EMERSON, Ga. – Many of the 26 teams competing at this week’s 6th annual Perfect Game High School Showdown traveled hundreds of miles to get to Perfect Game Park at LakePoint, coming from as far west as College Station, Texas, and as far southeast as North Broward County, Fla.
The players, coaches, family members and friends with the Cartersville Hurricanes, on the other hand, faced only a leisurely 4½-mile drive southwest on U.S. 41 to arrive at the state-of-the-art sports complex that sits, quite literally, right in their own backyard.
The PG HS Showdown completed the second of its three-day run Friday, and the nationally No. 33-ranked Hurricanes did their part in keeping things close to home by winning their second game in two days and advancing to Saturday’s Red Division semifinals. The Cartersville-Emerson baseball community was certainly a contented community Friday night.
“It’s awesome, I love it,” Cartersville HS top senior prospect and 2017 PG All-American Anthony Seigler said Friday afternoon. “It’s not too far away so everybody from Cartersville gets to come, your family and friends and all that.
“That’s what I like about it, just being able to have close connections here … and we have our whole support group here, too. It’s more fun when we start winning because then everybody else really starts (showing up).”
Devin Warner, another highly regarded/ranked senior on the Hurricanes’ roster, echoed his teammate’s thoughts:
“It’s a bunch of fun, because when we play here we also get a lot of our fans to come out, too; you just to get to have a lot more people watching you,” he said Friday. “I like (this event) because I like to see what Georgia’s got against the other (states). It’s also fun playing other teams because it’s different from the regular high school season when you’re playing all your usual region teams.”
At No. 33, Cartersville is one of five teams that appeared in the PG High School Preseason Top 50 National Rankings that are at the Showdown and competing in either the 16-team Red Division or 10-team Blue Division. No. 2 Parkview (Ga.), No. 11 North Gwinnett (Ga.), No. 28 Loganville (Ga.) and No. 43 North Broward Prep (Fla.) are also nationally ranked.
Cartersville played in the inaugural PG HS Showdown in 2013, when the event was held in Fort Myers, Fla. The Canes took 2014 off but have played in the last three here in their backyard at PG Park. The two wins Thursday and Friday upped their overall Showdown mark to 10-9, which includes a 3-1 showing in 2016.
Those games were all played under the direction of former head coach Stuart Chester, who left Cartersville after last season to take the same post at Buford (Ga.) High School. Coincidentally, Buford is also at the Showdown but lost in Friday’s Red Division quarterfinals, so the two teams will not meet.
The Hurricanes are now under the direction of first-year head coach Kyle Tucker, who spent the previous 11 seasons as an assistant to Chester; Tucker also played for Chester at Cartersville High. It probably goes without saying, but the transition from Chester to Tucker has been seamless.
“Knowing a lot of (the players) and knowing the program Coach Chester established and the expectations at Cartersville, it has been very easy,” Tucker told PG on Friday. “I guess everybody has to put their own stamp on things, but I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel.
“All we did was win a lot of games with Coach … and I’m just trying to keep that tradition going and be the best that we can be in 2018.”
The Hurricanes debuted at No. 33 Top 50 National Rankings last month; they finished 22-10 after a loss in the first-round of the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) Class 4A playoffs in 2017.
This year’s roster is equal parts experienced and young, with a lot of ranked talent taking up residence in the junior class. The senior class (2018) features five prospects Perfect Game ranks as “high follow” or better, including No. 13 Seigler (a Florida signee), No. 124 Warner (Auburn) and top-500 Curtis Wilkes.
The talented junior class (2019) boasts eight prospects PG ranks as high-follows or better, including No. 99 right-hander/infielder Mason Barnett (Auburn), No. 224 outfielder/left-hander Preston Welchel (South Alabama), No. 355 catcher/first baseman Jake Gooch (Georgia Tech), top-500 right-hander Luke Schiltz and top-500 right-hander/utility J.P. Martin.
“It is a good blend,” Tucker said. “I don’t think we’re so much senior-laden because we’ve got a lot of juniors that are in the starting lineup and who contribute, but we do have some impact seniors.”
Anytime the discussion turns to the makeup of a high school baseball team’s roster, it must start with the seniors, and if one of them happens to be a PG All-American, well, all the better.
Perfect Game may have never showcased a top prospect with as many unique talents as Carterville’s Seigler. The 6-foot, 190-pound Seigler is not only a switch-hitting catcher but also a both-handed pitcher, and he can walk out to the mound and deliver a 90-mph fastball with either arm.
A Florida signee ranked No. 13 in the national class of 2018, he can run a 7-second 60-yard dash – he bats leadoff in the Canes’ order – and throw 89 mph from the outfield, 86 mph across the infield and 84 mph from behind the plate and has recorded a career-best Pop time of 1.78-seconds. Seigler is widely projected to be selected in the first-round of the MLB June Amateur Draft in a few months.
Late Friday afternoon, he threw a complete game, scattering seven hits while striking out five without a walk, in the Canes’ 8-2 quarterfinal-round victory over Loganville (Ga.) Grayson High School. He threw the first six innings left-handed to get the win and then threw the seventh right-handed for the save (not officially, of course, but it sounds like an intriguing stat. Was he, technically, two different pitchers?).
Cartersville was actually getting no-hit and losing 1-0 through five innings of that game until Seigler led-off the sixth with a double. He later came around to score on an RBI single off Warner’s bat, and the Canes rolled to the six-run victory from there.
“(Seigler) is a really impressive young man and he puts a lot of work into it,” Tucker said. “We’re excited to be able to see him the rest of this year and then to where ever his baseball career takes him.”
The head coach was just getting warmed up in his praise for the multi-talented Seigler and the leadership skills he presents to the team’s underclassmen.
“We talk about being a leader and sometimes being a leader requires words, but to me the best leaders have the actions to back it up,” Tucker said. “He’s the one you have to run out of the cage, he’s going to get the most extra work in, he works the hardest in the weight room, he’s the most serious about his body and what he’s eating. It’s an example they see from him every day, and it’s priceless for us as coaches.”
The infielder Warner is another shining star in the senior class, a switch-hitter who has signed with Auburn and is ranked No. 124 nationally; like Seigler, Warner is considered a legitimate prospect in the upcoming MLB Draft.
The Cartersville High School baseball program won six GHSA state championships between 2001 and 2013, all under Chester: Class 2A titles in ’01 and ’02, 3A titles in ’03, ’08, ’09 and ’13.
That means that these current seniors were seventh-graders the last time the Hurricanes brought home a state championship trophy. With the two wins here over the last two days, the Canes improved to 9-3 this season and Seigler, for one, can see that championship drought ending with this year’s team.
“We all grew up with each other our whole lives, and then just to be able to bond as a team is really special,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to play for a state championship and then win it this year, and that will bring us a lot closer together, too. That’s what we’re pushing for this year.”
Warner agreed: “Ever since (the seniors) got here we haven’t won a state championship, so it’s kind of like Cartersville is losing its ‘thing,’” he said. “I feel like this team right here is good enough to do it, and we really want to win a state championship this year. We talk about it a lot, because winning one is everybody’s main goal.”
Thirteen games into this season, the Canes are still developing their chemistry and working to get everyone on the same page. Tucker explained that the coaches set aside “team time” when players can share their thoughts, and he’s even brought in guest speakers that talk about more than just baseball.
“The more time you spend together as a team the more connected you get, and before it’s all said and done we’re going to be a very close team, a very tight team,” he said.
They might already be there, and if not quite yet, it seems they will be if they take a PG HS Showdown championship trophy home late Saturday afternoon.
Warner describes an atmosphere in the dugout where everyone gets along, and everyone has fun playing the game, just like they did when they were in elementary school. These are teammates who are also classmates, so they’re with each other in the school building Monday through Friday and usually find themselves hanging out together on weekends.
Come June, it is more than likely that Anthony Seigler will have a life-changing decision to make. It’s the one that will determine whether he spends the next three years in Gainesville, Fla., pursuing his education and a college baseball career with the Florida Gators or whether he signs a contract and begins a professional career.
He called the decision a “win-win” while noting that neither is exactly a bad option. And either way, he’ll always be able to look back at his Cartersville High School career with nothing but fond memories.
“All four years have been special to me,” Seigler said. “I know it’s been special to Devin (Warner), too, just having these coaches and all the teammates that I’ve had throughout my four years. All the relationships that have developed over my four years are really special to me, too.
“I’m soaking everything in because, obviously, this is my last year here with all these fellas. I’m soaking in every moment of it because I’m never going to get these moments back.”
Tucker went through middle school and high school in Cartersville and has been on the baseball coaching staff for 12 years now. He’s come to know that the school is highly regarded for both its athletics and its academics, which is a source of pride for everyone in the community.
Even now, as the city’s population continues to grow, the place still has a real small-town feel to it, he said, where the good folks still share a bond through the high school and will come out and cheer for the Hurricanes regardless of the sport.
On Saturday, they’ll be cheering the Cartersville HS baseball team on to what is hoped to be a championship at the PG High School Showdown, the Canes’ first in five tries. While not quite on par with winning a GHSA state championship, a title here will certainly be cherished, especially with it coming right in their own neighborhood.
“We’re thankful that we’re able to come to a venue like this,” Tucker said. “We went to school today – I’m sure a lot of the Atlanta-area teams did, too – but these out-of-state teams come, and they stay in a hotel, which can be a great experience in itself. But for us, we can play in this tournament and sleep in our own beds and keep our same routine, and you can’t ask for more (than this).”