No. 3 BPA DeMarini Elite (5-0-0) from San Juan Capistrano, Calif., will face No. 2 San Diego Show Black (5-0-0) from San Diego in one of the semifinals; No. 12 CBA Marucci (5-0-0) from Temecula, Calif., takes on No. 1 Phenom Signature (5-0-0) from Moreno Valley, Calif., in the other semi.
The Show erased a three-run deficit with four runs in the bottom of the eighth to escape the No. 7 Canyon Thunder from Phoenix, 7-6, in their quarterfinal-round game. Phenom Signature scratched past the Southern California Bombers Black 2017 from La Puente, Calif., 5-4; CBA Marucci dropped the No. 20 Cleats Pilots from Peoria, Ariz., 8-1.
Sandler feels fortunate that he’s elevated the BPA DeMarini Elite organization to a place that even at the underclass level a lot of his top prospects have already committed to colleges and didn't feel the absolute need to miss school and be in attendance here this weekend. For that reason, and also because of other commitments, several of the Elite’s top players were unable to be here, not that it’s made much of a difference to the talented prospects that are on hand.
“We certainly don’t have our A-squad here but these are great tournaments and we want to come play and compete,” Sandler said. “We just have a bunch of good kids that play hard, and we have a lot of guys that aren’t committed and a lot of (college recruiters) are here. They’re just trying to play hard and get noticed by some of these schools.”
The Elites eliminated a MN Blizzard Blue squad from Vadnais Heights, Minn., that set out to do much of the same thing. The Blizzard Blue (4-1-0) also endured a pivotal tournament opener in which they trailed the So Cal Birds Black 2018, 6-1, after five innings of play, but rallied for a 7-6 victory. Dylan Criquet-Danielson and Nick Onomiya both homered in the comeback win.
“Coming here from Minnesota, usually that first game is the difference-maker,” Blizzard Blue head coach Mike Loberg said Sunday. “If we can get past that first game, then it’s back to baseball and back to it as normal. We had a couple of guys hit bombs in that first game at a big-league complex; that’s a pretty big deal. But we’ve been playing well, we’ve been swinging the bats and we’ve been playing good defense.”
The playoffs’ first and second rounds didn’t go well for many of the favorites, at least in terms of the way the teams were seeded. All four first-round favorites lost, with the Nos. 13, 14, 15 and 16 seeds falling to Nos. 20, 19, 18 and 17, respectively.
What that meant in reality, of course, was that the No. 17 So Cal Birds Black 2017 (2-0-2) moved into the second-round to face No. 1 Phenom Signature; No. 20 Cleats Pilots (3-1-0) faced No. 4 Sandlot Baseball Arizona; No. 19 So Cal Elite (3-1-0) faced down No. 3 BPA DeMarini Elite; and the No. 18 AZ PROspects (3-1-0) went head-to-head with No. 2 San Diego Show Black.
The upsets continued into the first four second-round games with No. 12 CBA Marucci besting the No. 5 SACSN National Team (3-1-0); No. 11 MN Blizzard Blue topping No. 6 Pacific Northwest Regional Team 2017 Royal (3-1-0) and No. 9 Southern California Bombers Black shutting out No. 8 AZ Athletics (3-1-0). No. 7 Canyon Thunder was the only favorite to win when it bounced No. 10 Warriors Baseball Academy 2018.
The world righted itself ever so slightly in the second set of four games in the second-round with No. 1 Phenom Signature, No. 2 San Diego Show Black and No. 3 BPA DeMarini all posting wins. No. 4 Sandlot Baseball Arizona (3-1-0) was the only casualty among the top-four, falling to the No. 20 Cleats Pilots.
As the late afternoon sun pounded down on the Goodyear Ballpark Complex, the eight-team quarterfinal round commenced with the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 20 seeds all taking part, with only the No. 20 Cleats Pilots needing five games to reach the quarters.
Five of the eight quarterfinalists called Southern California home, with two others from Arizona; the lone interloper was MN Blizzard Blue.
“I told them before the tournament even started to not be intimidated by the stage,” the Blizzard Blue’s Loberg said. “Minnesota guys and the northern Midwest guys are usually late bloomers just because they don’t play as much baseball. That’s starting to go away with clubs like the Blizzard coming onto the scene and these guys are taking advantage of it.”
All four semifinalists have shown the ability to put the ball in play and push runs across the plate – BPA DeMarini Elite averages just more than eight runs per game, CBA Marucci and San Diego Show Black just less than eight and Phenom Signature just more than five – but for three of the four it is their pitching that has carried them into Monday.
Through Sunday, San Diego Show Black hurlers allowed two earned runs in 29 2/3 innings pitched (0.47 ERA); BPA DeMarini two earned runs in 27 innings (0.52 ERA); and Phenom Signature three earned runs in 30 innings (0.70). CBA Marucci pitchers were touched for 10 earned runs in 32 innings (2.19).
It seems certain that all four teams will be short-handed Monday morning with players having to return home to get back in school. But the ones that remain will be ready to go.
“They’re really focused; we’re very fortunate that this is just a good, young group of kids,” Sandler said of his squad. “It’s hard to get some of the guys out here because school just started and some of the guys can’t miss class … but we just try to do the best we can.
“It’s always fun to come and compete and you know how we feel about Perfect Game tournaments; we love to come play,” he concluded. “I’ll be back here on Thursday for the (PG/EvoShield Upperclass); we just love to come out here and play.”