GOODYEAR, Ariz. – It was made official around mid-afternoon on Monday, inside a sun-soaked Cactus League stadium on a beautifully manicured playing field where members of the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians will spend March getting ready for the 2015 Major League Baseball season.
The proclamation was loud and clear: This is September, not March, and these Cactus League spring training fields – and the Perfect Game/EvoShield National Championships – are now officially in complete control of the Garicaparra Baseball Group (GBG).
GBG Marucci Navy won its second Perfect Game national championship in 11 days on Monday, this one the PG/EvoShield Upperclass National Championship with the title game played at Goodyear Ballpark. GBG Marucci Navy, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, out-slugged No. 1 CBA Marucci, 9-6, in the championship game. It was GBG Marucci's second straight PG national championship at this event.
A different roster of prospects playing under the GBG Marucci Navy banner captured the PG/EvoShield Underclass National Championship exactly one week ago, with the title game played at Camelback Ranch Stadium in Glendale.
This is the fourth PG/EvoShield National championship the young GBG organization has won in the last two years. GBG squads won the PG/EvoShield Underclass in September 2012 and the PG/EvoShield Upperclass in September 2013 leading up to this month’s remarkable double.
It is the first time in the six-year history of the PG/EvoShield championships the same organization has won both tournaments in the same year.
“I’m just ecstatic,” GBG founder and general manager Mike Garciaparra said Monday. “Our staff is outstanding, our parents and our kids – the families – they’re just good people and phenomenal players. They work hard and they respect the game. It’s the Garciaparra way that my dad (Ramon) taught my brother (Nomar) and myself, and we try to instill that in all of our kids and our coaches. And they buy in.
“They play hard and they come out and they never give up,” he continued. “I don’t know how they keep doing it out here; I’m super excited for them. I just thought maybe were getting lucky a couple of times but this is four now in 2 ½ years and I just couldn’t be happier.”
The championship game pairing of Los Angeles-based GBG Marucci Navy and Temecula, Calif.-based CBA Marucci almost seemed pre-ordained with the two rosters boasting at least 14 NCAA Division I commits, most of those on the CBA side.
Both teams were splendid offensively en route to the championship game, and that production didn’t slow once the title tilt got under way. By the time the final out was recorded, GBG had totaled 13 hits – including five doubles – and CBA 11 hits.
GBG Marucci Navy jumped to a 5-0 lead after two innings and never trailed. It was 6-0 after four when CBA’s bats finally came to life and it scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 6-4. GBG plated one in the sixth and two more in the seventh to take a 9-4 lead and even though CBA was able to push across two more in the bottom of the seventh, it wasn’t enough.
“We got off to a great first-inning start in the (quarterfinals), we got off to a great first-inning start in the semifinals and we got off to great first-inning start offensively in this game,” GBG Marucci Navy head coach Zak Krislock said. “That momentum just kept carrying the whole time and that’s really what set the precedent for our success.”
In GBG Marucci Navy’s seven games/victories here, it scored 21 of its 54 runs in the first inning, including 16 of the 28 it scored in the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games. The early run production certainly seemed to set the tone in each subsequent victory.
“Once they get it going they’re hard to stop; offensively this is a really dominant team,” Krislock said. “The pitching was great the whole time … and all three phases came together and we’re a really tough organization to beat when we play all three phases.”
GBG’s Matt Lautz was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored for GBG in the championship game. Brandon Shearer, Spencer Steer, Ryan Fineman and Matthew Kassowitz each had two hits, with Shearer driving in three runs, Fineman two, Kassowitz collecting one of the doubles and Steer driving in a run and scoring one. Ethan Lopez doubled and drove in two.
“We just came out here and played like we always do; played GBG baseball,” Lautz said. “We played good defense, threw strikes – that’s just how GBG does it.”
CBA Marucci was a victim of attrition before the championship game; it suited up only 11 players after arriving at the event with 18. Every team deals with players missing school at tournaments held during the school year and often it is impossible for the young players to miss class time on both Friday and Monday. But boy, did CBA battle.
Kyle Hatton, Luke Williams, Trevor Beard and Ross Dodds each collected two hits, with Hatton smacking a double and driving in a pair of runs.
Lautz, a 2015 outfielder from Agoura Hills, Calif., enjoyed a splendid four days at the PG/EvoShield Upper, hitting .478 (11-for-23) with two doubles, two triples, four RBI, 10 runs scored and a 1.259 OPS; he was also Marucci Navy’s winning pitcher in the semifinal round. He was named the tournament Most Valuable Player, and couldn’t say enough about how much he enjoyed the experience.
“Mike (Garciaparra) always brings in great guys and good ballplayers, but also just great individuals,” he said. “We become a family in four days; it’s pretty amazing how you can do that but we always do and it’s a great time. We always come out here in these tournaments and we always play like there’s nothing to lose. We come out here and we always end up doing well so there has to be something going good for us.”
There were several other GBG players who could have made a case for some sort of MVP recognition of their own, which is expected when a lineup produces a .378 team batting average over the course of seven games.
Shearer hit .476 with five RBI and 10 runs; Spencer Steer was at .421 with six RBI and four runs; Ryan Eastburn batted .438 with five RBI and four runs; Will Proctor hit .353 with three runs driven in and six scored. Steer and Proctor, two highly regarded class-of-2016 prospects, were the only players to be a member of both GBG PG national championship teams.
“These guys didn’t want to be shown up by the younger class. We set the bar (high) and they knew they had to keep it there,” Krislock said. “They really take that seriously as an organization – we all do – and it breeds success.”
Exceptional individual performances were not foreign to several team members of CBA Marucci, of course. Leading the way was 2015 right-hander Tim Holdgrafer, a St. Mary’s (Calif.) recruit from San Diego, who made two pitching starts and went 2-0 with a 0.70 ERA after giving up one earned run on eight hits while striking out 12 and walking one in 10 innings of work. He was named the Most Valuable Pitcher.
CBA Marucci batted .376 as a team over its seven games. Luke Williams hit .600 (12-for-20) with three RBI, seven runs and a .680 on-base percentage; Trevor Beard was 11-for-16 (.688) with three RBI and eight runs; Tyler Nevin hit .429 (6-for-14) with two doubles, a home run, eight walks, five RBI, eight runs and a 1.452 OPS.
GBG Marucci Navy broke loose for six runs in the bottom of the first inning and added two more in the bottom of the fourth, and made that work in a 8-0, five inning win over No. 7-seed AZ Athletics 2016 (5-1-0) in a semifinal game Monday morning.
Fineman smacked a two-run double; Kassowitz stroked a run-scoring double; Eastburn and Proctor each poked RBI singles and Jacob Hughey contributed a sacrifice fly in Navy’s big six-run first. Fineman finished 2-for-3 with three RBI, and Eastburn and Lautz were both 2-for-3.
Lautz, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound right-hander, got the start and worked five innings, allowing three hits and striking out two. Daniel Abiles had two of the AZ A’s three hits, both singles.
Two runs in the third and one each in the fourth, fifth and sixth complemented a strong pitching outing from Holdgrapher, and CBA Marruci coasted to a 5-1 win over No. 4-seed BPA DeMarini Elite (5-1-0) in semifinal round play Monday morning.
Williams went 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored to lead CBA’s nine-hit attack. Beard was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, and David Maldonado and Jake Ortega each doubled and drove in a run. Holdgrafer threw a complete-game, six-hitter, and allowed one earned run by striking out seven and walking one. Zach Wolf had two of BPA’s six hits and drove in its only run.
But this was the time for the Garciaparra Baseball Group to take its bows. GBG teams will be competing in the inaugural Perfect Game California World Series in the organization’s Los Angeles hometown in two weeks, and it’s starting to look like there is a good chance more bows will be taken after that event.
“I expect to be the best and the boys expect to be the best,” Mike Garciaparra said. “We never brag about ever being the best but you need to expect the best out of yourself. It’s another thing you just try to teach: ‘Hey, you want to be the best, you want to play the best, you want to play in the best tournaments against the best competition? That’s how you get better.’
“I didn’t expect it to be like this (so quickly) but we expect to go to every tournament and try to win and these kids have literally adopted that and gone out there and played their tails off and have been very successful.”
2014 PG/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass) runner-up: CBA Marucci
2014 PG/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass) MVP: Matt Lautz, GBG Marucci Navy
2014 PG/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass) MV-Pitcher: Tim Holdgrafer, CBA Marucci
