GLENDALE Ariz. – It was mid-morning Saturday, about an hour before ultra-talented North East Baseball National was scheduled to play its second pool-play game at this weekend’s Perfect Game West MLK Upperclass Championship. This one, game two, was scheduled to take place on the Dodgers’ side of the sprawling Camelback Ranch spring training complex.
2016 Perfect Game All-American Jacob Pearson – a speedy 6-foot, 195-pound left-handed swinging outfielder from West Monroe, La., who is ranked 39th in the national class of 2017 and has signed with Louisiana State – glanced out on the field where his NEB National teammates were getting loose; soon his face was covered with a wide smile.
“We’ve been training during the off-season for about three months now, and just getting out here and being able to play is what we’ve been waiting for,” Pearson said. “We’re finally getting to play and we’re all coming out here full of energy and ready to go.”
“Ready to go” could very well be the NEB National team’s rallying cry this weekend as the program attempts to win an elusive PG tournament championship. The National roster mirrors that of an all-star team, at least when held up to the Perfect Game 2017 and 2018 national prospect rankings. Four of the spots are filled by 2017 prospects ranked in the top-127 nationally and five of the 2018s are ranked in the top-179 in the country.
“It’s a fun roster,” NEB general manager Jeff Sullivan said Saturday morning with a smile of his own spread across his face. “This team is a little different than last year’s because we have 10 kids on this roster that were with us (at 2016 PG tournaments). These kids know each other and they jelled right away (on Friday), and just jelling is obviously the hardest part of this whole process of putting together these good rosters. But they’re jelling quick.”
Other top 2017s joining Pearson on the roster include No. 121 right-hander Trey Dillard and No. 127 infielder/outfielder Gabriel Holt (Texas Tech). No. 26 catcher/infielder Christopher Willis (Mississippi), No. 52 infielder Bryce Reagan (Texas), No. 84 first baseman/right-hander Trae Harmon (Kentucky) and No. 90 outfielder/third baseman Dexter Jordan Jr. (Louisiana-Lafayette) rank among the top 2018s.
It’s a group that is definitely fun to work with, according to NEB National head coach Matt Kruger, but also one that needs to be molded into form, like any other PG tournament championship contender.
“One of the challenges is trying to learn each player as much as you can in a short period of time,” Kruger said Saturday. “Certain guys are motivated differently than other guys; some of them are more (vocal) and some of the other guys might be more quiet. You’re trying to mesh that while trying to find the best way to motivate guys throughout the weekend.”
These elite players have plenty of reasons to be motivated, of that there is no doubt. While most have already made their decisions regarding college, quite a few of these guys have every reason in the world to be thinking about the 2017 and 2018 MLB June amateur drafts.
They could have made the decision to stay back home, sitting in their respective classrooms during the doldrums of January, but instead they’ve taken advantage of the chance they’ve been given to play on first-rate, major league-quality fields in front of scouts, report-writers and whirring video cameras.
“This is an opportunity to come out here and compete, and I think that’s so important. Being able to play in the middle of January, that’s just awesome,” Kruger said.
“I’ve been looking forward to this (weekend) for a while, getting here and meeting these athletes who are all (top) prospects,” said Willis, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound left-handed hitting catcher from Ruston, La., who proved himself to be an absolute beast at the plate through NEB National’s first two games here in the chilly desert Friday and Saturday.
“I’m glad to be able to play with them and just be around this group of guys that know what they’re doing and know how to play the game,” he said. “If you’re here, that means you have some talent, and it’s always good to play around (other) good talent; it feels amazing.”
The Nationals introduced themselves to the West MLK Upper field in dominating fashion with a 16-0, four-inning pasting of the RoughRiders Baseball Club from Buckeye, Ariz., on Friday. They used 11 hits – six for extra bases – and 12 walks to score their 16 runs, and at least a half-dozen bats produced some potent pop:
Willis tripled, singled twice, drove in three runs and scored three more; Kyler Fedko doubled, singled, drove in two and scored two; Harmon tripled and had three RBI; Pearson and Jordan Jr. both doubled knocked in a pair of runs; Reagan singled and drove in two. From the mound, 2017 left-hander Jesse Heikkinen threw four, one-hit, shutout innings, striking out nine and walking two.
“A lot of these guys have been together before … so there’s definitely some camaraderie,” Kruger said. “(Friday), I thought they did a pretty good job of taking care of business – they were pretty focused, so that was good – but going forward we’ve got some really good teams ahead of us.”
It was more of the same on Saturday, as the Nationals again needed to put in only four innings of work in a 12-0 win over the Langley, B.C.-based Dbacks Scout Team, this time collecting 13 hits.
Willis continued his torrid pace, driving and impressive two-run home run, a double and a single with four RBI and two runs scored. Pearson tripled, singled and drove in two runs; Jordon Jr. doubled, singled and drove in two; Holt tripled, singled, drove in a run and scored a pair. 2018 right-hander Coy Cobb (Texas) delivered a two-hit, nine-strikeout, four-inning shutout from the bump.
“I’m here to try to get back into the full swing of baseball,” Willis said, and after two days and only eight innings it’s obvious he’s doing just that. “I want to get my swing loose and my arm ready for high school ball, so this is just a good tournament to come out and get back in the swing of things.”
There is a second North East Baseball squad – American – playing in the PG West MLK Upper that boasts a strong roster itself, although it lost its Friday opener to Phenom, 6-4. The Americans’ roster lists seven 2017s and 2018s with D-I commitments, including top 2018s in No. 129 Brett Hammit (Nebraska) and No. 165 Brett Tinsman (Wake Forest).
As an added bonus to both teams, Sullivan is hoping to have current Colorado Rockies Jon Gray and Tony Wolters on hand Sunday to spend some time with the North East Baseball players. Sullivan has known Gray for a while and knew he has a home in the Valley, so he asked the big-league pitcher if he’d like to help-out for a day or two. Gray said ‘Absolutely,’ and told Sullivan he would bring Wolters – a 2009 Perfect Game All-American – along as well.
With just about every single prospect on the NEB National roster appearing somewhere on PG’s national prospect rankings, it might be easy to think that egos could become involved even when dealing with something as basic as the batting order. Every kid in this lineup is used to hitting in the top four slots in their high school or travel ball team batting order, but in this situation, somebody’s going to have to hit 5 through 10. In a show of character, the guys that do offer no complaints.
With this tournament being held in the dead of winter, the GM Sullivan needs to be a little creative when building the roster, especially when it comes to the pitching staff. He calls the timing of it “perfect” for the warm-weather guys who are starting to dial things up a couple of weeks in front of the start of their high school seasons, but he tries not to invite cold-weather pitchers whose high school seasons won’t start until April.
No one with the team tempers their expectations, regardless of where they’re from or what kind of time-table they’re on with their prep teams. To a man, everyone in the dugout is a winner and, to a man, they expect to win at this tournament.
“Obviously, with this roster being so talented, these kids come down here hoping to win a championship,” Sullivan said. “For me, my favorite part about it is working with head coach Matt Kruger … and he and (North East Baseball owner) Scott Patterson have really put me in a good spot to be able to do this. … The kids, they’re hoping to win it but for me it’s about the relationships they make. They’re making best friends here that they will continue to see throughout their baseball careers.”
The 2017s on this NEB National roster, the guys like Pearson, are seeing their Perfect Game and high schools careers wind to an end, although there is still a lot left to enjoy; many more memories to be made over the next four or five months. Pearson, a senior at West Monroe High School, is especially appreciative of his PG experiences.
“it’s gotten me more exposure than I could ever ask for,” he said. “I’ve been to (16) Perfect Game tournaments and showcases, and it’s really helped me out a lot. I’ve talked to at least 30 professional scouts and they’ve seen me at all of these Perfect Game events, and they’ve told me it’s great exposure for young kids to get out in front of the scouts.”
Going out with a tournament title at the PG West MLK Upperclass Championship would certainly be a fitting way to leave the stage. “We want to try and win every single game; that’s obviously the goal. We want to compete and try to make the playoffs and go from there, but that’s a lot easier said than done. We definitely want to have some fun but they want to win and they want to compete as hard as they can,” Kruger, the NEB head coach, noted.
And Pearson, seemingly always wearing a smile anytime he’s on a baseball field, thinks this is just the group of players that can make something special happen this weekend.
“I know most of these guys just from playing on the showcase circuit for so long, which is actually good because we’ve already formed a kind of team bond,” he concluded. “Now when we come out here and we play together and we win together, and it’s really exciting. Jelling together is a big part of the game. When you jell together you can form a winning team and you form a team where the players have each other’s backs.”