San Ramon, Calif. – Over the recent Memorial Day weekend the 8th Grade Titans traveled to the Phoenix, Ariz. area to participate in the 9th annual WWBA West Memorial Day Classic, hosted by Perfect Game. 2019 marks the 5th year that EJ Sports has attended the classic with the Titans. Playing in the 14u division, the team posted a 2-1-1 record in pool play. After pool play the top 8 teams in the tournament moved onto a single elimination playoff bracket. Unfortunately, due to Perfect Game tie-breaking rules, the Titans came in at the 10th spot and were on the outside looking in when it came to making the playoffs.
Over the past weekend Perfect Game released their All Tournament selections, that recognizes players that stood out during a tournament. All Tournament selections are separated into two categories, hitting and pitching. The EJ Sports Titans featured a total of nine players on the honors list. Smith Chandler (De La Salle HS, 2023), Jacob Johnson (Monte Vista, HS 2023), Charlie Watson (Northgate HS, 2023), Alex Wilson (Monte Vista HS, 2023), and Koen Wolfe (Heritage HS, 2023) were all recognized for their offensive performances during the tournament. While Michael Aikawa (Piedmont HS, 2023), Andrew Gamble (Antioch HS, 2023), John Giannoutsos (Northgate HS, 2023), and Cole Pugsley (Bishop O’Dowd HS, 2023) were recognized for their pitching performances.
Smith Chandler (De La Salle HS, 2023)
Smith posted an .400 batting average during the tournament going 2 for 5 in his 7 plate appearances. Both of his hits were singles, while recording two walks in his other two plate appearances, making his on base percentage for the weekend .571.
Jacob Johnson (Monte Vista, HS 2023)
Jacob went 4 for 8 (.500) during the tournament with two singles and two doubles, plating three runners during his at bats. Johnson’s weekend also featured two base on balls and a stolen base to round out his weekend. Jacob was recognized as a Batting Top Performer. A Top Performer, inspired by ESPN’s top performer analysis, is a numerical calculation of a player’s statistics over the entire event, in efforts to identify the best performances in a non-subjective way. Jacob’s offensive performance over the weekend came in as the 39th best performance in his age group according to Perfect Game.
Charlie Watson (Northgate HS, 2023)
Charlies featured four hits in his seven at bats resulting in a .571 batting average for the tournament. One of his hits was a double, he drove in three runs, while walking twice and swamping two bags when on base. Charlie was among the top four in All Tournament hitters with an on base percentage of .750. Overall, he finished the event at the 41 spot of top performing hitters.
Alex Wilson (Monte Vista HS, 2023)
With a .333 batting average on the weekend, Alex had three hits, one for a double. He had one RBI, while swamping three bases and reaching base via the walk twice. This performance was the 58th best performance of the tournament.
Koen Wolfe (Heritage HS, 2023)
Koen finished the tournament with a .333 batting average with an on base percentage of .750. He drove in four runs for the Titans, in addition to reaching base four times with walks. Koen also stole a base during the event.
Michael Aikawa (Piedmont HS, 2023)
Michael was featured in the Titans first win against the MBA Utah Grays. He threw 2 1/3 innings of relief striking out one batter and only allowing three hits and two base on balls during his outing.
Andrew Gamble (Antioch HS, 2023)
Andrew threw 2 2/3 innings of relief against the South Chandler Baseball Club, a game the Titans ended up tying 3-3. He racked up seven strikeouts, with a fastball that topped out at 83 mph, while only surrendering two hits, one walk and an earned run. His 83 mph fastball tied him for the third hardest fastball in the 14u age division. His overall performance was deemed the 19th best, by Perfect Game’s Top Performer calculation.
John Giannoutsos (Northgate HS, 2023)
John started the Titans off right earning a win in their first game against MBA Utah Grays. He threw three innings, punching out four hitters, while allowing just a one hit and one walk. Giving him a WHIP of 0.67. His outing was ranked the 70th best performance of the tournament by Perfect Game.
Cole Pugsley (Bishop O’Dowd HS, 2023)
Cole earned the win in the Titans’ second victory against the DB9 Baseball 14u. He went 6 1/3 innings in his start, striking out two hitters and allowing one run in his time of work. He featured a WHIP of 1.58 and came in at the 55th Top Performer spot of Perfect Game’s list of Pitching Top Performers.
The Titans will be returning to the field this Saturday for a double header against Tri-Valley Babe Ruth at Sycamore Valley Park in Danville, Calif. The EJ Sports Warriors will be featured next in Perfect Game’s 17th annual 17U WWBA National Championship in Cartersville, Ga. starting June 28.
All stats provided above came from Perfect Game through their Diamondkast score keeping application. Each tournament game is scored by on-site independent Perfect Game scout.