GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Before the first of what would ultimately be 321 pitches was thrown in the Perfect Game WWBA Upperclass Fall National Championship Protected by G-Form quarterfinal-round game Sunday afternoon between No. 5-seed Wilson Sandlot 2018 and No. 4 GBG NW, Sandlot head coach Kurt Vesecky had this to say when asked what it would take for his talented team to advance to Monday’s semifinal round.
“We just have to continue doing what we’re doing,” he told PG. “Our bats are slowly coming alive and we’re playing really, really good defense as we always do. We don’t walk too many guys and I like our chances against anybody.”
He was right about liking his team’s chances but there was no way he could have seen this coming …
With the tie-breaker rule in place that requires each half-inning after the seventh to begin with the bases loaded and one out, the Sandlot 2018 broke an 8-8 tie by pushing three runs across in the top of the 12th inning, and made that stand in an 11-8 victory. It was an epic quarterfinal match-up played on the Cincinnati Reds’ side of the Goodyear Ballpark complex, a thriller that lasted more than 3 hours.
And at its conclusion, along with another late-running quarterfinal, and with the desert sun setting behind the craggy mountains to the west, the dust settling and the crowd thinning, the semifinal pairings at the Upperclass Fall National Championship were finally set.
When play resumes Monday morning on the Cleveland Indians’ side of the Goodyear MLB spring training complex, there will be four teams playing for a spot in Monday afternoon’s championship game at Goodyear Ballpark.
The No. 5 Sandlot (5-0-0) from Chandler, Ariz., will face the No. 1 Aggies Baseball Upperclass (5-0-0) from Watsonville, Calif., while No. 7 Chaminade College Prep (5-0-0) out of Moorpark, Calif., will take on the No. 3 TB SoCal Gold (5-0-0) from Los Angeles.
The contest between GBG NW and the Wilson Sandlot 2018 was a story of punch-counter punch right from the opening frames. University Place, Wash.-based GBG NW (4-1-0) led the Sandlot 2018 3-0 after five innings, but the ‘Lot 2018 tied it by scoring one run in the top of the sixth and two more in the seventh; the marathon had just begun.
Both teams scored single runs in the eighth, and after a scoreless ninth both pushed across three in the 10th and one in the 11th. Keeping in mind that the inning started with the bases loaded and one out, the Sandlot scored their three runs in the top of the 12th on a Brady Bulger RBI fielder’s choice groundout to second base, a Tyler Rice RBI single to right field and a Drew Healy bases-loaded walk. For the first time all afternoon, GBG NW had no answer in the bottom of the inning.
Jacob Vesecky and Tyler Cranston both drove in and scored a pair of runs for the Sandlot; Joe Terlizzi was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. No one had multiple hits for GBG NW but Tellier Lundquist and Sam Thompson both drove in a pair of runs.
Going into the game, the Sandlot’s 2018 University of Washington commit Colton Cassinelli liked the direction his team was trending.
“I feel like we’ve hit the ball pretty well … and hitting-wise we’ve really stepped up in (key) situations,” he said. “A lot of us have played together since we were 12 or 13 and while we don’t have some of our horses here … this group of guys has been together for a long time so we know each other pretty well.”
This Sandlot team has played together all summer and kicked it off by winning the 18u PG WWBA Memorial Day Classic right here in the west Phoenix suburbs; Cassinelli was that tournament’s Most Valuable Player. This is the first weekend they’ve played together in several weeks but if there was rust, it really didn’t show.
The ‘Lot 2018 outscored its three pool-play opponents by a combined 18-4 and then dumped the No. 12 Quakes Baseball Academy (3-1-0) from Lake Forest, Calif., 10-2 in the second-round of the playoffs.
“We’ve got 13 guys on this team that are committed (to colleges) and we’ve got some others that we’re looking to get to the next level,” Vesecky said. “So, we’re just out here having some fun.”
GBG NW’s head coach Justin Gabriel got together with Michael Garciaparra and his Garciaparra Baseball Group (GBG) last year and formed this program up in the Tacoma, Wash., area.
This is the fourth tournament the program has competed in this summer, a list that includes last weekend’s PG WWBA Underclass Fall National Championship, where the 2019 GBG NW team won its pool and finished 3-1-0.
GBG NW earned the No. 4 seed by outscoring its three pool-play foes by a combined 21-3 and topped the No. 20 Minnesota MN Blizzard Black 2019 9-1 in its playoff-opener Sunday.
“They come together and they play together well,” Gabriel said. “That’s what I love about these groups is that they came together, and once you see them joking and having fun with each other, they’re getting comfortable. And, of course, the talent is there – we’ve got a lot of talent just like every other team that is left (in the quarterfinals) – and so here we are.”
The GBG NW players knew full well that once they got into bracket-play they were going to be facing teams with just as much talent and in some cases more talent than their own roster possessed. Gabriel was convinced that if they took the field and played their game without worrying about what else was happening out there, they were very much capable of advancing. And, it took 12 innings for someone to stop that from happening.
“Everybody leans on each other and I think they don’t want to be the guy that’s kind of an outcast in terms of not making plays or not making pitches,” he said. “Everybody is just pulling for everybody else, and when you get that going together, it’s fun. We just play our style and we’ve been fortunate enough to pitch, play defense and get some timely hitting.”
GBG NW standout Willie Weiss – a 2018 Michigan commit who gave up two earned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings of work and was also 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored in the quarterfinal game – knew what was at stake: “Once you get to bracket-play it’s win-or-go-home, so we all have to play our best baseball or we’ll all have to get on a plane and go back home,” he said.
Heading into Monday’s semis and then possibly the championship game to follow at Goodyear Ballpark, everyone associated with the Sandlot 2019 also knows what is at stake.
“We’re going to have to keep pitching and have guys step-up,” the catcher Cassinelli said. “We’ve got to keep it going on the mound, behind the dish and just back each other up all day long.”
“It’s a win-or-go-home mentality at this point,” Vesecky added. “A lot of times what we’ll do, I like to pitch backwards and not really go with my guns upfront. At the end of the day, I don’t want my best arms sitting on the bench and never throwing in the (playoffs).” And so, here they are.
Freshman Fall National Championship final-4 in place
GLENDALE, Ariz. – The final four at the PG WWBA Freshman Fall National Championship Protected by G-Form was determined after quarterfinal-round play Sunday afternoon at the Camelback Ranch MLB spring training complex, and all four top seeds advance to Monday’s semifinals. And there’s an opportunity there for an all-GBG championship game.
No. 1-seeded GBG Arizona 2021 (4-0-0) from Peoria will take the only unbeaten/untied record into the semis when it faces No. 4 Dykstra Baseball (3-0-1) out of Temecula, Calif., in one of the semis, while No. 2 GBG Marucci (3-0-1) from Los Angeles will play the San Diego-based No. 3 CBA Wave 2021 (3-0-1) in the other one.
The quarterfinal-round losers were the No. 5 First Pitch Gamers (2-1-1, Scottsdale); No. 6 Play Hard Baseball 2021 (2-2-0, Pasadena, Calif.); the No. 7 CBA Bulldogs (2-2-0, Ontario, Calif.) and the No. 8 Hooligans (2-2-0, Rio Rancho, N.M.).