FORT MYERS, Fla. – It was with much advanced notice the Scorpions 2016 Prime arrived at Terry Park Thursday night to open play at the Perfect Game WWBA Underclass World Championship.
And not just advanced notice but unbridled anticipation as the Scorpions’ flagship team set out to defend a PG national title that the Orlando Scorpions 2015 Prime had captured a year ago with a championship game victory over, gulp, the Orlando Scorpions 2016 Purple.
The Scorpions’ organization had turned PG’s premier underclass national championship tournament into a family backyard free-for-all with birth certificates practically required for entry into jetBlue Park for the championship game a year ago this week.
“There is no way to ever expect that again,” Scorpions owner/director/head coach Matt Gerber said Friday. “I savored it when it happened – just to get one team into a final four at these events is awesome – and to have two teams in a championship game, we’ll probably never get that again.”
With that as a backdrop, the Scorpions 2016 Prime – one of eight teams from the Scorpions organization involved in the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship and its most elite – opened play Thursday night against a stalwart Atlanta Blue Jays team with dozens of college recruiters looking on.
After a scoreless first three innings, the Blue Jays received an RBI single from Nate Stinson in the top of the fourth to take a 1-0 lead. It was the third hit that the Scorpions’ 2016, 6-foot-4, 205-pound right-hander Todd Peterson – the No. 48-ranked national prospect in his class – had surrendered to go with nine strikeouts against one walk.
But the Jays’ 5-foot-10, 180-pound 2016 right-hander Pedro “Peter” Diaz was on cruise control and the Scorpions couldn’t touch him. With Diaz lifted after six innings of work, the Blue Jays took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh … which they couldn’t hold. The heavily favored Scorpions rallied for a pair of runs – the winning run scored on a Blue Jays’ fielding error – and sense of balance seemed to return to the Underclass World. The King is dead, long live the King.
“Our schedule hasn’t been as comprehensive as it usually is this fall and it’s going to take a little time,” Gerber said Friday, trying to explain his team’s slow start to the tournament. “The Blue Jays are a good team that is fundamentally strong and we just didn’t swing the bats until the seventh inning.
“A win’s a win – that’s what we told them last night – and if you’re going to make a run in these types of tournaments you’re going to have one or two games that you’ve got to pull out at the last second; we got really good pitching last night and a win’s a win.”
There are more than a dozen elite 2016 prospects on the Scorpions 2016 Prime roster and one of them is third baseman/shortstop Joe Skinner, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound left-handed hitter from Heathrow, Fla., who is ranked No. 50 nationally and has committed to Central Florida. Skinner loves playing baseball and he especially loves playing baseball for Gerber and the Scorpions organization.
“Yeah, that was a little bit of a scare,” he said of the opener against the Blue Jays. “It was our first game of the fall, really; we played some a while back but we hadn’t seen each other in a little bit and we were just getting the feel for it. It was good to get going, though, and to win championships you have to have wins like that; they’re going to happen.
“You’re not going to play great every game and everybody’s not going to go 4-for-4 every game, but we’re still the Scorpions.”
“Still the Scorpions,” indeed, and it might not be too early to start screen-printing T-shirts. 2016 Prime rebounded in dominant fashion on Friday at the Lee County Sports Complex – the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins that is undergoing a dramatic refurbishing – with an over-powering 9-1, six-inning win over MAP Baseball out of Minnesota.
2016 Prime produced 13 hits in the win with Spencer Taylor hitting a home run, Carolos A. Cortes a triple and Riley Hogan and Jordan Santos each a double. The pitching was again right-on with three pitchers combining on a six-inning, six-hitter with six strikeouts. Ignore that whole 6-6-6 deal right there as there was nothing sinister about this performance.
“I’ve been waiting for this for the past few weeks,” Skinner said. “I’ve been going to the (Scorpions’) facility every day and doing some hitting, making sure I am ready for this event. I know I’m going to see the best pitchers here so I wanted to be ready.
“And we really do have a lot of fun; we’re all best buds and we like to have fun in the dugout,” he continued, speaking of his teammates. “We’re always focused though – we’re always focused on the game – but it’s baseball so we all go out there and have fun.”
Skinner, Drew Mendoza and Ross Korosec were all members of the Scorpions 2016 Purple team that finished runner-up to their older brothers at last year’s PG WWBA Underclass World Championship. At the time of that championship game very few of these prospects had committed to colleges, certainly not uncommon among high school sophomores.
Now juniors, 12 have given oral commitments, including four to Florida State, three to South Carolina, two to South Florida and one each to North Carolina, Duke and Skinner’s commitment to UCF.
The first five batters in Gerber’s lineup Friday morning all hit from the left side of the plate and they were exceptional, combining for nine hits, seven runs and five RBI. The quintet included lefty hitting Chase Creek (ranked No. 94 nationally, Duke recruit), Jordan Santos (No. 326, South Florida), Cortes (No. 141, South Carolina), Hogan (a switch-hitter, No. 396, South Carolina) and Skinner (No. 50, UCF).
And keep in mind that Gerber was without another exceptional left-handed swinger Mendoza, who had school obligations and will join the team Saturday. Mendoza is a Florida State recruit ranked No. 19 nationally.
“We also have some guys that aren’t necessarily the ‘name’ guys and aren’t the prospects that people know about are really good players and that’s what helps separate this team,” Gerber said. “Those are the guys that you might not have heard of but they’re really good high Division-I quality players – maybe not the big professional prospects but you’re going to seem then at an SEC or ACC school.”
The PG WWBA Underclass World Championship brings out the best in these young prospects as they reach a pivotal point in their careers. Life-changing decisions will be made over the next 12 months and for many of these players this is their introduction to big-boy baseball.
“This event is my favorite event,” Gerber said, echoing a sentiment heard over and over the last two days. “It’s a lot of these guys’ coming out parties a lot of times and some new prospects jump on the scene.”
Gerber pointed to the performance turned in by Peterson, who with his No. 48 national ranking isn’t exactly an unknown, but he is uncommitted and one of those guys that continues to get better. He touched 94 mph on the gun several times and sat consistently at 90-92. Gerber said he expects Peterson to be committed within the next couple of weeks.
“I think this is the marquee event of the calendar, honestly, for college recruiting,” he said. “Every field is within 20 miles of each other and every field you go to – it doesn’t matter who’s playing – you see colleges there. … This one, from a college recruiting standpoint, is the most important and that’s why we have so many teams here. We want our guys in front of (the college recruiters) and at the right places and this is the right place.”
Gerber thinks that maybe the young, underclass prospects may not realize the magnitude of this event until they actually arrive on the scene. Scorpions 2016 Prime played the last game of the night at the lighted stadium at Terry Park and by the time the game started college recruiters were lined up and down the first and third baselines and behind home plate in a scene reminiscent of Jupiter, sans golf carts
“I think that’s when it kind of clicks for the guys that it’s real and you better perform,” he said. “I know it’s something they all look forward to and they know going in (what it might be like) but they don’t realize until they actually get there.”
A player of Skinner’s ability and maturity knows exactly what he wants to take away from the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship experience.
“A ring,” he said in a straight-forward, no-nonsense manner, before altering his pace mid-stride. “This is the future of college baseball; (the colleges) are all here. To come here and to know what you’re going to face in the future and be ready for it just gives you an advantage.”
He also really enjoys playing for Gerber and the Scorpions organization. He talks about how Gerber wants his players to relax and have fun while also insisting that they never play down to their opponents’ level. There is, after all, a legacy to uphold.
“It’s an honor (to put on the Scorpions’ uniform) because I know some of the greats in MLB – Zach Greinke, Jonathan Lucroy – they’ve all put on the same jersey that I do now,” Skinner said. “And just knowing that, I know I’m being put in a great situation and I always want to represent (the Scorpions) in the right way.”
Pool-play at the 216-team tournament concludes Saturday and the 54 pool champions advance to Sunday’s playoffs. The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games will all be played Monday at the jetBlue Player Development Complex. The Scorpions 2016 Prime expects to be doing more than just playing on Monday.
“We expect to be winning on Monday, all (three) games,” Skinner said. “We expect to go home pretty happy especially after last year knowing that we were the young team and still made it to the championship against our older Prime team. We definitely know that we can make it all the way and hopefully win it.
“… We’re pretty experienced and we’ve gotten better since then so we know we can do this. There is no doubt in our minds that we can bring home that ring.”
It’s not lying if you can back it up, and Gerber thinks this team is capable of backing it up.
“This is one of the most talented groups we’ve had in a while, I think, and that says a lot; they play the game the right way,” he said. “We told them last night before the game anything less than winning the championship is a disappointment. Obviously, we know that’s hard to do and there are a lot of good teams here, but our goal is to win it.
“Some of these guys lost in the championship game last year so they know what it takes to get there, and we’re here to win.”