GLENDALE, Ariz. – It has been more than half a decade since Perfect Game began making real inroads into the West Coast, in general, and the Phoenix-area, in particular, with its summer and fall tournament schedules.
The PG/EvoShield Upperclass and Underclass National Championships have earned a prominent place in PG’s fall tournament schedule for the six years running now and the 18u, 16u and 14u PG MLK Championships have offered warmth and sunshine in mid-January for the past four years.
This holiday weekend, PG is hosting the 5th annual 18u, 16u and 14u WWBA West Memorial Day Classics on the beautiful MLB spring training fields at the Camelback Ranch Complex (Dodgers, White Sox) and the Goodyear Ballpark Complex (Reds, Indians).
Squads from organizations based primarily in Arizona and California have made their marks at each one of these events over the past five-plus years but one group that has really come on strong is the venerable All-Star Baseball Academy (ASBA) out of El Mirage, Ariz., a city located a little over 25-miles northwest of downtown Phoenix.
A year ago, ASBA 17u and ASBA 18u finished second and third, respectively, at the 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic. In 2013, ASBA teams finished as runner-up at the 18u PG WWBA WMDC and shared third-place honors at the 16u PG WWBA WMDC.
This holiday weekend, the organization has one team, ASBA 2015, entered in the 18u PG WWBA WMDC and another, ASBA 2017 vying for bragging rights in the 16u PG WWBA WMDC.
The younger group – with a roster constructed almost exclusively with class of 2017 prospects from Valley of the Sun cities like Phoenix, Peoria and Scottsdale – looks to be a team that could do some serious damage in the 16u event over this long Memorial Day holiday weekend.
“We’re real excited to get started,” All-Star Baseball Academy 2017 head coach Roumaldo Romero told PG before his team played its tournament-opener late Friday morning on the Dodgers side of the Camelback Ranch Complex.
“We haven’t done much because the (Arizona) high school baseball season just got over with – the state tournament ended Tuesday or Wednesday night – and for us to get started now, we’re very excited,” he said. “We just had our first practice (Thursday) night.”
The official 20-man roster for ASBA 2017 includes players from 16 Valley high schools including shortstop Grant Lung, outfielder/left-hander Derek Legeza and corner-infielder Sam Stewart, all class of 2017 prospects who attend Liberty High School in Peoria, Ariz. Liberty finished 29-6 after losing to Mesquite HS in the Arizona Division I state championship game on May 19.
“It was really fun and it was really exciting but when we lost it was kind of, well … you know,” Lung said on Friday with a touch of reservation in his voice. Another member of this ASBA roster is 2017 right-handed pitcher Tommy Lowe, who is a member of the Mountain Ridge (Glendale, Ariz.) team that also advanced to the semifinals of the Division I (big-school) state playoffs.
All-Star Baseball Academy 2017 opened play at the 16u PG WWBA Memorial Day Classic in impressive fashion with a 9-0, five-inning blowout of the South Phoenix Bulldogs. ASBA plated its nine runs – five earned – thanks to six hits, seven walks, two hit batsmen and two wild pitches.
Lung walked and scored twice, Derek Legeza was 2-for-3 a double and an RBI and Connor Denning was 1-for-1 with two RBI. Five ASBA players collected hits and six drove in at least one run. 2017 left-hander Micheal Sears threw five, one-hit shutout innings, striking out two and walking two others.
Most of the ASBA 2017 roster has been together since the start of the 2014 summer season although there are, of course, several newcomers as well. Romero plans to take advantage of this weekend in terms of allowing the new players to become acquainted with the ones that have been in the program for a while and he even took a few minutes before Friday’s first pitch to allow everyone to introduce themselves to their teammates.
There are six players, including team captain Lung, that been part of this team for four PG events now, starting with last year’s 16u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic (all are in the class of 2017). Lung, right-hander/outfielder/catcher Clay Schwaner, right-hander Anthony Cosenza, catcher David Avitia Duarte (also a captain), Legeza and Stewart were all together at last year’s 16u WWBA WMD Classic and the PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship, as well as the 2015 16u PG MLK Championship played here in January.
Coincidentally, perhaps, Denning and Sears are among the four first-time players on the roster. 2017 right-hander/outfielder/first baseman Zachary Griffin, 2017 third baseman Anthony Quattrocchi, Lowe and 2016 second baseman Jesus Aldaz – all of whom have played in at least two tournaments with this ASBA group in the last year – are all ranked in the top-600 nationally by Perfect Game.
“I’m really looking forward to having so much fun and I’m ready to start playing with these guys again,” Lung said Friday. “We have a few new players this year but the majority of them have been on this team for a while. By the second or third tournament we’re already really tight and really good friends. We have some great talent on this team and I think we can get this tournament (completed) and kick off our summer well.”
When the coaches at ASBA go out to recruit kids that they want to be part of their program, they’re looking for the individuals that are serious about not only playing the game well but also playing it the proverbial “right way.”
It has been Romero’s experience – and that of ASBA owner/director/coach John Frietas and operations director/coach Dean Budrow – that when organizations are able to put together a group of guys that really have the desire to play the game, they also have a tendency to play hard and work well together. In the 15 years that he and Budrow have been involved with ASBA, Romero said more than 160 prospects have moved on to college and professional baseball.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve done this; we’ve been doing this for a long time,” Romero said. “We just really enjoy building relationships with the boys and we enjoy seeing them go on and succeed at the next level. … For us, it’s very gratifying and we just enjoy doing it.”
The stated goal of the All-Star Baseball Academy – like every other one in the country, it seems – is to try to provide these young prospects with a springboard that will boost them to baseball careers beyond the high school level. Many of them will go on to the collegiate ranks and a handful might even have the opportunity to play professionally one day. The ASBA directors and coaches can do nothing more than continue to evaluate these young prospects and try to help them achieve their goals.
“Every year, all the way through at every level, it’s a lot of teaching,” Romero said. “It involves all aspects of the game and it’s very gratifying to watch their development. We had several of these guys with us last summer so even when I go to the state tournament and get to watch them perform at that level in high school, we’re very proud as a staff to see them succeed. It makes us feel like that by playing with All-Star Baseball Academy may have helped them be more successful.”
It is the coaching staff’s plan to have this group play at the 17u level the rest of the summer, so they are using this tournament as a bit of a warm-up in the hope the players can take as many positives away from the experience as possible.
It’s not just a matter of showing up and lacing up their shoes and going out and playing, but playing at the highest level they can – hustling and playing together with a lot of excitement – and showing the kind of pride and work ethic that has lead other ASBA teams to tournament championships in the past.
“We’ve always told them that the guys who have played for the Academy and then moved on were always the hardest working kids,” Romero said. “They were the guys that did the extra stuff, whether it be strength and conditioning or hitting off the tee. It’s the things that they do on their own that are going to be the things that get them to the next level.”