Millikan, Wilson advance in American Legion baseball

The 2016 Moore League baseball race was filled with seniors. Millikan, which won its first outright Moore League title since 2009, had 20 seniors on its roster. Wilson, the second-place finisher, had 16.

Because of the huge roster tuover, it would be reasonable to expect that the Rams and Bruins would struggle during this summer’s American Legion season due to their youth. Instead, they were the only two Moore League teams in this week’s Legion playoffs, and both advanced to the state touament in Yountville later this month.

Lakewood fell short of the touament, and Poly did not play over the summer.

Millikan’s class of 2016 was a highly-regarded group that brought the team to the top of the Moore League for the first time in more than half a decade. Not only did the Rams have top-end talent like Oregon signee and 29th-round draft pick Spencer Steer, they also had depth. The Rams’ roster consisted of 20 seniors, four juniors and no freshmen or sophomores.

This year, coach Ron Keester’s squad does have one very experienced retuer in senior Diego Alarcon. Alarcon has been on varsity since he was a freshman and has been getting starts in the middle infield since he was a sophomore. Keester said that’s made him a natural leader over the summer.

“All the other guys were looking toward Alarcon to see how he goes about things and his approach to it,” Keester said. “As the summer went along they got more comfortable.”

Over the summer, Alarcon has been part of an all-senior middle infield alongside Andrew Talley. It’s a pairing that Keester hopes is a solid core for the Rams to build around.

“Up the middle, we’re pretty set,” Keester said. “It’s about taking that experience and sharing it around.”

Millikan went 2-2 in the American Legion playoffs, finishing in third place, eaing the Rams a spot in the state touament.

Coach Andy Hall’s Bruins also lost more than half of their roster to graduation, including pitching ace Jack Williford. But UCLA-commit Zach Pettway, who didn’t pitch in his junior year due to an elbow injury, should be back on the mound for his senior campaign. Beyond him, though, Hall said Wilson has had plenty of youth on the field this summer.

“It’s about trying to get more information about our guys and where we’re going to be next year,” Hall said. “We graduated 16 guys and we only have four retuing guys that are playing with us.”

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Jack’s younger brother, Max, is one of those retuers. Max, a senior, spent last season catching his brother and batting third in the lineup and will be a key cog in next season’s Bruins team.

“We’re young and we have a lot of growing up to do,” Hall said. “It’s a painful process sometimes in the summertime.”

Wilson lost to Millikan in its second game of the touament but avenged that loss to eliminate the Rams and advance to the championship game, where the Bruins lost to El Segundo. The Bruins finished 4-2 and will be competing in the state touament.

In the spring, a young Lakewood team went 8-4 in the Moore League and finished third. This summer, though, the Lancers did not reach the Legion touament. But assistant coach John Yakel estimated that five of their seven losses were by one run.

“A lot of that is attributed to youth and young guys put in tight situations,” Yakel said, explaining that injuries exacerbated the team’s inexperience. “We’ve tued it into a positive with the kids. The experience we got is going to pay off in March and April.”

Millikan, Lakewood and Wilson all had to deal with a problem that kept Poly from participating at all this summer: players choosing to play with travel or scout teams instead of Legion ball with their high school team.

Before his controversial firing at the end of May, former coach Toby Hess had decided Poly would not be playing Legion this season. He estimated that it was the first time the Jackrabbits hadn’t played in the summer since the mid-20th century.

“What had become obvious in the last three years was that a smaller percentage of the varsity team was participating. By last year it was down to less than 50 percent,” Hess said. “They all have other teams.”

In addition to the dwindling numbers, Hess pointed to the MLB Pitch Smart guidelines, which were released in November 2014 and suggest high school-age pitchers have four months without pitching and 2-3 months without throwing at all, as factoring in his decision.

How the break from tradition will affect the team and its next coach remains to be seen. Whether interim head coach Erick Bryant had wanted to play this summer or not, Hess’ firing happened too late in the year for Poly to enter the Legion season.

“The decision was made when the (Pitch Smart) guidelines came out,” Hess said. “It just all made sense.”

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