FORT MYERS, Fla. – The state of Georgia is flush with powerhouse travel ball organizations and independent teams, and many of the “big names” come from around the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. It is there you’ll find East Cobb and 643 DP, Team Elite and Team Georgia, the Atlanta Blue Jays and the Georgia Jackets.
So it was almost like a breath of fresh, ocean air when the Savannah Bulldogs, a 14u team from one of Georgia’s most historical, beautiful and charming Atlantic Coast cities, came breezing into Southwest Florida late last week.
The Bulldogs made themselves right at home on the beautiful playing fields in Fort Myers and soon proved to everyone they should not be taken lightly over this long Fourth of July holiday weekend while they compete for a championship at the 14u Perfect Game BCS Finals.
One of 62 teams in the tournament field, the scrappy and talented Bulldogs used an 8-0, five-inning win over the Team Connecticut Heat at the CenturyLink Sports Complex on the morning of July 4th to improve to 4-0-0 in pool-play. They face Chaos (also 4-0-0) from Denham Springs, La., Sunday morning with the pool championship and a potential top-four seed in the 21-team playoffs on the line.
“They’ve really come together as a team down here,” Savannah Bulldogs general manager and head coach Bubba Hilton said Saturday morning even before his team blanked Team Connecticut. “They’re hitting the ball, playing good defense and our pitching – we’ve only given up four runs – has been really good. Hopefully they’ll keep it going.”
The Savannah Bulldogs are an independent team without sponsorship and raise their own money for tournament entry fees and travel expenses. Hilton will keep this team together – possibly adding a spare part or two here and there – right up through their high school years, and plans on them playing in as many Perfect Game 15u, 16u and 17u tournaments as possible in the next two or three years.
There is a core group of seven players on this roster that have been together under the Savannah Bulldogs banner since they were 8-years-old. They include 2018s Garrison Gunby and John Thorpe, both from Savanah, and Casey Crawford from Guyton, Ga.; 2019s Cameron Crosby from Savannah, Jarrett Brown from Ellabell, Ga., and Josh Yeddulayyagari (also known as Josh Reddy); and 2020 Kyle Hilton – Bubba’s son – from Savannah.
“The good thing is we’re a team,” Hilton said. “We don’t pick four or five players to come with us and be hired guns, so to speak, we’re just the same team that we’ve been playing with all year; they’ve been able to hold their own with the bigger boys.”
It’s a group that has done a lot of winning on the regional level over the past couple of years, mostly in USSSA Major Division tournaments. It’s a team with a nice mix of teenagers who will be either high school sophomores or freshmen in the fall – Kyle Hilton will be an eighth-grader – and Coach Hilton especially likes the way his older boys have taken it upon themselves to help the younger guys.
The Bulldogs beat teams from Florida, Georgia and Connecticut in their first four games here, and outscored them by a combined 32-4; they hit .369 as a team and compiled a 0.96 team ERA. Five batters are hitting .400 or better, led by Gunby at 6-for-10 (.600) with two doubles, a triple and five RBI.
Gunby, a right-hander, pitched five shutout innings of two-hit ball in the win over the Heat, and in three appearances gave up two earned runs on two hits in 8 1/3 innings (1.68 ERA) with eight strikeouts and 10 walks.
“I’ve just been feeling pretty comfortable at the plate and everywhere else on the field,” he said. “This has been a real good experience for us because we’ve been playing good in every Perfect Game tournament we’ve been in and this is by far the best Perfect Game tournament we’ve been in so far.”
This same team competed at the 14u PG WWBA Memorial Day Classic at Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint in Emerson, Ga., earlier this summer and finished 2-1-1. Gunby, Brown and Luke Whetstone from Richmond Hill, Ga., were named to the all-tournament team, Gunby as both a hitter and a pitcher. Quite a few of these players were also on the Savannah Bulldogs squad that played at the 2013 12u PG BCS Finals here in Fort Myers.
By having the group together so long, Hilton has been able to watch their development as ballplayers – and their passage from elementary school to middle school and now on to high school – from a front-row seat; he calls it a “blessing.”
He said one of the parents came up to him earlier this summer and noted it didn’t seem like Hilton was getting on the boys as much as he had in the past; he responded that it was no longer necessary. The guys had reached the age and experience level where they understood the game a little better, and while they still have to keep growing into it and continue to learn every day, Hilton was able to do a little bit more from the backseat.
What he enjoys the most are the Bulldogs’ practice sessions. He’s noticed in the last year that the young players have taken it upon themselves to work with each other as opposed to when they were younger and in need of constant supervision. Now, the coaches stand off to the side while the players work with each other and Hilton believes that has been a big bonus in terms of their development.
“From their way of looking at it, they’re not only working but they’re also coaching the other guys,” he said. “We have a group of younger kids in town who we’ll bring in and these guys will work with them. It reinforces that what we’re doing with the older guys, they’ll take it to the 9- and 10-year-olds and reinforce it with them.”
There are some notable baseball names associated with the Bulldogs. Former big-league pitcher Chris Sealbach – he was with the Atlanta Braves in 2000-01 – has helped with the team and, according to Hilton, 2018 outfielder John “Trey” Fesperman III is the grandson of Cincinnati Reds CEO and majority owner Bob Castellini.
“We’ve got them headed in the right direction,” Hilton said with a laugh. Added Gunby: “I’m learning something new every game, every pitch, every play.”
Hilton admits it’s a bit of a shame that the people back home in Savannah seldom have the opportunity to see the team play because the Bulldogs have to travel to find the level of competition it desires. They play at the East Cobb Complex in Marietta so often that the running joke is East Cobb is the Bulldogs’ home field; they are also frequent visitors to Florida and the Carolinas. But Savannah is home.
“We do have to travel around but we take a lot of pride in (representing) Savannah,” Hilton said. “The good thing is when these kids go to their high schools the coaches already know who they are. For me, my biggest goal is to get them ready for the next level which right now is high school, and in time that will be college ball. But we take a lot of pride in knowing that we’re one of the few (elite) teams in the (Savannah) area.”
Speaking for the other players, Gunby acknowledged that the Bulldogs were the strongest team in their age-group back home and it is for that reason they enjoy traveling near and far to face the best competition out there – even it means motoring over to the Atlanta area.
The Bulldogs only want to be surrounded by other young guys that want to learn as much from one another as possible. And there’s the added benefit of getting to meet new people outside of the Savannah area, watching how they play and looking forward to seeing them again in the future.
But, of course, nothing beats being around their own teammates, especially when the group is making a strong run at a PG national tournament championship.
“We just like to play baseball and we like being with each other; we’re like family,” Gunby said. “We have a really (strong) bond and we pick each other up if we don’t do good; as long as we stick together we’ll be fine.”