CBA Doubles Down in the Desert

Article by Jeff Dahn

at www.perfectgame.org

GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Another weekend in the Valley of the Sun, another Perfect Game national championship for the kids out of Southern California.

For the second consecutive weekend, a premier team representing the Temecula, Calif.-based California Baseball Academy (CBA) outdueled an elite squad from the San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based Baseball Performance Academy (BPA), with CBA Marucci besting BPA DeMarini Elite, 7-0, in Monday’s championship game at the Perfect Game/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass).

It was exactly one week ago that a younger CBA Marucci team beat a younger BPA DeMarini Elite squad in the championship game at the PG/EvoShield National Championship (Underclass). That game, which CBA won 6-3, was played at Camelback Ranch in Glendale.

The title captured Monday under overcast skies and with rain a constant threat at Goodyear Ballpark, was the third PG national championship the CBA organization won in 2015. This is a program that has grown in prominence and prestige over the last two or three years and can now go anywhere – including next month’s PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla. – and be expected to contend for a championship.

“Every time we do something like this or we’re lucky enough to go this deep in a tournament, we pinch ourselves a little bit,” CBA executive director Jon Paino said Monday while watching his players get fitted for PG national championship rings for the second time in eight days. “But with great kids and a phenomenal staff from top-to-bottom, it’s the product of a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication by a lot of people.

“We’re pretty particular about the type of people and kids and families that participate in our program and we’re fortunate to work with the best.”

The championship game promised to be a doozy with No. 2-seed CBA Marucci (7-0-0) doing battle with No. 1 BPA DeMarini Elite (6-1-0). Both teams had been tested in the playoffs – CBA in a 6-5 win over the No. 7 Southern California Bombers Black in the quarterfinals and BPA in a 3-2 win over the No. 4 AZ Athletics 2016 in the semifinals – but most of the drama left the room early in this one.

CBA scored a single run in the first and two in the second to take a 3-0 lead; it added another single run in the fourth and three more in the sixth to provide the final margin of victory.

The Marucci’s victory was keyed by a 12-hit attack that may have seemed dizzying to those in attendance. Hayden Hastings was 3-for-3 with a double and three runs scored, Josh Stephen had a pair of hits and drove in a pair of runs, Nicholas Kahle was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI and Garrett Mitchel also doubled and drove in a run; Jordan Chang and Ryan Garcia also drove in runs.

The difference-maker in the title tilt, however, came in the form of Tristan Duncan, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound 2016 right-hander from Lakeside, Calif., who has committed to Oregon and is ranked No. 403 nationally in his class.

He used a fastball that sat 85-87 mph and topped out 88 – 53 of his 72 pitches went for strikes – and threw a complete game, two-hit shutout with six strikeouts and one walk. For that effort alone, Duncan was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher.

“I just wanted to come in and pitch my game and do what I could for the team,” he said postgame. “Every guy on this team has a goal and that goal is to get to the next level and the level after that. When you have a team like that, you all work together to get to that point and win championships.”

He quickly added: “It’s a great honor (to wear the CBA uniform) and probably one of the greatest things I ever did was join this team.”

2017 shortstop supreme Nick Allen was 1-for-3 with a run scored in the championship game and his entire body of work over the last four days was more than enough to earn him the Most Valuable Player Award.

A 5-foot-9, 155-pound defensive magician from San Diego who has committed to Southern Cal and is ranked No. 30 nationally in the 2017 class, Allen was 9-for-20 (.450) with a couple of doubles, four RBI, 10 runs scored and eight stolen bases in seven games.

“This was another great tournament and these past four days were amazing,” he said. “We usually come to this tournament and in the first couple of days and then (something happens) but luckily enough we were able to get through all that and make it to the championship and win; it was just an amazing tournament.”

CBA Marucci earned the playoffs’ No. 2 seed after outscoring its three pool-play opponents by a combined 27-1, and by the time it completed its 7-0 run to the championship that score differential was extended to 54-7.

Other CBA players who enjoyed nice tournaments and helped their team to a .348 team batting average include Ben Ramirez, who had a pair of triples and drove in eight runs, and Stephen, who had two doubles, a triple, a home run, seven RBI and seven runs.

Eight other pitchers joined Duncan in helping the CBA staff compile a 0.89 team ERA over 47 innings of work, with 38 strikeouts against 10 walks. Cameron Jabara, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound right-hander from Newport Beach, Calif., who has committed to Oregon, made two appearances, pitched seven four-hit, shutout innings and struck-out seven and walked one.

CBA Marucci head coach Daylon Monette mentioned that the team wasn’t necessarily at full strength when compared to the roster that won the 17u PG WWBA World Championship in July, but a core group of prospects – Allen, Jabara, Stephen, Kahle and Zack Noll—a 2016 left-hander from Temecula who has also committed to Oregon – were all here and serve as the team’s “heart and soul.”

“Noll and Jabara dominate on the mound, Kahle and Stephen dominate at the plate and then you’ve got Nick (Allen), who had a great tournament swinging the bat, as well, and he seems to always plays great defense,” Monette said. “With those guys, you know they’re going to do their jobs every single time they come out on the field, and it’s something special.”

BPA DeMarini Elite grabbed the No. 1 seed after outscoring its three pool-play foes by a combined 39-0 and that differential had grown to 55-0 after the second- and quarterfinal-rounds of the playoffs on Sunday; the Elite finished hitting .392 as a team with a 1.013 team OPS.

Kooper Christ hit .462 with a double, nine RBI and six runs; Blake Barry hit .500 with three doubles, four RBI and seven runs; Jack Owen hit .500 with three doubles, six RBI and nine runs. Owen, a Mississippi State commit from Coto De Caza, Calif., also pitched five shutout innings, giving up five hits and striking out five.

The BPA pitching staff compiled a 1.40 ERA in 35 innings, with 31 strikeouts and seven walks. 2016 right-hander Sam Powers threw nine innings in three appearances without allowing an earned run on nine hits, and 2017 righty Wyatt Boone made two appearances and worked seven innings without allowing an earned run on just one hit; he struck out nine and walked one.

The alphabet soup of teams that made up the final four field – No. 1 BPA DeMarini Elite vs. No. 4 AZ Athletics 2016 from Peoria, Ariz., and No. 2 CBA Marucci vs. No. 3 GBG Marucci Navy out of Los Angeles – got underway under cloudy skies promptly at 9 a.m. on the Cleveland Indians’ side of the Goodyear Ballpark Complex and almost delivered the biggest shocker of the entire event.

BPA came into its semifinal against the AZ Athletics (5-1-0) hitting .500 as a team (49-for-98) with a 1.266 team OPS and averaging 11 runs per game, but needed to rally from a 1-0, fifth-inning deficit to beat the AZ Athletics, 3-2.

The A’s trotted out unranked and unheralded 2016 Peoria left-hander Tanner Baker to make the start, and he used an upper-70s fastball to shut out mighty BPA on one hit through five innings. Baker was lifted after five innings, and BPA erupted for three runs in the bottom of the sixth off of A’s reliever Chaz Montoya, with Christ delivering an RBI single and Reed Labar smacking a two-run double.

Powers scattered eight hits in a seven-inning, complete-game effort, allowing single unearned runs in both the fourth and seventh innings; Lucas Wall had two of the Athletics’ eight hits, both singles. The A’s enjoyed a tremendous tournament and were the only non-California team to reach the final four in either of last two weekends.

Ramirez doubled and singled twice and drove in a run, Allen doubled and singled and posted an RBI, Stephen singled twice, drove in two and scored a pair, and Kahle doubled and drove in a run as part of a 11-hit attack, and CBA Marucci dropped GBA Marucci Navy, 7-0, in Monday’s other semifinal game.

The GBG Marucci Navy (5-1-0) pitching staff had not allowed an earned run in 32 innings coming into the game but all seven of CBA’s were of the earned variety. The outcome flip-flopped the result of the championship game at last year’s PG/EvoShield National Upper, won by GBG.

Jabara threw six, four-hit shutout innings, striking out seven and walking two to pick up the win.