FARMINGTON – The stage is set for one of the most prestigious amateur sporting events to begin on Friday, when teams take the field for the 2023 Connie Mack World Series.
Pool play action begins Friday at 5:30 p.m. with games at Ricketts Park, as well as Worley Field and the Farmington Sports Complex. Pool play action will continue on Saturday before bracket play begins Sunday evening.
The tournament is a double-elimination format once teams reach the bracket phase. You can download and print out brackets for pool play as well as the tournament itself by checking out the CMWS.org website.
Here’s a glimpse of each of the 12 teams competing in the 2023 Connie Mack World Series along with their records heading into the tournament. Statistics and records of CMWS teams are updated as of early this week from GameChanger.com.
505 Panthers (15-5)
The host team from Farmington welcomes a couple of familiar faces who competed on local and regional teams earlier this summer.
Piedra Vista graduate Josh Wulfert, who played for the Enid (Oklahoma) Majors this summer, returns to the 505 Panthers and is expected to be a huge contributor at the plate during the tournament.
The Panthers also picked up Keagan Scott and Maddox Edmonson, who both played for the Frackers during the just-completed City League season and local regional tournament.
Albuquerque Baseball Academy (13-4)
Winners of the Mountain West qualifier played last month in Denver and coached by Tim Campos, the ABA will be represented by some of the top players across the state of New Mexico.
Gene Trujillo, a recent commit to the University of New Mexico who played his high school ball at St. Pius, will team up with pitchers Austin Barela, from Cleveland High School and Aidan Zacarias from Volcano Vista High.
One of the newest members of the ABA will be Centennial High School graduate and recent LSU commit Steven Milam.
Named the New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year this season, Milam was hoping to hear his name called in the first three rounds of the MLB Draft last week as a top prospect.
Although Milam wasn't selected in the draft, he will play college baseball at for the defending College World Series champion Louisiana State University next season.
Milam seems ready to make a statement at the CMWs this week.
“I did everything that I needed to do at the Combine,” said Milam, who signed with LSU in November. “I got offered some money, but it was nothing like what I wanted so I declined them and even (during Tuesday's final day of the draft) got a couple more calls. I am just going to bet on myself that two or three years from now I'll be a first-rounder.”
LSU, a seven-time national champion, has made 19 College World Series appearances.
“LSU is the best place to play college baseball,” Milam said. “I'm very happy and very fortunate to be able to go to LSU, and I'm very excited. I was a little bit disappointed I was not drafted, but I know my worth at the end of the day.”
Last season with the Hawks, Milam hit .627 with seven home runs, 50 RBI and 65 runs scored, leading them to a 26-5 record and a Class 5A championship game appearance. He stole 21 bases and posted an on-base percentage of .742 along with a slugging percentage of 1.313.
Colton Nighthawks (24-9)
Winners of the West region qualifying tournament in Irvine, California, earlier this month are loaded with some top pitching, including Josh Torres, who struck out 13 batters in a 4-3 win last week in preparation for the CMWS.
Garrett Patterson, a recent commit to the University of California, San Diego, is batting .345 this summer for the Nighthawks while Marcos Rosales led his South Hills High School team last season with a .337 batting average and leads the Nighthawks with 20 runs batted in this summer.
D-BAT United (11-6-2)
Andrew Mac Rose, who’s put together a .349 batting average this summer, returns to the D-Bat roster at the World Series, and is considered by head coach Ryan Bonesio as one of the team’s top hitters.
“He was our five-hole hitter last year, and he’ll probably be somewhere at that spot in the lineup again for us this week,” Bonesio said. “He’s actually started a few games for us on the mound this season also.”
D-Bat United has finished second in each of its last two appearances in the Connie Mack World Series, last year losing in the championship game to the Midland Redskins.
Dallas Tigers (28-5-2)
The Tigers earned their way into the CMWS after winning a regional qualifying tournament last month in Melissa, Texas.
Major Brignon, who’s been a consistent force at the plate this summer, comes off a 4-RBI performance last week in a tournament contest and has been one of the top weapons on the Tigers, coached by Brett Bergman.
Brignon, who played third base for the Tigers, capped a big season for the Celina (Texas) High School baseball team, which finished 35-6 last spring and has already committed to the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
Pitchers Cooper Strawn and Alex Caddell have been an integral part in the Tigers during the summer. Strawn allowed only two hits and struck out 11 in a complete game, seven inning gem over the Lonestar Baseball Club in a tournament game last month.
Caddell, from Liberty Christian High School in Argyle, Texas, struck out eight and allowed a pair of hits and two walks in a 4-0 victory last week over the Texas Dirtbags.
Dulin's Dodgers (26-4)
Winners of last year’s Don Mattingly World Series, the Dodgers are the first team to earn a right to play in the CMWS after winning that event. Coached by Chris Godwin, the Dodgers have had a solid summer.
The Dodgers will rely heavily both on the mound and at the plate by Oklahoma University commit Michael Catalano, who batted .354 last season with the Frisco (Texas) High School baseball team, driving in 34 runs on 18 extra-base hits.
On the mound, Catalano struck out 36 batters in 24 innings. In a recent tournament win for the Dodgers, Catalano struck out nine over the course of 4⅔ innings.
The Dodgers and Dallas Tigers competed in a game against each other last weekend as a lead-up to the Connie Mack World Series, with the Tigers shutting out the Dodgers 8-0.
Midland Redskins (28-4-2)
The defending CMWS champions are loaded once again with a wealth of talent, both on the mound and at the plate.
Drew Erdmann, a commit to the University of Cincinnati, threw a no-hitter in a regional championship game last season for his Walsh Jesuit High School team and most recently struck out nine batters for Midland in a game against the Great Lakes Canadians.
Ty Waid, recently voted as the top prep baseball player in the state of Arkansas by the Arkansas Press-Gazette, slugged four RBIs and a pair of home runs in a recent Midland win. Waid, a commit to the University of Arkansas, is ranked as the 89th best high school baseball player in America by PerfectGame.com.
“(Waid) is a very talented young man,” Evans said. “He can pitch, catch and play first base. He’s a big offensive threat and is just a great kid to have on the team.”
Mississauga Tigers (38-8)
The Tigers, coached by Greg Byron, are the first CMWS team from Canada since the Ontario Blue Jays participated in 2010 after winning the North Atlantic regional tournament.
Byron has been on coaching staffs at both the collegiate and professional levels, having spent time with the University of Iowa, Central Arkansas University and most recently at Austin Peay University in Tennessee. Byron also worked in the Minnesota Twins organization with the Rochester Red Wings and was with the St. Louis Cardinals organization as an assistant with the Memphis Redbirds.
Byron was an assistant coach for the Ontario Blue Jays 2010 team that came to Farmington for the CMWS, and used his experiences from that event as motivation for his current team.
NOLA Cardinals (19-5-2)
The Cardinals earned its way into the CMWS by winning the South qualifier in New Orleans last month. Coached by Danny Riehm, the Cardinals went 5-0 in the regional qualifier, outscoring its opponents by a combined margin of 24-2, culminating with a 2-0 shutout win in a Saturday afternoon championship-round contest over the NOLA Scout squad.
Pitchers Dominic Letort and Landon Cortez have been dominant this summer for the Cardinals, combining to strike out 47 batters in just a bit more than 39 innings. Cortez struck out nine batters in the win over NOLA Scout.
Letort, a recent commit to the University of New Orleans, guided his Lakeshore (Louisiana) High School team last season deep into the postseason with a 6-4 record and 1.50 earned run average. In three playoff games, Letort allowed just four earned runs in 21 innings with 22 strikeouts, including 12 strikeouts in a semifinal win over Eunice High School.
Oklahoma Express (26-6)
Winners of the South Plains regional qualifying tournament in Enid, Oklahoma earlier this month, the Express are coached by Chase Wetwiska. The Express wrapped up an unbeaten run during the South Plains regional last week, winning all six games on its way to becoming the final team to earn a spot in the CMWS.
Pitcher Tyner Horn, a recent commit to the University of Nebraska from Goddard-Eisenhower High School in Halstead, Kansas, is a right-hander who struck out 65 batters across 38⅓ innings and had an earned run average of 0.00 during his senior season.
Last week, the Express took on the Albuquerque Baseball Academy in a warm-up game before the CMWS, with the Express blanking the ABA by a score of 5-0.
Cash Kuiper, who struck out five batters in the win over the ABA, also figures to be a major factor on the hill during the CMWS.
“(Kuiper) is probably the biggest character on the team,” said Wetwiska. “He’s poised and any time he’s on the mound, I know we have a good chance to win. Another guy who just goes out there and competes.”
Southern California Renegades (24-7-1)
Though it’s been more than a decade since the Renegades won the CMWS, coach Si Pettrow always brings a talented squad to Ricketts Park.
One of the stars for the Renegades figures to be multisport athlete Matt Morrell, a recent commit to Oregon State University who achieved honors on the diamond as well as on the football field for Cypress High School.
Morrell drove in a pair of runs while going 2-for-3 at the plate in a 6-3 win last week over the Fullerton Stingers. He also earned the win, throwing three innings, striking out three while not allowing a hit.
“(Morrell) is a big kid, he goes about 6-foot-4 and has a lot of power,” Pettrow said.
Morrell will play in the outfield as well as have a role on the mound for the Renegades in the CMWS.
Pitcher Chad Gurnea, from Pacifica High School, was recently named to the California Interscholastic Federation’s Division 2 baseball first team after going 7-2 last season with an 0.40 ERA as well as 79 strikeouts and only nine walks in 52 innings.
Tulsa Sandlot (19-2)
The Sandlot Sox captured the Ozarks qualifying tournament played in Joplin, Missouri and are one of two teams from the state of Oklahoma in this year’s event.
Coached by Gunner Glad, the Sox reached the finals of the qualifier after going 2-1 in pool play. Entering the quarterfinals as the 6-seed, the Sox beat the Oklahoma Drillers 6-1 in the quarterfinals before beating the Acadiana Cajuns by a final of 14-8 in the semifinals before capturing the title with a 6-5 win in the championship game against Marucci Elite from McKinney, Texas.
Glad played collegiate baseball at San Diego State University as well as at Eastern Oklahoma University and the University of Kentucky, where in 2010, he was one of the top hitters in the Southeastern Conference with a .336 batting average, 12 home runs and 45 RBIs.
