EMERSON,
Ga. – As we’ve gone down the ladder from 18u to 16u we have been
able to see a multitude of different age groups and the best players
from those age groups; from the newest wave of collegiate baseball
talent playing their final summer games before shipping off to school
to the flourishing underclassman that are starting to mature into
elite ballplayers.
The
2015 15u WWBA National Championship has gotten off to a fantastic
start, and just like all tournaments before this one, there are some
seriously good teams participating.
At
this age, it’s really about developing as a player and becoming
more polished, but there are some kids that are playing at a level
beyond their years. Those players are more than likely scattered
across the hundreds of teams that are competing in this year’s 15u
WWBA National Championship, but the Phenom Signature team out of
Riverside, Calif., have multiple players of high caliber and they are
really causing a commotion in Pool D.
Heading
into Sunday there were 3-0 with an astounding zero runs allowed. They
sat atop their pool, with Nelson Baseball School and Golden Spikes
Baseball right behind them, as they are in the driver’s seat and
control their own destiny when it comes to their spot in the
playoffs. After Sunday's game against the Gotham Giants, a 13-1 win,
it looks as if they are having no thoughts of slowing down.
This
game started off with the Phenom getting ahead early with a two-run
first inning. The Giants are a team that plays clean baseball, but
despite their defensive prowess, Phenom was simply finding every
hole. They hit to all parts of the field, especially the deep parts.
Phenom was hitting doubles with ease, and throughout each inning they
were putting up a healthy amount of runs. By the fifth inning the
score was 10-0 and the players for Phenom Signature had combined for
a total of eight hits. It’s one thing to hit consistently, but it
is another to hit with runners in scoring position, and that is what
made Phenom Signature so deadly on this day.
It
also doesn’t hurt when you have an ace on the mound that can touch
90 mph at the age of 15.
On
a team that consists of pretty much only California kids, Nick O’Day
from Coatesville, Pa., has stood out like no other. O’Day is about
as complete of a ballplayer that you can ask for at this age, and is
one of the top prospects in the 2018 class; ranked 21st nationally and third amongst all outfielders. He is able to use his
entire 5-foot-11 frame to generate amazing power, thanks to great hip
drive and follow through.
O’Day
also has great poise on the mound, and shows the competitive attitude
that you look for in a big-game pitcher. Not to mention, he is very
athletic and is able to bounce off the mound with ease when a ball is
hit his way.
With
a fastball that sits in the upper-80s and touches low-90s, he could
probably do pretty well with just that one pitch, but he also has a
dirty breaking ball to match. His curveball is just as deadly as his
fastball, and it kept hitters guessing all afternoon. Through four
innings, O’Day allowed only three hits, struck out six and gave up
no runs.
“I’m
not really a pitcher, I just go out there, have fun and throw,”
O'Day said of his pitching performance on Sunday. “I like hitting
more, but from this point of view, with me throwing it harder than
kids in our age group, I’m able to blow it by them and have some
fun with it. I’m not really much of a pitcher, but when I go to
college, I’ll do both if they ask me to. When I’m on the mound, I
mainly just try to throw strikes and not try to overpower them too
much. When I try to overpower them, I throw too many balls.”
O’Day
also had himself a great day at the plate, hitting a three-run home
run in the second inning to create some serious momentum for the
Phenom Signature team. So far this tournament, O’Day has only had
two hits, but their game against the Giants may have finally awoken
his bat just in time for the end of pool play. They’re going to
need his bat against the threatening Golden Spikes and Nelson
Baseball school squads who are right on their heels.
“My
approach at the plate is ether swing big or miss big,” added O'Day
of his offensive approach. “I try to hit the ball in the gap and
everything. I’d like to work on hitting the ball the other way,
because I’m pulling a lot. Our expectations for this tournament are
to go undefeated in pool play and get to the championship final. We
have the pitching, and the sticks, we should make it pretty far.”
The
head Coach of this Phenom Signature team, Ken Krahenbuhl, feels that
O’Day is right up there with the best players in the nation, and
that his attitude and sense of humor make him a great teammate as
well.
“O’Day
is one of the best players in the country,” Krahenbuhl said of his
star player. “He’s an average guy and a power guy, and he’s a
little bit different. He is a comedian on the team, and we are
looking forward to the rest of the summer with him. He plays every
week, every game, and has been on the road for two months. He is
really improving with all this experience.”
The
Phenom Signature team has done everything right up to this point in
the tournament providing timely hitting and outstanding pitching.
Their success continued on Sunday, as they ran over the Gotham Giants
by a score of 13-1 after just five innings to improve to 4-0 in the
tournament with a best test coming in the form of Neleson Baseball
School Red on Monday morning.
Coach
Krahenbuhl is happy with the way his guys have played up this point,
but feels that they can always improve their offensive production. As
this tournament heads into playoffs, he wants to see his guys really
turn it on at the plate.
“Our
program has been together for a while, and this team has kids from
all over the nation,” Krahenbuhl said. “They seem to bond
together pretty quickly. I think we need to swing the bats better. We
have a tendency to be too aggressive against slower pitching and
swing at the pitcher’s pitch rather than at the fastball right down
the middle. We definitely need to improve on offense moving forward.”