JPs Face Live Arms & Hot Bats South of the Border

Story by Dar Rudnycky

Photos by Amira Rudnycka

(Seattle, May 29) The Victoria JP Eagles traveled to the USA and took two out four games in pool play at the Art Wright Memorial Tournament, held from May 24-29, 2022 at multiple locations across the greater Seattle Area. The islanders first victory, under the lights on Friday was a 13-3 win over the Kitsap County Rebels. A quick turnaround Saturday morning saw the Eagles lose a narrow 3-2 walkoff decision to the Puyallup Bulldogs.

On Sunday, the Eagles knocked off the Seattle Wave by a 12-2 final score. Sitting at a record of 2-1, the Eagles had a golden opportunity to move on to the quarterfinals by beating the top team in the pool, the Seattle Prime. Indeed, Victoria held a 2-1 lead going in to the top of the 6th before succumbing by a final score of 10-3.

Friday night’s game at the spacious Puyallup Recreation Center, an impressive complex of three all-weather regulation-size, artificial turf covered baseball fields, was a tense affair until the fifth inning. Kitsap pitcher Ryan Petersen kept the Eagles in check, only allowing two runs over the first three innings.

In the bottom of the second, Eagles starting pitcher Owen Taylor started an Eagles rally with a clean single to left. Two batters later centre fielder Parker Husu reached on an error putting runners at the corners for slugging right fielder Garen Geoghegan. On a 1-2 count, Geoghegan lined a double into left centre, driving in the Eagles first two runs of the tournament.

Meanwhile, with the exception of Kitsap designated hitter Nathan McClain, the Rebels struggled against Eagles starter Taylor’s lively fastball. Taylor opened the game with two quick strikeouts of first baseman Hunter Wells and shortstop John Hutchins, before McClain strode to the plate.

After a swinging strike, McClain got a hold of a high fastball and drove a moon shot deep to left. Outfielder Sullivan Humeniuk made a valiant attempt, leaping in vain at the wall as the ball carried over the short porch in left. With a wood bat, the ball likely would have been little more than a long flyball, but US youth baseball teams play with composite bats up through the college level. The juiced sticks definitely provide an extra boost and seemed to give McClain’s flyball the requisite clearance to surpass the 300-foot fence by several metres. The buoyant bats presented the Eagles with an extra challenge all weekend. Line drives jumped off the composite much more quickly than they would when struck by the wood bats used by PBL teams and which the Eagles struck with during the entire tournament.

After the long ball, Taylor settled down striking out seven Kitsap hitters over his 4+ innings of work. Taylor would only surrender two hits over the outing. Taylor was helped out by some stellar Eagles defence, as the team made no errors in the game and made a number of sparkling plays. The Eagles middle infield put on quite a show in the top of the second. Kitsap centre fielder Tristan Miller smashed a hard groundball up the middle that looked destined for a single, but Eagles second baseman Max Rudnycky made a spectacular diving grab, throwing out the speedy Miller from his knees. On the very next hitter, shortstop Ryan Day raced back into short centre field to make a scintillating over-the-shoulder catch of a bloop that appeared to have all the makings of a Texas League single.

The Eagles offence picked up another run in the bottom of the fourth when cleanup hitter Lukas LeGras reached first and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Taylor. LeGras then stole third before left fielder Humeniuk drove him home with a sacrifice fly to right.

The Eagles held a narrow 3-1 lead heading into the fifth, when Taylor, who had struck out the side in the fourth, ran in to a bit of trouble by issuing free passes the first three hitters of the inning. At that point, manager Jason Leslie turned to the fireballing Geoghegan to try to extinguish the rally. While Geoghegan notched two quick outs, on a strikeout and a popout to second, Kitsap cleanup hitter Landon Frandsen lined a clean single to left centre, driving in catcher Adam Nold and second baseman Jacob Andrewski, and knotting the game at 3. Geoghegan recovered admirably to strikeout centre fielder Tristan Miller and end the threat.

The Eagles broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth. Relief pitcher Landon Frandsen, who had moved to the mound from third base in the fourth, had control issues and the Kitsap defence imploded, making three errors. By working four walks to go with the errors, the Eagles had plated five runs, before Humeniuk drove in a sixth with a solid single to centre. That brought up centre fielder Husu with the bases loaded. Husu provided the Eagles with their biggest hit of the game, sending a smash to right that eluded the outfielder Eli O’Hara and drove in three runs, making the score 11-3. The game ended when shortstop Ryan Day drew a bases loaded walk driving in the game’s final run, ending the contest by the mercy rule.

Saturday morning the Eagles took on the Puyallup Bulldogs at Brannan Park in Auburn, south of Seattle. The game was a taut, tense affair played under ominous skies that thankfully never opened up with rain. The Eagles wasted a golden scoring opportunity in the top of the second, hitting in to a double play with only one out and the bases loaded. But the raptors would not be denied in the top of the third. Catcher Damien Cataldo ledoff with a single to left, which was followed by another single by third baseman Carson Kay. Leadoff hitter Max Rudnycky moved both runners over with a sacrifice bunt and Cataldo then scored on a wild pitch. To their chagrin the Victoria boys couldn’t push a second run across in the frame.

Eagles starter Zane Mraze went two solid innings stoutly battling through an uncharacteristic bout of poor defence when the team made errors on consecutive plays in the bottom of the second. In the top of the third, after a leadoff walk to second baseman Colton Hoover and a single by shortstop Zeke Soto to put runners at first and third, Mraze was relieved by crafty lefty Colton Bobroske.

Hoover scored on a bounceback to Bobroske, Soto moving to third on the play after having stolen second. With one out Bulldogs starter Nick Miller hit a flyball to medium deep centre and Soto tried to score, but was cut down by a perfect throw home from Parker Husu. The play was not even close, as Soto did not even bother to slide, submitting meekly to catcher Cataldo’s tag.

The contest remained knotted at one until the top of the sixth when the sprightly Husu drew a two-out walk from Bulldog relief pitcher Austin Avary. The next hitter, lanky first baseman Riley Waters, hit a thunderous blast to right centre, splitting the outfielders and providing plenty of distance to allow the swift-footed Husu to score from first on the play.

However, as they had done in the third, the Bulldogs immediately bounced back in the bottom half of the sixth. The pesky Soto reached on a single, stole second, and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice. With one out Avary bounced a single up the middle scoring Soto.

After the Eagles went down in order in the top of the seventh, the best the islanders could hope for was a tie, as tournament rules foreclosed extra innings for games in pool play. The determined Bulldogs took advantage of an outfield error with one out to get extra hitter Phil Rennick into scoring position. Rennick would eventually score on a bases loaded walk, giving the Bulldogs a walk off victory both literally and figuratively.

The Eagles needed to win their final two games on Sunday to have any hope of advancing to the knockout round of the tournament. Playing at the beautiful all-weather home field of the 2013 Washington state division 3A champion Auburn Mountain High School Lions, the Eagles looked up to the task in the first game against the Seattle Wave. Under threatening skies that never produced any precipitation, the islanders went down early by a score of 3-1. Undaunted, the Eagles soared back in the bottom of the third to take a commanding 4-3 advantage from which they would never look back.

The frame began on a booming double to left by catcher Damien Cataldo. With one out, starting pitcher and leadoff hitter Niko Gratton drove in Cataldo with a solid single to center. It was one of three hits by Gratton in the game as he found the barrel on almost every plate appearance.

Right fielder Lukas LeGras moved Gratton to third on a single to left and first baseman Riley Waters followed with a walk to load the bases. Cleanup hitter Sullivan Humeniuk then bounced a single up the middle to drive in Gratton and keep the bases loaded. Third baseman Jack Valikoski than hit a solid single to center to drive in LeGras and give the Victoria nine a 4-3 advantage.

The Eagles tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth, before plating 3 more in the fifth, the big blast a monstrous, 2-RBI triple to deep left centre by Cataldo, who hit the ball hard all game. The strapping catcher then scored on an error by Wave third baseman Joey Thee.

Meanwhile, Ryan Day had relieved starter Gratton in the top of the fifth and pitched brilliantly, striking out four of the seven batters he faced and allowing only a single baserunner on a six-pitch walk. The Eagles pitchers combined would only allow two hits over six frames during the game.

Isaac Earl had relieved Wave starter Jake Armstrong in the fifth. Armstrong had changed speeds quite effectively, keeping the Eagles hitters, with the exception of Gratton and Cataldo mostly off balance. However, Earl could not match his predecessor’s control and ran to a bout of wildness in the bottom of the sixth. With the score 8-3, LeGras reached on another error by Thee. With one out, Humeniuk replaced LeGras on first by hitting into a fielder’s choice.

Earl then became unstuck, plunking three Victoria hitters in row: Owen Taylor, Ryan Day, and Parker Husu. Husu’s hit batter notched an RBI as Humeniuk scored on the play. With the score 9-3 and the bases loaded, Max Rudnyckyj, who by this time had replaced Day at shortstop, strode to the plate. With one strike he launched a thunderous drive deep into the left field corner, streaking into third on the blast, and knocking in the three runners ahead of him for a walkoff hit. By tournament rules, the 12-3 margin provided the Eagles with the victory. Gratton earned the win for his 4 innings of solid work and Day notched a six-out save.

In the nightcap, the Eagles faced off against the Seattle Prime, the only team remaining undefeated in the pool. A win in which the Eagles allowed fewer than seven runs would have seen the team advance to the tournament’s knockout round. The Eagles started burly right-hander Garen Geoghegan, who matched up against fireballing Prime ace Darius Aru.

Geoghegan was seeking his second win of the tournament after Friday night’s relief appearance. Geoghegan began the game with five straight strikeouts and did not allow a run until the third inning, when right fielder Brendan Ryan ledoff with a clean line drive single to left. With one out, he advanced to third on a bouncer up the middle by left fielder Sergio Tun. Ryan then scored on a single to right by second baseman Ryan Tobler.

However, the Eagles proved equal to the task in the bottom of the frame. After fouling off three of starter Aru’s offerings, third bagger Valikoski smashed a clean single to left. Centre fielder Husu then replaced him at first on a fielder’s choice before leadoff hitter Gratton moved Husu to second on an error by third baseman Aashish Krishnappa. First baseman Waters then drove a clean single into left field, loading the bases. Second baseman Rudnyckyj then executed a perfect safety squeeze, as the fleet-footed Husu slid home safely and beat a high throw home by Prime’s hulking third baseman Kevin Gonzaga. Rudnyckyj notched his fourth RBI of the day on the play.

The Victoria nine would increase their advantage in the next frame. With one out right fielder Carson Kay launched a laser single to left, one of two solid hits he would have off Alu. He then moved to third as shortstop Day reached on another error by Krishnappa. With runners at first and second, third baseman Valikoski hit a drive to left that scored Kay, but Day was unfortunately thrown out on a close play at third, minimizing the Eagles chances for big inning as Husu flew out to left.

The game was balanced on a razor’s edge until the top of the sixth. With the Eagles clinging to a 2-1 lead, speedy Prime leadoff hitter Brody Bredice reached on an infield single. Bredice then stole second, setting up what proved to be the decisive play of the game. On a 2-2 count, second baseman Tobler hit a two hopper that appeared by many in the crowd to have bounced several inches wide of the first base bag. However, the home plate umpire ruled a fair ball, Bredice scoring on the play and Tobler advancing to second.

Towering first baseman Gonzaga then lined a clean single to left, the ball hit too solidly to enable Tobler to score. Curiously, the Prime had the lumbering Gonzaga attempt to steal second on Geoghan’s next offering and the lead-footed runner was thrown out by a wide margin on an excellent toss by catcher LeGras. Nevertheless, the next batter, catcher Will Martin drove in Tobler with a solid single to centre, ending Geoghegan’s outing after a splendid 5 1/3 innings of work. The Prime then added on two more runs to make the score 5-2.

The Eagles managed to claw one run back in the bottom of the frame, but the Prime added 5 insurance runs in the top of the seventh to take a commanding lead and erase any doubt about the game’s result. The final score suggested a more lopsided affair than had actually played out, especially for the first five innings as the Eagles demonstrated that they had the ability to more than match up against elite US travel ball teams.

Although the team was disappointed not to have fared better in the tournament, the trip was a success by many measures. It would have been more than interesting to see how the team matched up against American competition with both teams swinging real wood baseball bats. From an aesthetic perspective, wood produces a satisfying crack, while the mechanical ping of composite creates a disconcerting industrial timbre, best left to the time clock and shop floor. There is perhaps no small measure of irony that Canadian teams, such as those in the PBL, are preserving the American national past time by playing the game according to its finest traditions.

The country’s obsession with technological interventions aside, it was impressive to see the resources that even less prosperous US communities dedicate toward enabling baseball to be played on the damp Pacific coast. Every team in the Eagles division, a total of 46 in all, played their matches on well-maintained, all-weather artificial turf fields capable of hosting baseball year-round, even in wet conditions. Although the tournament teams faced on and off rain showers all weekend and some extremely heavy cloudbursts, the entire tournament was contested without a hitch or even a rescheduled game. The all-weather fields mean that teams in western Washington are able to begin outdoor training in mid-February, enabling superior player development. Canadian towns, many of which seem outwardly more prosperous than the blue-collar communities in which the Art Wright Tournament was contested, could certainly better promote the development of youth baseball players by investing in similar all weather surfaces.