By Allan Simpson
October 26, 2002

JUPITER, Fla.--The Baseball America team has four or five potential first-round draft picks for 2003, and three or four more for 2004. Cincinnati's Midland Redskins has one of the most storied youth programs in the country.

So who would have thought that the two powerhouses would essentially be playing an elimination game on the opening day of the Perfect Game/Baseball America World Wood Bat Association championship here Friday?

But with both teams unexpectedly losing their first games of pool play in the 72-team tournament, their Pool A matchup took on a sense of urgency as the loser would not be one of 36 teams to advance to bracket play on Sunday.

Baseball America, the pre-tournament favorite and 2000 champion, scored a third-inning run and made it stand up for a 1-0 victory over Midland, keeping its hopes alive. Midland, which has won the Connie Mack World Series eight times and reached the Farmington, N.M., tournament in 19 of the last 20 years, has no chance of advancing.

BA manager Johnny Rodriguez knew what was at stake in his hard-fought win against Midland.

"I was playing to win, no question," said Rodriguez, who spent the summer managing the Florida Marlins short-season Class A affiliate in Jamestown. "With all the talent on this team, it would have been a shame to be 0-2 and essentially finished."

The Baseball America squad dug an early hole for itself by losing 1-0 in its opener to the Colorado Rockies Scout Team, and by scoring only one run in two games.

"We're just not swinging the bats," Rodriguez said. "The players are here to showcase for the scouts and there's just no rhythm to their swings. It's obvious they have not seen a lot of live pitching in a couple of weeks. They're swinging big, hard and violent. They need to shorten their swings."

No BA player has struggled more than outfielder Lastings Milledge (Lakewood Ranch High, Sarasota, Fla.), the No. 1-ranked high school player in the country. He went 0-for-5 in the two games, struck out three times and showed little sense of pitch recognition.

The absence of powerful outfielder Delmon Young (Camarillo, Calif., High) has also been felt. Young, the No. 2-ranked high school player in the 2003 draft class, chose at the last minute not to participate in the four-day tournament after playing for Baseball America the last two years.

But if hitting is an issue, pitching is not. The BA team got outstanding pitching in its second game from righthanders Jeff Allison (Veterans Memorial High, Peabody, Mass.) and Jared Hughes (Santa Margarita High, Laguna Niguel, Calif.), the Nos. 1 and 3-ranked high school pitchers in the country. Allison worked the first three innings and touched 92 mph, while Hughes pitched the next two and peaked at 93. Righthander Quentin Andes (Cibola High, Albuquerque, N.M.) completed the shutout, working the final two innings.

Allison and Hughes attracted the largest throng of scouts on the day, with about 150 on hand to see each.

Midland junior righthander Will Joestock (West High, Lapeer, Mich.) matched the pair almost pitch for pitch, topping out at 90 mph. He went the distance, giving up only a third-inning run on a base hit by left fielder Jason Corder (Capistrano Valley High, Mission Viejo, Calif.), the No. 1-ranked player in the Draft Class of 2004.

Midland had only five members from the team that finished third at this year's Connie Mack World Series, and filled its roster with players, like Joestock, that it was auditioning for next year's club.

Baseball America assembled its team strictly for this tournament and recruited more than its share of talent.

"There's so much talent on this team," Rodriguez said,"that I wouldn't hesitate at all to take it into the New York-Penn League. Because we're so young, we would contend the first year, but I have no doubt we'd win it all the second."

But the immediate task at hand for Rodriguez and his struggling BA team is to become the second team from Pool A to advance to bracket play. A win Saturday against the Southwest (Texas) Stars Xpress would do it.

The Rockies' Scout Team, made up entirely of the top high school players in Colorado, secured the No. 1 seed by beating the Xpress 2-1 after blanking Baseball America behind righthander Matt Pike (Centennial High, Pueblo) and lefthander Luke French (Heritage High, Littleton), who also drove in the game's only run with a fourth-inning single.

"If we can get our bats going tomorrow," said Rodriguez, who helped coach the Miami Sluggers to the title a year ago, "I have no doubt we can win this tournament. We've got the pitching to do it."

• Team Florida USA, a finalist in 2001 and ranked No. 2 in pre-tournament rankings, opened the tournament in impressive fashion by beating two foreign entries in Pool Q: Team Ontario Red 6-1 and Perfect Game Black 13-0. PG Black, made up almost entirely of top prospects from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, is one of 10 teams in the tournament sponsored by Perfect Game USA

• Other 2-0 teams after the first day of play included the Colorado Rockies Scout Team in Pool A, the Illinois Sports Academy from Pool B, the South Florida Bandits and PG Kelly from Pool D, the Gold Coast (Fla.) Pirates in Pool E and the Bama Bombers from Pool I.

• Rodriguez, who has been involved in player development at the professional level for 18 years, says the BA team has four sure-fire first-rounders in Allison, Hughes, Milledge and third baseman Ian Stewart (La Quinta High, Garden Grove, Calif.). The team also has the top three ranked high school juniors in Corder, shortstop Matt Bush (Mission Bay High, San Diego) and first baseman Jason Kubin (Oakton, Va., High).

• The hardest thrower on the day was unsung 6-foot righthander Adam Miller of Knoxville (Iowa) High, but he's not regarded as being in the same class as the 6-foot-2 Allison or 6-foot-6 Hughes, the day's most impressive pitcher.

• An estimated 500 scouts and college recruiters took in the first day of play.