FORT MYERS, Fla. – It would be interesting to scour the Perfect Game archives in an effort to find out how many times teams of any age-group from the Winder, Ga.-based Team Elite Baseball and the Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Elite Squad Baseball organizations have met in different rounds of the playoffs at PG national championship tournaments.
The task would be tedious and time consuming, to be sure, but not only would it also be interesting, it just might prove to be eye-opening, as well. There is a reason why both programs have the word “Elite” featured prominently in their names.
It happened again Saturday afternoon when the sixth-seeded Team Elite 14u Prospects met the No. 3 Elite Squad Underclass 14u Prime in the quarterfinals at the 14u PG BCS Finals at venerable Terry Park Stadium. The meetings between these two programs frequently take place even deeper into the playoffs – the semifinals or the championship – but on this day and at this event, the quarterfinal pairing was perfect.
“These are two great programs on a great path,” ES Under 14u Prime head coach John Calabrese said. “Richie Palmer has a great program here with the Elite Squad and we’re honored to be playing for him and for Perfect Game. They have a great relationship together.”
Zac Bui is one of three coaches on the TE 14u Prospects that shares the head coaching duties and he shared many of the same thoughts as Calabrese: “We have a lot of respect for the Elite Squad; they’re a good program,” he said. “We’re going to come out here and compete against one of the best programs in the state of Florida and they’re going to compete against us, one of the best programs in the state of Georgia. I think’s it’s going to be a very competitive game.” Bui was spot-on.
The Elite Squad Underclass 14u Prime’s 5-foot-10, 150-pound 2019 left-hander Chase Chatman from nearby Cape Coral scattered five hits and didn’t give up an earned run – he struck-out out seven and walked one – in a complete-game effort that carried the Prime past the TE 14u Prospects, 3-1.
That quarterfinal-round victory launched the ES Under 14u Prime (7-0-0) into Sunday morning’s final four at the jetBlue Player Development Complex where they’ll face the No. 7 Texas Bombers Elite (7-0-0) from Cleburne, Texas. The other semifinal is an all-Florida affair featuring No. 12 FTB Select 2020 (7-1-0) from Orlando against No. 1 Florida Stealth 14u Red (7-0-0) out of Delray Beach.
FTB Select 2020’s trip to the semifinals was especially grueling. As the playoff’s No. 12 seed, the Select 2020 had to play a first-round game Saturday morning after the five first-rounders originally scheduled for Friday were postponed due to lightning and rain.
They ended up playing three games – 20 innings – between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday and won all three, including a 4-3 win over No. 13 Stix Baseball Club 2020 from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, in the quarterfinals; Stix also played three games Saturday. It’s worth noting that the temperature at Terry Park at 3 p.m. was 96 degrees and it wasn’t a whole lot cooler than that in the hours leading up to 3 o'clock.
In the other quarterfinals, Florida Stealth 14u Red got past No. 9 Florida Burn Platinum 2020 (5-2-0) from Sarasota, Fla., and the Texas Bombers Elite topped No. 3 The Court-Kangaroo Court Baseball Club (6-1-0) from Tampa, 7-2. The quarterfinals featured five teams from Florida, two from Texas and one from Georgia.
Chatman was spot-on with his command in the Elite Squad’s win, throwing 72 percent of his pitches for strikes; he took a shutout in the seventh inning where Team Elite pushed across an unearned run.
“I went out there just trying to throw strikes and getting ahead of batters, and let my team do the work on defense,” Chatman said after receiving countless hugs, back-pats, knuckle-bumps and high-fives from his teammates. “I had to bring it sometimes and other times I could settle down a little bit but I felt good the whole time.”
The TE 14u Prospects’ mounted a late threat when Alex Freeland reached base on an error to lead-off the bottom of the seventh and advanced to second on a single from Hunter Marsh. Chatman responded by getting the next batter out on strikes and then a fielder’s choice ground-out moved Freeland to third and left a runner on first with two out.
Calabrese walked out to the mound to confer with his young left-hander, and ultimately made the decision to let Chatman finish what he started. Freeland did score what was an unearned run before Chatman struck-out the last batter he faced to pick-up the win.
“There was no way I was coming out of the game,” said Chatman, who had pitched four innings of two-hit, shutout ball with eight strikeouts four days earlier on July 5.
The Squad Underclass 14u Prime jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning to set an early offensive pace they couldn’t maintain. Emanuel A. Bradfield Jr. received a lead-off walk and moved to third on a double off the bat of Timothy Manning, and they both came around to score when Adrian Figuero reached on an error; Figuero was credited with a pair of RBI.
The Squad added a third run in the top of the seventh after Eduardo Diaz led-off with a double, moved to third on a single from Andrew Fernandez and scored on a sac fly from Jet Lica.
It would not have been a disappointment if either one of these “Elite” teams – Florida or Georgia, take your pick – to move on to the semifinals. The fact that both were seeded in the top-six of the playoffs speaks volumes for the talent on both rosters.
The ES Underclass 14u Prime received the No. 6 seed after out-distancing their five pool-play foes by a count of 54-12. They faced the 11th-seeded 6-4-3 DP Cougars (4-2-0) from Marietta, Ga., in the second round and got a complete-game, three-hit shutout from 2019 right-hander Alejandro Gallardo in a 5-0 victory. On Saturday alone, a pair of Squad 14u 2019 pitchers turned in complete game efforts in stifling heat and humidity without allowing an earned run on eight hits with 12 strikeouts and only one walk.
“There are no egos on this team,” the ES Underclass 14u Prime’s Calabrese said. “These are all (Florida) kids … and we train them and we teach them and we develop them – that’s what we do – and they’re great teammates. They’ve learned to win together, they’ve learned to lose together and they never get down on each other. They’re a special group.”
Likewise, the Team Elite 14u Prospects showed plenty of grit while advancing to the 14u PG BCS Finals playoffs’ quarterfinal round. They earned the No. 3 seed by outscoring their five pool-play opponents by a combined score of 49-7 and won their second-round playoff game Saturday morning 6-1 over the No. 19 Frozen Ropes-Morrow (4-3-0) from McKinney, Texas.
“We have players on our team with very, very, very high (baseball) IQ’s and I think that sets us above a lot of these other teams,” Bui said. “If you don’t make the mental mistakes you’re going to be more successful in a lot of these ballgames. We always teach them to do the little things and compete, and if your heart’s in it that will take you a long way.
“The schedule’s not easy and the weather’s hot but they’ve been grinding it out,” he said. “More power to these kids. They get up every day and compete and that’s all we can ask for.”
Fans can rest assured this won’t be the last time two teams from the proud Team Elite Baseball and Elite Squad Baseball organizations go at it for all the marbles deep into the playoffs at a Perfect Game national tournament. It just wouldn’t be the same without them.
“It’s always a great experience coming down here to Fort Myers,” Bui said. “You’ve got great competition and regardless of the outcome of this game we’ve played well; it’s been a great week.”
Added Calabrese: “We’re up here for seven days, and we go out together, we do things together; we stay together and before the game we pray together; it’s a beautiful thing. If we win, we win, and if we lose – they’re kids. I don’t take it that seriously.”