GOODYEAR, Ariz. – The young prospects, the majority of whom will be seniors at a handful of high schools that dot the communities in Phoenix’s West Valley, are back together again. They’ve traded in their respective high school uniforms in return for those that display the “A’s” logo on their caps and the script “Athletics” across the front of their jerseys.
The AZ Athletics 17u are back in attendance at the 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic this weekend, looking to return home to nearby Peoria with a third straight championship trophy from a tournament that is being played for only the fifth time.
This is, of course, is a completely different AZ Athletics team from the one that won last year’s 18u WMDC under the name of the AZ Athletics 18u. And that team, naturally, did not have the same roster as the AZ Athletics 18u Black squad that won in 2013. But year after year, the AZ Athletics regroup and reload and make sure they put a team on the field capable of winning an 18u championship.
“The Athletics as a whole, we’ve been very successful; we’ve had some great kids and some great coaches,” Josh Blake, one of three AZ A’s 17u coaches that is running the team this weekend, said from the Reds side of the Goodyear Ballpark Complex late Saturday morning .
“We look forward to coming to this event every year. Perfect Game does a great job hosting us, and we want to give back to them and hopefully put on a good showing for them,” he said. “It is important to us to put on a good show for all of our families and friends, and all of the scouts. It’s a big event for us and we take this very personally; we’re very prideful.”
The AZ Athletics 17u roster that is competing at this weekend’s 18u PG WWBA WMDC is a familiar one, at least to the players filling its spots. Almost all of them attend a high school in the West Valley, including five from Sandra Day O’Connor High School in northwest Phoenix and five more from Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria. There are six players from Chandler in the East Valley who attend either Chandler or Perry high schools.
Both O’Connor’s and Sunrise Mountain’s baseball programs are brimming with talent and that, in turn, has benefitted the AZ A’s 17u program.
O’Connor HS shortstop Keegan McCarville (Glendale) and right-hander/outfielder Colby Wyatt (Glendale) are both ranked in the top-600 in PG’s class of 2016 national prospect rankings. O’Connor 2016 outfielder Tanner Baker (Peoria) joined Wyatt as one of six prospects that played for the AZ Athletics 17u team that finished 3-2 at last year’s 18u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic.
Sunrise Mountain HS 2015 right-hander/infielder Austin Thomason (Peoria) is a top-500 prospect in his class and 2016 third baseman Nick Brauns (Glendale) is a top-600 prospect in his. SRHS middle-infielder Hunter Lessard (Peoria) and catcher/first baseman Lucas Wall (Peoria) were also on the AZ Athletics 17u roster at last year’s 18u WMDC.
The two schools met in a non-section game on April 27 at Sunrise Mountain, with the hosts walking away with a 4-0 victory.
“We’ve had a rivalry with O’Connor but when we play together on this team, it’s fun; I like to get after it with some different guys,” Sunrise Mountain’s Brauns said. “We’ve all know each other for a while so it all works out.”
2016 left-hander/first baseman/outfielder Chaz Montoya, a senior-to-be at Centennial High School from Glendale, is the most highly regarded prospect on the AZ A’s 17u roster. He is ranked a top-500 national prospect and the No. 1 left-handed pitcher in Arizona and has committed to Arizona State.
Blake himself started playing with the AZ Athletics organization as a 14-year-old freshman at Sunrise Mountain and he has continued to work with the group even as prepares to enter his senior year at Upper Iowa University – an NCAA Division II school in Fayette, Iowa – as a 21-year-old. He’s an AZ Athletic through-and-through.
“Our goal every year is to play well in tournaments, obviously, but more importantly it’s to develop players,” Blake said. “We want to get them on to the next level and have them playing college ball, and if they don’t want to do that then we want to help to better them as young men. A lot of the things we talk about as an organization is to better them as young men with their lives and in school.
“We come in every year trying to win the thing just like every team does, but more importantly we try to develop kids and try to get them in front of scouts and things like that.”
With so many players on the AZ A’s 17u roster already high school teammates, it makes sense that they are already close. But in many cases even those that attend one of the other schools have known each other for years. They’ve learned how to work together on the baseball field effectively while also enjoying each other’s company on weekends, even when school is in session.
“Going back to the early stages when they played together during travel ball … they were always together and waking up at 6 o’clock in the morning to be there for their 8 a.m. games,” Blake said. “I think that all goes back to being childhood friends as opposed to being just high school teammates and then coming out here and trying to win together.”
The players love it.
“It’s nice playing with guys from your high school because you’re playing with them the year-around and you get to know them better,” O’Connor’s Wyatt said. “But I think with just about everybody on this team we’ve played together before, so everybody knows each other; it’s a lot easier to play as a team when you know everybody.”
The AZ Athletics 17u opened play Saturday with a 6-1 win over the AZ Angels Scout Blue 2016 out of Phoenix. 2016 left-hander Jacob Lagos (Chandler), McCarville and 2016 righty Colin Ludwig (Chandler) combined on a seven-inning five-hitter, allowing one earned run while striking out nine and walking three. Trevor Horwath (Chandler) was 2-for-3 with two RBI, and Jacob Stanley (Sun City), Brauns and Daniel Abiles (Chandler) all doubled with Stanley and Brauns driving in runs.
“To be honest, I expect to win every single tournament that we’re in this year,” Brauns said, pulling no punches. “We’ve got a pretty good team so I’m just excited to get after it.”
Blake said he loves the summer baseball season and cherishes the reality that he is able to continue a relationship with the AZ Athletics program. The weather the first two days of the 18u, 16u and 14u West Memorial Day Classics has been nothing short of amazing with a sunny sky and high temperatures struggling to reach the low 80s, about 18 degrees below normal.
And even though these A’s 17u players just completed their spring high school seasons, they’re especially excited to get it going again in the summer months. “They look forward to coming out here and playing because they probably don’t see their buddies for a long time during the high school season and then they come out here and they’re all excited,” Blake said. “It’s like recharging their batteries for them to be able to come out here and play.”
The AZ Athletics 17u will receive a large dose of exposure at the national level this summer when they compete at the blockbuster PG WWBA 2016 Grads or 17u National Championship in Emerson, Ga., July 3-10. They will be the only team from Arizona included in a field that boasts more than 300 teams from coast-to-coast.
“Every A’s team that comes into these tournaments is ready to compete, so I feel like we have to live up to the expectations everybody has for us,” Wyatt said.
“I’m really looking forward to playing with this team,” Brauns said. “It’s a group of good guys and we all get along – it’s a bunch of pretty good ballplayers – so this should be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a busy summer but it’s fun; anytime you can play baseball, it’s always fun.”