EMERSON, Ga. – Now just days away from the start of its fifth rendition, the Perfect Game High School Showdown doesn’t resemble anything close to what it was when Act I was staged in Fort Myers, Fla., April 4-6, 2013.
Eight schools – four from Florida and four from Georgia – were invited to that inaugural event which was, indeed, a true “showdown.” The eight teams went at it over the tournament’s three-day run before three champions were crowned: a Florida Champion (Venice High School), a Georgia Champion (Parkview HS) and, finally, an Overall Champion (Venice HS).
PG tournament officials scrapped the two-state “showdown” concept – but kept the name – in 2014, added teams from Texas and Mississippi and turned it into a more conventional tournament, with pool champions and playoffs; 2014 also marked the debut of the nine-team PG High School Showdown-Academies.
The original PG HS Showdown grew to 13 teams in 2015 and moved from Fort Myers to its new home here at Perfect Game Park South-Lake Point. Fourteen teams from five states gathered for the 4th edition at LakePoint in 2016, which propped the door wide open for this year’s 5th annual PG High School Showdown.
Twenty-four teams from six states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas) will gather at PG Park South-LP Thursday-Saturday to determine this year’s champion. All 24 teams are guaranteed four games over the three days (playoffs and consolation, weather permitting) with the championship game scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Five schools with programs ranked in the 2017 PG High School Preseason National Rankings top-46 will be in attendance: No. 17 Cullman (Ala.), No. 20 Parkview (Lilburn, Ga.), No. 31 IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), No. 35 Winder-Barrow (Winder, Ga.) and No. 46 Buford (Ga.).
Sparkman High School out of Harvest, Ala., is back in the field one year removed from winning the 2016 PG HS Showdown, joining Venice (Fla.), Sarasota (Fla.) and Parkview (Ga.) as previous champions.
“Overall, our guys did a heck of a job and I’m really, really proud of them,” Sparkman head coach Kellen Greer said after his Senators beat Gulliver Prep (Fla.) in last year’s championship game. “It’s a good group of kids, a good group of guys and they play well together.”
Great teams always boast rosters loaded with great players, and this year’s collection fills that bill. Fifteen of the top 485-ranked seniors (2017s) will be on hand, a list that includes Perfect Game All-Americans No. 8-ranked Drew Waters (Etowah HS, Georgia signee), No. 15 Jacob Heatherly (Cullman HS, Alabama) and No. 52 Jordan Anderson (James Clemens HS, Mississippi State).
The top juniors (2018s) – 12 of the top 498 should be here – are No. 6 Will Banfield (Brookwood HS, Vanderbilt), No. 36 Devin Warner (Cartersville HS, Auburn) and No. 54 Anthony Seigler (Cartersville HS, Auburn); the sophomores (2019s) are led by Nos. 11 and 16 C.J. Abrams (Blessed Trinity HS) and Tyler Callihan (Providence HS, South Carolina); No. 52-ranked Dylan Strickland (Loganville HS) is the top freshman (2020).
“(This tournament) has been really well run, first-class, great teams in it,” Sparkman’s Greer said last year. “A shout-out to Perfect Game; they did a really good job putting on a great event. Anytime you can play good teams and win it’s a good thing for you. This is really good for us and our team to see if can continue to keep it rolling.”
Sparkman went 4-0 at last year’s PG HS Showdown and left the north-Atlanta suburbs with a 12-2 record. It went on to finish 36-7 after a loss in the semifinals at the Alabama Class 7A state tournament and finished No. 33 in PG’s Final National Top-50 Rankings.
TWENTY-SIX TEAMS WILL COMPETE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP at the 4th annual PG High School Showdown-Academies, which will be held at PG Park South-LakePoint Thursday, March 16-Saturday, March 18.
Nineteen of the 26 teams will arrive from nine states (Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee) with five coming from Puerto Rico and two others from Canada. Florida-based Faith Baptist Academy will not be in the field for the first time after winning the three previous PG HS Showdown-Academies championships.
Nos. 47 and 53-ranked Jack Leftwich (TNXL Academy, Florida) and Ivan Johnson (Homeplate Academy, Georgia) are the top-two ranked seniors (2017s) that will be on hand; No. 66 Makenzie Stills (Homeplate, Vanderbilt) heads the junior class (2018s).