June 29, 2006

It was a tough day at the Junior Olympic tournament for the Arizona contingent, as all 7 remaining teams fell in single elimination championship round play.

The Scottsdale Storm and All Star Baseball Academy both secured first round wins in the morning.

The Storm took a 3-1 win over the Cal Bandits in the morning game, but drew the #1 seeded SGV Arsenal in the afternoon. After trailing most of the game, the Storm rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh, but the Arsenal struck for a pair of runs in the bottom half to claim the win.

Cody Yount makes a tough play (L). Danny Gross dealin' for the Storm

All Star Baseball took a 2-0 win over the So Cal Shockers in the 8 AM game, and rallied late before falling to the Utah Baseball Academy 6-5.

ASBA's Josh Dahl can't quite reach the throw as a UBA runner scores

Here are the Arizona teams and their records for the tournament:

Scottsdale Storm 5-2

All Star Baseball  4-3

Boys of Baseball Black   5-1

FIT Baseball 5-1

AZ Total Baseball 4-2

AZ Pilots   4-2

AZBA Scorpions 4-2

Chili Davis Premier 3-3

AZ Boys of Baseball White 2-4

Baja Arizona Academy 2-4

Arizona Finest 2-4

AZ Clash   1-5

June 28, 2006

After 5 games of preliminary play, six Arizona teams have qualified for the 32 team single elimination championship round of the Junior Olympic West Tournament. Here are the teams and their seedings:

AZ Boys of Baseball Black #2

FIT Baseball    #3

AZ Total Baseball #9

AZBA Scorpions  #11

Arizona Pilots  #14

Scottsdale Storm #16

All Star Baseball Academy  #28

Wednesday is a rain/make up day and no games are scheduled. Championship round play begins on Thursday.

Travis Jones of FIT Baseball delivers (L). AZ Total Baseball's Ty Forney guns down a runner

Here's an interesting pair of shots taken of former Brophy shortstop and current Portland Univ Pilot Sean Nicol. The pic on the left appeared here in 2005 and the shot on the right is from a Portland game in 2006.

June 26, 2006

USA Baseball has selected the 32 players who will participate in the Junior National Team (18U) Trials in Atlanta Ga. The players were selected from the pool of talent at the Tournament of Stars event held last week in Joplin, Mo.

The following 4 players from Arizona will attend the trials:

Tim Alderson RHP Horizon

Matt Newman OF/LHP Brophy

Kevin Rhoderick RHP/Util Horizon

Riccio Torrez IF Brophy

Four Arizona teams are among a group of undefeated squads after two days of the Junior Olympics West.  These teams enter play this morning with records of 3-0.

All Star Baseball Academy

AZ Boys of Baseball Black

FIT Baseball

Scottsdale Storm

Play continues today at Peoria and Surprise complexes.

June 25, 2006

The Arizona Senior Sunbelt team claimed the state's first ever Sunbelt Classic championship with a dramatic 10 inning, 7-6 victory over Texas on Saturday night in Norman Oklahoma.

Ronnie Welty scored on a wild pitch to give AZ the lead in the top of the 10th, and Tyler Ruch shut down Texas in the bottom half to secure the win and the Sunbelt title.

Tucson Sunnyside catcher Carlos Ramirez was named the Sunbelt Most Valuable Player. Ramirez was 3-6 with a homer, a double and 3 RBIs in the title game.

Members of the Championship team for Arizona were:

June 21, 2006

Sammy Solis (Agua Fria 2007) tossed 4 innings, striking out six and allowing only 1 run in the USA Baseball Tournament of Stars yesterday in Joplin Mo..Solis, playing for the American Legion team, outdueled Florida's Michael Main, widely regarded as perhaps the top arm nationally in the class of 2007.

Sammy Solis

2006 Kofa grad Luis Tovar's seventh inning solo homer was the difference as the Babe Ruth squad took a 1-0 win in TOS play. 2007 Chahparral grad jake Schalnder started at shortstop for the BR squad.

  Luis Tovar          

The Arizona Senior Sunbelt team is off to a fast start in play in Texas and Oklahoma. The good guys completed play in the Lone Star Classic with a 3-1 record before heading to the Oklahoma for the Sunbelt tourney. The AZ squad split a pair with Florida and took wins over Louisiana and Texas.

At the Sunbelt, McClintock's Justin Anderson earned the win in game one with releif help from Fountain Hills' Tyler Ruch in 4-2 win over California. Kole Calhoun of Buckeye went 2-4 to lead the way offensively.

Arizona moved to 2-0 at the Sunbelt by dropping Oklahoma 5-2 behind Deer Valley's Calvin Lewis. Calhoun again was the hot stick with another 2-4 day.

T.J. Beam, a 1999 grad of Scottsdale Saguaro, has been called up to the Yankees and got credit for his first major league win yesterday in a 3 pitch relief outing against the Phillies.  

June 19, 2006

One Arizona player is creating quite a buzz nationally in the early going this summer by flashing eye opening velocity on the mound.

Chase Johnson, A Diamond Report 2007 Top 50 player and a member of Deer Valley's 5AII state champs, dialed it up to 94 on the gun at the Junior Sunbelt, and turned around to repeat the feat at the Perfect Game National over the weekend.

Johnson, who began flashing 90 on my gun in the fall of 2005, is a 6-4 220 pound senior to be and flew under the radar a bit this spring with lefty Calvin Lewis getting most of the attention at DV. Keep an eye on this guy as a national level prospect in the 2007 class.

  Chase Johnson dialing it up for Deer Valley

June 15, 2006

The Arizona Junior Sunbelt Team completed the Sunbelt Classic with a 5-5 record, good enough for 6th place in the field. 

The AZ team lost  the final game for fifth place 9-1 to Georgia.

Two Mesa schools have filled their coaching vacancies for next season.

Joe Bergen, the former Higley High coach in '04/'05 and an assistant at Chandler Gilbert  last year, has accepted the job at Mesa High, replacing Steve Gourde.

Mike Johnson, the head man at Chandler High for the last 14 years, has moved over to Mesa Skyline where he replaces Bill Roberts.

Rumors are rampant over the replacement for Johnson at Chandler High....stay tuned.

The Perfect Game National Showcase begins tomorrow at Baum Stadium at the University of Arkansas. The following seven Arizona players will be in  attendance:

Tim Alderson- Horizon  RHP

Kyle Brule- Marcos De Niza  RHP

Chase Johnson- Deer Valley  RHP

Casey Lytle- Chaparral OF

Matt Newman- Brophy  OF/LHP

Kevin Rhoderick- Horizon  RHP/ Util

Sammy Solis- Agua Fria  LHP

June 13, 2006

Brett Whiteside, a 2006 Mesquite grad, has signed with the Milwaukee Brewers after being selected in the 15th round of last week's MLB draft. Congratulations to Brett and his family.

June 12, 2006

The Arizona Junior Sunbelt Team got off to a 3-0 start in the tournament.

Game one was a 9-5 win over Missouri with  lefty Pat McCoy of Tucson Sahuaro earning the win, Shaun Deisler (Marcos de Niza '07) was 2-4 with a homer and 2 RBIs. Brophy's Matt Newman was 3-4.

Horizon's Tim Alderson got the win on the mound in game 2, a 7-3 defeat of Mississippi. Riccio Torrez (Brophy '08) homered and had 3 RBIs.  Corona del Sol's Andrew Pollak went 3-4 for the good guys and Kyle Lobstein (Coconino '08) and Jimmy Patterson (McCLintck '07) each had 2 hits.

In game 3 , Arizona smoked the squad from Canada 17-2. Horizon's Evan Foreman earned the win. Casey Lytle (Chaparral '07) and Shaun Cooper (Catalina '08) each had 3 hits. Torrez and Kevin Rhoderick (Horizon '07) each had 3 runs jacks in the win.

Pinnacle won the Sunrise Mountain Mustang Festival tournament over with a 7-6 win over Horizon in the championship game. John Jones, Ash McCoy and Bryan Karraker each had solo home runs in the title game. Brett Nicholas and Bryan Karraker combined for the win on the mound  Pinnacle defeated Greenway, North Canyon, Paradise Valley and Desert Mountain en route to the final match up with Horizon. 

June 8, 2006

The Arizona Junior Sunbelt Team begins play today in McAlester, Oklahoma in the 10th Annual Junior Sunbelt Classic. Teams from Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Georgia, Canada, California and Tennessee will also participate. The good guys open play today against Mississippi.

Here is the roster  for the 2006 Junior Sunbelt Team, selected by the Arizona Baseball Coaches Association:

Head coach for the Junior team is Scotty Richardson from Tolleson High. His assistants are Ed Kurakazu of Brophy, Sam Messina of Millenium and Jeff Baumgartner of Sandra Day O'Connor

June 7, 2006

As predicted,  Arizona didn't make much of a splash in the early going of the 2006 MLB Draft.

I still see most of the names I mentioned the other night going in day 2. I'd also expect to see Seth Furmanek of Mesquite (signability is a big question as he has a nice college scholarship and might not want to go to a JUCO) and Justin Harper and/or Brett Klinger of Greenway may be names to watch. Tyler Sanford and Mike Petello of Saguaro will go if they are willing to do the draft and follow route at a JUCO.

June 6, 2006

Major league clubs did their best to dispel the widespread belief that height is an absolute requirement for pitchers. Five pitchers that measured 6-0 or less were selected in the first round of the 2006 draft today...all but one were right handed.

The Diamondback's selected Brett Anderson from Stillwater (OK) HS with the 55th pick in the draft. Anderson appeared this spring with his high school in the Highland Invitational in Gilbert and pitched against Tolleson High.

                    D'Back selection Brett Anderson

June 5, 2006

Yavapai lost a 7-6 heartbreaker to Walters State in the championship game of the NJCAA World Series. Congrats to everyone in the Roughrider program for an outstanding.

The Arizona Firebirds claimed the 19U cham,piosnhip in the Four Corners Classic over the weekend. The Firebirds beat the Arizona Pilots int ehf inal with Seth Furmanek earning the win and Nick Shannon homering twice.

In the 16U division, the All Star Baseball Academy brought home the hardware over the Pilots.

The 2006 MLB Draft is tomorrow, but don't expect much noise early in the day from Arizona high schoolers. While the 2006 class was a solid one for college players, only a few names appear to have a chance of going in the top 10 rounds of the draft.

As is often the case, signability is a huge issue with the area's top players, as all of the early interest candidates have healthy college deals awaiting them.  

Don't be surprised to see Chaparral's Jason Jarvis be the first name to be called. Teammate Charles Brewer and Deer Valley outfielder Khris Davis will probably not sign unless they go very early (top 3 rounds?) due to their college deals and therefore may fall or not be called . I won't be surprised to see Ronnie Welty of Mesquite and Jonathan Del Campo of Cibola go high enough to consider signing.

Other possible draftees ( likely as draft and follow at local JUCOs):

Hayden Parrot- Desert Mountain

Dillon Baird- Prescott

Chase Lehr- Centennial

Garrett Johnson- Orme School

Brett Whiteside- Mesquite

Calvin Lewis- Deer Valley

Quinton Marsh- Wickenburg

Rudy Owens- Mesa

Carlos Ramirez- Sunnyside

Ryan Carlson- Paradise Valley

Taylor Lewis- Canyon Del Oro

Eligio Sonoqui- Cesar Chavez

Mike Lachapelle- Tucson Sahuaro

June 2, 2006

The love keeps flowing for Chaparral's Charles Brewer. Brewer was selected to play in the  All American Baseball Game presented by PlayStation. The game will be played on Wednesday June 7, 2006 at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque New Mexico. It will be carried live on Fox Sports Net at 7:00 P.M.

The Four Corners Classic tournament begins today at Peoria Sports Complex with teams from Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Oklahoma. Both 16U and 19U age groups will compete.

Yavapai College is in the midst of a solid run through the NJCAA D1 World Series, and will play tonight in a  National Championship matchup against Walters State (TN). 

The Roughriders lost game 1 of the tourney 6-5 to Wallace State (AL) but have proceeded to take victories against Butler (KS) and Potomac State (WV) as well as a rematch win over Wallace yesterday to advance from the loser's bracket.

Yavapai (3-1) needs to take two from Walters (4-0). A win tonight will force a Saturday night title matchup. Good luck to the boys from Prescott. 

 Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those of you who have expressed your thoughts and prayers to my family as we've dealt with the illness of my sister. 

Miracles do indeed happen. A few days after essentially being told by more than one doctor to expect the worst, she has begun to regain consciousness and begin the road to recovery. We're a long way from being out of the woods but hope has sprung from the depths of despair.

The news comes almost one year to the day from the one year anniversary of my entering the hospital for emergency spinal surgery and a seven week stint at Barrows Neurological Institute. My family was told then that I probably wouldn't survive the surgery. After I made it through the surgery we were told I would never walk again. While I won't win many races these days, I'm on my feet and living a normal life.

In July of last summer my step father was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, an inflammatory disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. The result was the loss of the use of his hands and inability to walk. We were told that at his age (mid 70s) that recovery was unlikely. A few weeks later no signs of the disease were apparent and he remains healthy today.

The point of this isn't to rehash the medical history of my family and I. Rather, I think its important to realize that while the medical community works wonders every day, it is comprised of normal human beings with the limitations that exist in all of us.

There's obviously some lessons here. The human body is a remarkable machine, capable of incredible things. In addition, the strength and will of the human spirit simply cannot be minimized. Finally, the support of friends and family and the power of prayer can help make miracles possible.

Hug someone you love today and thank you again.