2 from SCV don stars and stripes
Baseball: Local players earn spots on Team USA; others tabbed for Area Code
After three days of competing at VTV Baseball Complex in Castaic, 18 players were selected Friday for the 2017 12U National Team, and two of them hail from the Santa Clarita Valley.
Kai Caranto of Santa Clarita and Gregory Pierantoni of Valencia were among those chosen from 36 candidates for Team USA, which will play in the U-12 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan later this month.
“Our staff has met for hours over the last three days trying to select eighteen kids from an exceptional group of talented athletes and I am very happy with the players that we have chosen to represent Team USA at the Baseball World Cup,” said 12U National Team Manager, David Sharp, in a story on USABaseball.com. “Trying to win a gold medal in a foreign country presents adversity to
athletes and it takes tremendous physical and mental strength to manage this opportunity. We are confident we have picked an exceptional group of young athletes.”
Team USA will train in Castaic today through Monday before traveling to Tainan, Taiwan, for the opening round of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s competition.
Team USA is the two-time defending champion in the event.
Caranto, an infielder and right-handed pitcher, is one of three players on the roster who was a member of the 2016 12U National Team.
Pierantoni is an infielder, outfielder and right-handed pitcher.
2 from Hart head to Area Code Games
The deck appeared to be stacked against Hart High’s Bryce Collins, who, along with teammate Cole Roederer, received word Wednesday they’d made the Brewers Area Code Games team.
Collins, a rising senior who pitched better and better as last season went along, felt sick the day before his Area Code tryout at Westmont College in Santa Barbara earlier this month.
Even after successfully getting the tryout moved back a day, he still dealt with a headache and stomach problems as he faced live hitters.
Still, he induced a foul out, hit a batter and struck out two.
He thought that was the end of the audition. However, the next day he received an email
inviting him to another round of tryouts. There was one problem: Collins would be in Texas on vacation with his mom, visiting Austin, Texas, and watching a Houston Astros game.
Organizers stressed that he wasn’t guaranteed anything.
“I held on to hope that I’d shown enough to showcase what I could do,” Collins said.
His hope was realized Wednesday. Collins and Roederer will compete with the “Brewers” team at Blair Field in Long Beach Aug. 6-10.
Collins, a University of Arizona recruit, posted a 5-2 record and 2.32 ERA in 11 starts for the Indians last season.
Roederer, a UCLA-bound rising senior, hit .353 with 31 runs, 28 RBIs and 26 stolen bases.