FORT MYERS, Fla. – The sun was shining bright and the air was already heating up the way it tends to do on a late September day at the CenturyLink Sports Complex, the MLB spring training home of the Minnesota Twins.
It was the perfect spot under generally perfect conditions to track down one of the top teams – on paper anyway, as its coach was quick to remind – that is competing at this weekend’s 20th annual Perfect Game WWBA Underclass World Championship.
Dressed in uniforms featuring patterns of browns and blacks and greens and grays – kind of the desert camouflage look, if you will – with the word “Dirtbags” scrawled vertically in white down the outside of each pantleg and a white skull and crossbones on the cap, it was certainly easy to spot the Dirtbags 17u Camo club that is hellbent on challenging for this prestigious PG national championship crown over the next four days.
The Sedalia, N.C.- based Dirtbags organization, founded and presided over by Andy Partin, has three teams in the WWBA Under World field, with the 17u Camo, 17u Black and 17u EvoShield (the Danville, Va.-based Dirtbags program under Partin’s umbrella has the 17u Platinum and 17u Premier entered); the 17u Camo sit at the top of the pecking order.
“First and foremost, it’s a very talented team on paper, but paper doesn’t win,” 17u Camo head coach and Dirtbags General Manager Trey Daly told PG Thursday. “Just because you’ve got [college] commitments on paper doesn’t mean you’re the best team here. You’ve got to play the game like it’s supposed to be played.”
History has taught ardent observers that as a rule Dirtbags teams play the game the way it’s supposed to be played and no one should expect this latest underclass club to behave any differently. Victories and championships have accumulated like first-pitch strikes through the years and these young prospects understand why they’re here.
“We’ve spent all [summer] kind of preparing for these big tournaments like this, especially since this is kind of nearing the end of the season,” top 2023 right-hander Nathan Teague told PG Thursday. “You feel like you’ve worked hard and you want to really go out with a good finale and really leave on the best note.”
The Dirtbags 17u Camo roster consists entirely of high school juniors (2023s) who are primarily, although not exclusively, from North Carolina and Virginia. There is definitely a familiarity amongst the players that isn’t always evident with a lot of the national brands, and the Dirtbags are certainly a national brand.
“Really good players want to play with really good kids and that’s the key to success,” Daly said. “Once you get into college baseball or pro baseball, everybody’s good. It doesn’t matter at the end of the day who you are, it’s all about trying to help that club win.”
The premier name that jumps off the ‘Bags 17u Camo roster is that of outfielder TayShaun Walton, a Miami commit ranked the No. 5 overall national prospect in the 2023 class (No. 3 OF); he’s an extremely athletic 6-foot-3, 220-pounder with 6.75-second speed in the 60 and a 101 mph exit velo.
Walton has been nursing a minor late summer injury and was not in attendance on Thursday but Daly said he is expected to join the team in the next day or two, news scouts and talent evaluators will be thrilled to hear.
“TayShaun is a great kid and first and foremost he’s all about business,” Daly said. “Even though he’s a very highly-ranked player and a lot of people know him, when he shows up in the dugout and gets in between those lines, it’s all baseball. He’s just like any other kid. He doesn’t think he’s better than anybody else...and all the kids love him; he’s a joy to be around.”
The neat thing is, Daly is surrounded by an entire roster of TayShaun Waltons, if you will. Young and talented prospects who have found the optimal way to combine business with pleasure and do it at an extremely high level.
Eighteen of them are ranked as top-500 national prospects or better, including Walton at No. 6, middle-infielder Samuel Stafura (No. 160), the big right-hander Nathan Teague (No. 171), catcher/third baseman Max Kaufer (No. 317) and catcher/infielder David McCann (No. 343) in the top-400.
Additionally, 15 of the rostered prospects are committed to D-I programs, including Stafura (Clemson), Teague (Vanderbilt), Kaufer (Texas A&M) and McCann (Virginia Tech).
It’s actually pretty interesting to look at the schools these guys who come from Atlantic Seaboard states have chosen. East Carolina has commitments from outfielder Bristol Carter, right-hander Michael Irby and left-hander Jackson Little; North Carolina counts right-hander Jacob Kirby, third baseman Tyler Parks and catcher/corner infielder Luke Stevenson; Virginia Tech doubled-down with middle infielder Ethan Gibson and the aforementioned McCann.
With so many players already committed, it could be tempting to think that this is a team that can play especially relaxed with an added point of emphasis placed on winning ballgames. That is a point of emphasis, of course, but there is a little more involved from an individual perspective.
“There’s a lot of pressure in all different aspects when it comes to performing for the scouts,” Teague said. “Obviously, there’s still a lot of pressure once you do make the commitment because then you’ve got a reputation to uphold. Through it all, just truly trying to be a winner constantly is kind of what helps you get to that commitment.
“Now that it’s in the past you just look forward to the next step where there’s other kinds of scouts you’re trying to impress; it’s constant work, for sure.”
The Dirtbags 17u Camo got off to a good start Thursday, outlasting the Jersey Shore Wildcats, 6-4 in a game played at the Twins spring training complex.
Kaufer was nearly a one-man wrecking crew with the bat, stroking a pair of doubles and a home run to finish with four RBI and two runs scored. Hunter Atkins doubled, drove in a run and scored twice and Tyler Parks singled and drove in a run.
Teague, the 6-foot-7, 205-pound right-handed Vanderbilt commit, got the start and worked 2 2/3 scoreless, four-hit innings, striking out two and walking three; lefty Aj Camp and righties Connor Marshburn and Landen Baker worked in relief, although the Wildcats did rally from a 6-0 second-inning deficit to make things close.
“We just come out here and try to have fun; that’s what baseball’s all about,” Kaufer said. “I try not to feel the pressure. I just go out there and keep doing what I’ve been doing to get to this level and just keep having fun...Everybody on this team wants to win; there’s not really any in-between. We’re just trying to do our best and win the tournament; that’s just what we’re here for.”
Getting players opportunities at exposure always has been and always will the main function of PG tournaments but as the 2021 fall season comes to a dramatic conclusion, players can also use those opportunities to do something that is really dear to their hearts: winning championships.
With the Dirtbags, the coaches and “front office” people like Partin and Daly know that the most sure-fire approach to getting noticed is to do a whole lot of winning along the way. They talk to their players about the simple notion of just getting better because if they show improvement each time they take the field they’ll be able to reach their individual and team goals simultaneously.
“Everybody is really trying to achieve one goal here and that’s to potentially win this thing,” Daly said. “Perfect Game does a great job of showcasing the kids and getting them out in front of the college coaches and that’s one of the main reasons we come to this event. Winning is important but getting these kids seen is a big part of our success.
“That’s a big part of baseball in general because it’s about the best team that wins, it’s not about the best players that win.”
The pursuit of college scholarship dollars for its players is the foundation upon which nationally respected programs like the Dirtbags are built and Daly, as the GM, makes sure the guys who want to come in understand that from the beginning. The ‘Bags will do everything they can to help a player find the ultimate “right fit” but the player also has to be willing to his part, as well.
“This is a business and college coaches are trying to find good players to help them keep their jobs, just like anybody in life,” Daly said. “If you’re not good at your job you’re not going to retain it...It’s great if you get to be a Division-I player but if you can’t help that team win, you won’t be around there long.”
Through the years, Partin’s Dirtbags teams have always seemed to rise to the occasion at Perfect Game’s biggest events; the program has won 26 tournament championships and recorded 73 top-3 finishes.
The most noteworthy of those accomplishments is a co-championship with Chet Lemon’s Juice and an outright championship at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., in 2010 and 2016, respectively. Championships of that caliber resonate with former, current and future Dirtbags players alike.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have a really good group that really cares about the name on the front of the jersey. As long as you take care of the name on the front of the jersey the name on the back is going to take care of itself; this is all about the team for us,” Daly said.
“We do have a bunch of really good players but at the end of the day baseball is a game and you’ve just got to show up and put your best foot forward and see what happens.”
Max Kaufer calls Medford, N.J., home which makes him a bit of an outlier amongst all the North Carolinians and Virginians on the roster, but in no way does that make him ignorant of the Dirtbags’ rich history.
He counts current Blue Jays farmhand and 2017 grad Davis Schneider from Berlin, N.J., among his friends, which is certainly noteworthy: Schneider was named the MVP at the 2016 WWBA World Championship while playing for the title-winning Dirtbags in Jupiter that October.
“When I was younger I always looked up to the Dirtbags,” Kaufer said Thursday. “It’s a blessing to be able to wear the Dirtbags across my chest today.”
Daly feels like his pitching staff is the real strength of this team and at an event like the WWBA Underclass World Championship depth at that position is key. The coaches always error on the side of caution when it comes to using their prized arms and Daly reported that all of his pitchers came into the weekend well-rested.
“I’ve kind of had a decent little week of preparation but at the same time the intensity is going to be there,” Teague said. “There’s no excuse, and the adrenaline and the intensity is going to be there especially knowing it’s one of the last outings of the year and you’ve got to leave it all out there.”
Teague called it a blessing to be put in an environment that features only good-on-good, where the best are facing off against the best. No one gets better playing lesser competition and lesser competition is difficult to find on the diamonds of Lee and Charlotte counties this weekend.
Their stay here started well enough for the Dirtbags 17u Camo and they expect to be around for the long haul. But there are, of course, more than 200 other teams that came here feeling the same way about their chances.
“Andy and Trey are always talking about grit and just playing the game the right way; playing the game hard,” Kaufer said. “That’s what we try to do each and every day. We come out here and try to represent the name the best we can. Play hard, play gritty; that’s just what we’re all about...
“Everybody is going to come out here and do their job. Everybody’s here for a reason and that’s to do what they know how to do. Everyone likes to play loose but when it gets down to it in a game we’re all business; we’re here to win.”