MARION, Iowa – The start of the high school and college football seasons in the state of Iowa was on the minds of a lot of folks at the Prospect Meadows Sports Complex on Saturday morning, but not quite as much as the first full day of play at the Perfect Game Midwest Labor Day Classic.
It was a fall-like day at The Meadows with cool temps and mostly cloudy skies but for guys playing for top PG MWLDC Upperclass (18u) entrant PG Iowa Select 2022 Obermueller, this was perfect baseball weather. Even while the players’ and coaches’ beloved Iowa Hawkeyes were throttling Indiana, 34-6, in the Big Ten football opener for both top-20 programs.
“It’s a great atmosphere,” Select 2022 outfielder Cade Obermueller told PG on Saturday. “We love playing ball so we want to come out here and make the best of it. We know we have a good team and we’re going to try to win the whole thing.”
The champions in the four age divisions (Upperclass, Underclass, Sophomore and Freshman) won’t be crowned until Monday, but the Iowa Select 2022 Obermueller (Select 2022 O’s for our purposes) came into the Upperclass event well-positioned for success.
There are six PG Iowa Select teams in the Upperclass MWLDC field, with Wes Obermueller, John Renning, Tim Evans, Todd Huckabone, Gordy Nordgren and Eric Munson doing the coaching. The Iowa Select program has grown in leaps and bounds during the 2021 season, with numerous teams from Central Iowa coming on board.
The Eastern Iowa teams’ rosters are constantly in flux with players revolving from one manager to the other during the course of the season.
“There’s so much good talent in Iowa, and we’ve used PG as a resource to develop our talent; it’s just catapulted all these kids to have these opportunities,” Wes Obermueller said. “These rosters could just be flip-flopped in and out, and on my roster we’ve got a quite a few commitments already to D-I’s and jucos. With these ‘22s, the talent pool is so thick anymore; Iowa has developed so much good talent recently; it’s just awesome.”
The Select 2022 O’s roster lists six players who are seniors at City High School in Iowa City, including top-500 Iowa Hawkeyes commits in outfielder Cade Obermueller (Wes’s son) and middle-infielder Gable Mitchell; uncommitted left-hander Jay Kennedy, catcher John Klosterman and shortstop Gavin Koch are other City High seniors ranked as top-500 national prospects.
Mitchell was not available on Saturday because he is also a standout on the Little Hawks’ football team, which played a game Friday night. In fact, Obermueller said, his squad was without seven guys Saturday who also played football Friday night, although they are expected back on Sunday.
“A lot of the football players are pretty sore on Saturday,” Obermueller said. “They want to come out, but they need pretty much a day just to shake out the cobwebs from the night before. But we like a lot of multi-sport athletes, especially in the state of Iowa, and I’m all for that.
“All I’m here to do is try to pass on the knowledge that I’ve learned out of my pro career with anything I can offer and any advice I can give to any of the kids when they can show up.”
There were many other top prospects on hand ready to contribute for Obermueller on Saturday, including PG All-American and No. 39-ranked Kentucky commit Tommy Specht and top-500 Iowa commits Aaron Savary and Kellen Strohmeyer, all from Dubuque.
Also, there’s top-500 Hawkeyes commit Drew Prokovec and top-500 Southeastern CC commit Mason Behn from Cedar Rapids; top-500 Iowa commit Reese Moore from Van Meter; top-500 Iowa Western CC commit Kooper Schulte out of New London; and high follow catcher George Sherlock, a Southeastern CC commit from the Dubuque-area town of Asbury. Don’t be surprised if those juco guys end up being Hawkeyes themselves one day, much like their head coach here this weekend.
Wes Obermueller, an Iowa native, was a second round pick of the Royals in the 1999 MLB June Amateur Draft out of the University of Iowa, after starting his career at Kirkwood CC in Cedar Rapids. A 6-foot-2, 195-pound right-hander, Obermueller pitched parts of five seasons in the major leagues and parts of nine seasons in the minors, while also enjoying stops in Japan and Korea late in his career.
And he really likes this roster, especially its versatility. It’s like one big, talented team of utility players, guys who can play multiple positions even while they are now starting to slot themselves into their positions of choice.
“That’s where my experience comes in where I was a catcher in high school, a shortstop and outfielder in junior college that pitched a little bit and then I got drafted as a pitcher,” Obermueller said. “That’s what I like to do with this team is give them an opportunity because you don’t know what’s going to open up for you at the next level.”
The Select 2022 O’s opened play Saturday with a decisive 12-2 win over the Midwest Halos out of Milwaukee. Iowa Select totaled 12 hits in the win, led by Schulte with three singles, two RBI and two runs scored; Specht with three singles, two RBI and a run; Strohmeyer with a triple, single, two RBI and two runs; and Savary with a pair of singles, two ribbies and two runs; they hit in the top four spots in the order.
Behn, a 2022 right-hander, threw five shutout innings, allowing three hits while striking out four without a walk; he also drove in a pair of runs without the benefit of a base-hit.
“It’s exciting to be out here and start playing again with this team; it’s going to be fun,” Behn said. “I’ve played with these guys for a few years now and it’s a bunch of good guys. … It’s nice to compete against them in the summer and now I get to play with them, so it’s great.”
The Iowa Hawkeyes are the only D-I baseball program in the state, so it only stands to reason that the top Iowa prep talent would choose to take up residence with head coach Rick Heller in Iowa City.
“Coach Heller and his staff have just done an amazing job,” Obermueller said. “Their track record is one of success no matter where they’ve (been) and they take notice of a lot of these kids. They recognize the talent and it’s just been amazing; it’s a great opportunity for these kids to stay home and compete at a high level.”
Added Cade Obermueller: “It’s awesome playing with a bunch of Hawkeye commits. We have other (commits) too, and it’s awesome playing with other college players and people that you know you’re going to play with in the future.”
Age-group tournaments like the PG Midwest Labor Day Classic are a great way to kick off what can be a busy fall season, Obermueller believes, because it gets the guys back on the field against top-notch competition that they can gauge themselves against.
A lot of the players on this Iowa Select 2022 O’s roster are the best players on their respective high school teams so it’s important that they see other talented players who will challenge them at every turn. With the exception of Specht, every one of these guys is considered a top-500 talent, a designation that just screams blue collar grit and gumption.
“I consider it the small-town mentality,” Obermueller said. “You’ve got work harder than the next guy and that’s what these guys do. They always want to fine-tune their skills and be better than the next guy.”
He was quick to add that these are players very coachable and especially receptive to the lessons he shares based on his own extensive experiences. Keeping an open-mind is essential for any prospect who hopes to keep climbing the ladder and Obermueller sees that with this group.
“I don’t know everything but I have experienced quite a bit. … They’re getting to the point where they’ve got the talent and now it gets into the mental aspect of the game.”
PG Iowa Select 2022 Obermueller dropped its second game of the day Saturday, falling to the Illinois-based Cangelosi Sparks 2022 White, 8-0. Sparks 2022 right-hander David Auw threw a six-inning five-strikeout five-hitter effectively silencing the Select 2022 O’s bats in impressive fashion; Savary had two of the 2022 O’s five singles off of Auw.
But the Select 2022 O’s will live to fight again on Sunday and they’ll do it together: “These (teammates) are guys we compete against all season in high school and they’re all awesome guys; great players,” Cade Obermueller said. “And now that we’re all together we just love being (here) and it’s like we just all wait for this moment, being together and playing because we know what we can do together; we’re all great ballplayers.”