PG - Jupiter

Houston Heat made it to the round of 16, but got knocked out there by East Cobb. Columbia Angels missed making it to the round of 16 by one RA.

SE Texas Sundevils made it to the round of 8 before bowing out. Bellaire went 2-2. Dallas Tigers 2-1-1.

Finals are a Florida team vs. East Cobb.

Shame that some other top Texas teams don't go to the WWB.

Yes, congrats to Tant as well!

I know we will see lots of him and PD's son during district play this year.......

quote:

Shame that some other top Texas teams don't go to the WWB.

Several more Texas teams were going in October but the hurricane fiasco caused them not go to the rescheduled tournament. My son's team didn't go this weekend due to a scheduling conflict. We still haven't gotten our money back.

That's certainly understandable. Some good teams, however, never even planned on going.

Well, the timing of the event does require missing school.

What local teams went?

Local to DFW -- the Dallas Tigers 18U.

There were several Texas teams there. However, there was also many Texas players peppered throughout other team's rosters. The PG teams had several TX players as did many other national teams. Many of these young men were from the North Texas area.

The TX boys that I saw play represented themselves and their schools well.

PD and oldbat-never,
Thanks for the kind words. Tant didn't play in our 4th game as we had other travel commitments we had to make. He had a good 3 games however. There were a number of Tigers who played well and the team did very well considering we were a little short handed due to the tournament rescheduling.

ps. He is already geared up for PE and Marcus so watch out. Just kidding. Looking forward to spring.

Honest and unbiased:
Spring can't come soooooon enough!!! Enjoy the holidays and see you 3/21 and I will see PD on 3/17. You can count on me being there w/or w/o my son on Varsity, wouldn't miss those games for anything.......

Off the top of my head, the Columbia Angels had at least two pitchers who really stood out.

There were many Texas players who had outstanding performances. LHP Scott Kazmir (Houston) was a sophomore when he first pitched in the tournament for Baseball America. This year another Texas sophomore, LHP Walker Kelly (Ft Worth) pitching for the Midland Redskins showed he belongs among the elite in the 08 class. He's fun to watch!

Two names that will move up in the next rankings! The two 06s from the Columbia Angels were John Touchton RHP (Kingwood) who was fairly consistent 91-93 and can pitch and Norman Wittkamp RHP (Clear Creek) who was 91-94 with a consistent 93 mph live fastball. Wittkamp showed outstanding command of his heater and his breaking ball in Jupiter. Shane Minks RHP (Columbia) also looked very good. There were two Britton’s in the tournament, both LHPs from Texas. I’ll need to check the notes but I believe 07 Drake Britton LHP (Tomball) from the Angels had a great showing.

Drabek was hurt and didn’t come with the Heat, but big prospect Aaron Miller LHP/1B (Channelview) looked good as did many other Heat players.

Blake Beavan 6’7 (07) RHP from Irving was with the Dallas Tigers and he has a chance to be a very high profile draft prospect next year. Tant Shepherd and several others played well for the Dallas Tigers.

Bellaire had several good prospects but I will have to check all the notes. They are very competitive at the national level.

Baseball America had Zach Harwood RHP (Port Neches-Groves) and Josh Beard 3B (Rockwall). Both are very good!

All American Prospects had Jonathan Edwards (Grace Prep Keller) with the super arm on there roster.

The Braves Scout Team had Tyree Hayes RHP (Tomball), Monk Kreder C (Keller), Zach Britton LHP (Weatherford), Shawn Tolleson RHP (Allen). All highest level prospects. Tolleson is one of the best in the country, but he was down a bit in Jupiter. It won’t hurt his status a bit!

There were many more outstanding Texas players that we will be talking about later. It’s hard to remember everything without checking the volumes of notes from about 150 games.

PGStaff you have a PM

...really fun to observe all those guys doing well..........

We played the Angels team and they were solid---we got beat 2-0 due their their excellent pitching

Also I might add they were a great group of players and coaches .