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Prep Baseball Junior Future Games Team California Pool Play Recap

July 29, 2024
Steven Hardesty
Central Coast/North LA Area Scout

  

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EMERSON, GA - The 2024 Junior Future Games has now completed and today we will take a look back at the performance of Team California during the game play portion of the event. Team California was comprised of some of the best underclass prospects from the 2028 & 2029 classes in the Golden State. 

Action consisted of a a series of scout style workouts for their baseball skills while being tested on athleticism and mental processing. Partners for the showcase day and the entire event include Vizual Edge, Blast Motion, TrackMan, Swift Performance, and S2 Cognition. All of these partners culminate a full data profile on every aspect of their game for each player to take home. Then a 3-game pool play portion in which all teams are grouped into pools of 4 teams to advance to the bracket play portion of the event consisting of Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze brackets based on how teams finish during pool play.

Games for Team California during the pool play portion included matchups with Team Tennessee, Team Midwest and Team Missouri. The squad went 1-2 claiming a win in the opener over Tennessee before dropping their matchups with Team Midwest and Missouri. 

We will dive deeper into the results of Pool Play action today before taking a look at the Bracket Play games in our next recap. In addition, to take a look at all of our social media coverage please visit Prep Baseball California's account on X and Instagram for video/photos from Junior Future Games.

GAME RECAP VS. TEAM TENNESSEE

On the opening night of Junior Future Games pool play Team California faced off with Team Tennessee in a 7:15 PM match up. Taking the mound to open up the game was '28 RHP/INF Russell Del Castillo who brought his present 81-85 MPH fastball with CB/CHG combo ready to compete. Del Castillo would keep the offense of Team Tennessee at bay over the course of an efficient 4 innings of work that saw him induce 2 double plays and the Team California defense turned a 3rd on a base running error by Team Tennessee. After Del Castillo departed from the game next up was '29 INF/OF/RHP Hibiki Suzuki who would throw a scoreless inning of relief to keep Team California in the lead before '28 INF/RHP Jake Cevallos who would provide another scoreless inning of relief pitching off his effective 74-79 MPH fastall. 

Team California plated 3 runs to bring home a 3 - 0 victory. '28 1B/LHP Aiden Vargas got the offense started (and his strong week of play) by punching a double down the LF line which was followed by '28 C/OF Leonardo Knapp-Schwarzenegger dropping in a hit down the RF line to plate a pair of runs before '28 INF/RHP Milo Benattar would bring home the final run with a RBI groundout on a hard hit ball to SS. '29 INF/RHP Nathan Englander added to the offensive output with a loud ground rule double to the LCF gap while '28 INF Ethan Miller and '28 C/OF Julian Suarez picked up hits of their own to get the week started in Georgia.

GAME RECAP vs. TEAM MIDWEST

Facing off against the squad comprised of players from around the Midwest Team California was able to put early pressure on them thanks to a trio of hits in the first inning with '28 INF Brandon Hernandez opening the game with a single followed by a single from Cevallos and '28 INF/OF Jagr Scott joined the hit parade with a single up the middle but a strong throw from the Team Midwest CF nailed the runner at home keeping Team California off the board.

As Team Midwest took an early lead over Team California the Golden States squad continued to apply pressure offensively with several threats over the first few innings, but were unable to break through and get on the board. After putting a pair of runners on in the later innings of the game Vargas picked up his 2nd extra base hit of the tourney as the LH hitter drove a ball deep into the RCF gap for a ground rule double that would plate 1 run to get on the board.

Vargas would also excel during this matchup on the mound where the LHP showed his feel for mid 70's FB and low to mid 60's CB which he attacked the strike zone consistently with. He would throw 2 strong innings of relief to help keep Team California within striking distance of Team Midwest, but they were unable to get any closer as they fell 5-1 in the second game of the event.

GAME RECAP VS. TEAM MISSOURI

On the final day of pool play action Team California faced a matchup with a very talented Team Missouri (who would eventual win the JR. Future Games crown). Team California made a quick statement offensively as they would plate 3 runs in the first 2 innings and were holding a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the 2nd inning before Missouri was able to create distance with a big bottom of the 2nd inning. Offensively, Suarez contined to hit the baseball hard with an early single to put runners at 1st and 3rd. Which would help plate the first run for Team California.

 

Vargas who proved to be the most consistent hitter for Team California during the pool play portion of the event would drive in 2 more runs in this game by drilling a single to RCF during the 2nd inning which helped California hold the early lead. 

Unfortunately, once Team Missouri rallied to take the lead in the bottom portion of the 2nd inning they took control of the rest of the game to claim a commanding 12-3 lead over Team California. After the loss Team California fell to 1-2 during the Pool Play portion of Junior Future Games. With a three way tie between California, Midwest and Missouri it came down to a tiebreaker and based on the strength of the pitching performances by California during the first two games they claimed the 2nd seed from their pool with the fewest runs allowed which placed them in the Gold Bracket for the Bracket Play portion.

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Showcase State Date Location
2024 California State Games (Invite-Only) CA 08/09 Fullerton College

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