Though they were up against older, bigger, stronger, and faster competition, Blue Wave 2013 more than held their own at the Perfect Game Wood Bat National Championships for Underclassmen (2012 grads and younger) Sept. 24-27, in Peoria, AZ.
Playing teams that were laden with Juniors and varsity-level starters and all-stars, Blue Wave’s super sophomores coached by Aron Garcia went 2-1 in pool play to earn the No. 10 seed out of 36 of the top teams in the age group in the Western United States that participated in the first-year event.
Blue Wave 2013 opened up the showcase tournament with a 10-0 win over the Hitters Baseball Club from Billings, Montana.
They then defeated the SoCal Elite Black team 6-1 before losing 0-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks 17U scout team, with only four sophomores on their entire squad. With a 2-1 record, they placed 2nd in their pool, but 10th overall based on the fact they only gave up four runs in three games.
“We were very pleased with our effort, just making the playoff round of the top 16 teams was a big accomplishment,” Blue Wave president Steve Kruse pointed out. “All our players are sophomores, most are still league age 15U, and only a couple of them have any varsity-level experience at this point. Needless to say, we are very proud of how well they played and how competitive the team was.”
Not only did “Garcia’s Gang” advance to the playoff round, they defeated the Utah Baseball Academy 5-2 to finish in the top 8 teams after they were eliminated by the Minnesota Blizzard (all varsity-level juniors) 6-10, who later lost to the ABD Bulldogs, the eventual tournament winner.
Blue Wave 2013 team members include: Mbusi Hlatshwayo, Logan Tomlinson, Nick Tanner, Wyatt Haccou, Ojo Weiss, Carlos Quintana, Sam Clark, Michael Fuchs, Dash Johnson, James Clothier, Nathan Bruno, Joe Van Marter, Matt Arakaki, Mikey Simonis, Josh Czemeres, and Jack Pabich.
Perfect Game is one of the largest scouting and recruiting service companies in the United States and had plenty of scouts on hand for both the Underclassmen and the Upperclassmen (2011 grads and younger) that played over the three-day weekend. Scouts scored each game and filed various reports throughout the tournament.
The following are the scouting reports filed for the Blue Wave 2013 games:
9/25/2010 10:21:24 AM
LHP Nick Tanner (2013, Trabuco Hills HS, CA) pitched and hit Blue Wave to a 10-0 run rule victory over Hitters Club Select late Friday afternoon on Mariners Field #3.
Tanner opened on the mound for the Wave and threw 4 shutout innings, spacing out 3 hits. Hitting in the #3 hole in the lineup, Tanner went 3-3 at the plate, scoring 3 runs and driving in another.
RF Dash Johnson (2013, Mater Dei HS, CA), hitting clean up behind Tanner in the Blue Wave lineup, also went 3-3, including a bases loaded triple in the 4th inning. Johnson finished with 5 Rbi’s.
9/25/2010 11:19:22 AM
RHP Wyatt Haccou (2013, Calvary Chapel HS, CA) threw a complete game 7-hitter to lead the Blue Wave to a 6-1 win over SoCal Elite Black Saturday morning at the Mariners’ complex.
Haccou spaced out the Elite hits well and kept base runners to a minimum by only walking 1 hitter as compared to 6 strikeouts. He worked consistently at 77-78 mph and showed a very advanced change up that he used often and with confidence, always a good sign for a young pitcher.
After the Blue Wave scored 6 runs in the second inning, RHP Jonathan Lopez (2012, 6-5, 220 lbs, Cor-Santiago HS, CA) entered the game in relief and kept the Blue Wave bats quiet. Lopez topped out at 82 mph and struck out 9 hitters over 4 2/3 innings.