Onward and upward: AAABA teams believe new format paid dividends
Altoona AAABA League playoffs
Trending
The Altoona All American Amateur Baseball Association expanded its league to four teams this season and entered into a co-op with the Johnstown AAABA league to get more competition, and as the playoffs begin Sunday, all four teams believe the new format has paid off.
"We absolutely loved it," MH Electric coach Mark Hott said. "We believed it brought on more competition between the eight teams. If you look at the start of when I entered this league, it was a two-team AAABA, which we grew to three. With us adding the fourth, we don't play City League, which increases the level of competition for these high school and college-level players and also gives the high school players a chance to grow in the sport and help them gain experience against these college-level athletes."
Over the next week, the Altoona AAABA will hold two best-of-three semifinal series and a best-of-three championship series to determine who will go to Johnstown for the National AAABA tournament, which runs from Aug. 3 through Aug. 8.
"I think the new format worked really well for everybody," Cumming Motors coach Chris Sanders, the longest tenured Altoona AAABA head coach, said. "It definitely helped us as a team playing that kind of competition and geared us up for the playoffs and got us ready for the (National) tournament."
Earlier this week, the Altoona teams believed they would be playing for just one spot in the upcoming tournament, but as a result of the Philadelphia franchise backing out of the Johnstown tournament on Wednesday, Altoona will now be represented by the top two teams.
Imler's Poultry enters the postseason as the top seed after going 8-6 in the 14-game regular season that was split between games against each other and games against Johnstown's AAABA teams.
"It went well," Imler's Poultry coach Adam Plummer said. "I think it's good that they did that. You always heard about Johnstown but never got to play them much unless you got over into the (National) tournament. We're two local communities that were able to join forces like that which gave us eight teams in the league. I think it's good for both leagues, especially for Altoona now that we're up to four teams. Experiencing going to Johnstown, playing at Point and getting that experience of playing at that field under their belt is important."
Imler's had several players who played their first games at Sargent's Stadium at the Point -- the hub of the AAABA National Tournament.
"I came in late in the year," Plummer said. "I got on board and picked a bunch of young kids. We had a core of kids coming back, but we also lost quite a few kids from last year's roster. A lot of the kids we picked up are either still in high school or just graduated high school. We knew we were going to be young but that we were going to be talented. We competed, had fun and wanted to be competitive and give these kids a good experience. In my eyes, we overshot our coverage. We did things I didn't think we would do at the beginning of the season."
Plummer said his team is much better after going through the regular season.
"We lost a couple of close games at the start of the year, and I feel like if we played the same game at this time of the year, I think it would have been a different story," Plummer said. "Martella's came from behind and beat us in the seventh. We have made adjustments, and I feel like if we played them now it could be a different outcome. With the adjustments we have made and getting the timing down, we're playing better baseball now."
Imler's Poultry will take on MH Electric Services in the first game of the postseason at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Vets Field.
MH Electric went 2-12 in the regular season.
"Our chances are going to come down to playing clean baseball," Hott said. "No. 2 is having good, quality at bats. I tell the kids all the time that they are just as talented as the teams we are playing. They might be older. Our average age is probably 17. A lot of the teams we are playing against, especially the Johnstown teams are 20 with a lot of college players. We have three 15-year-old players on our team. With our lack of experience, that's been a disadvantage for us, but we have grown throughout the season."
In the other semifinal game, second-seeded Cumming Motors (6-8) -- the Altoona franchise with the most history in the AAABA tournament -- will take on Alexander Financial Group, which also went 2-12.
"I believe we have more talent than what our record shows," Alexander Financial coach Jason Foster said. "Things have not gone our way for various reasons. But those are in the rearview mirror, and we must move forward and be fundamentally sound."
Despite the regular season struggles, Foster also felt the new setup for the league helped his players.
"It was very beneficial to all players as the competition was great," Foster said. "I believe the repetitions that the players got will hopefully help them in their college careers."
Cumming Motors has experienced a down season compared to recent years.
"I think going into the playoffs, we're going to be OK," Sanders said. "In years past, I had predominately college players. A lot of them aged out, so I was definitely younger than I have normally been. Getting a whole team during the playoffs, I think we're definitely going to do some damage. We'll definitely have a more complete team come playoff time, but there were a lot of moving parts this year."
Motors will take on Alexander in the first game of that series at 3:30 p.m. at Vets on Sunday.
"It's going to come down to pitching and defense," Sanders said. "This year versus past years, all four teams are very competitive. There are pros and cons on all of the teams. The mixture of younger players with the older players this year is definitely going to benefit everyone, but it also means any of the four teams could win at any time."
Each player on the AAABA rosters must have played in at least four of the 14 regular-season games to compete in the postseason.
Sanders said it can be a challenge to get a full team at times due to so many different baseball leagues going on at the same time.
"It does handcuff us a little bit with all the leagues in town, using certain players at certain positions" Sanders said. "With travel ball and the multiple leagues, they are all competitive leagues and give kids more opportunities to play more baseball. Selfishly, I would like my guys to just play for me, but I want to see the area grow and the top talent in the area to go to the next level."
The championship series is set to begin Friday at Vets Field at 7 p.m., and despite not knowing what to expect going into the season, Plummer is confident his team will be right in the mix.
"We're in first place for a reason," Plummer said. "We have to just keep playing our game. We have to go out and throw strikes and put the bat on the ball like we have done all year. It's about doing the little things we have been doing all year. It took some time for the kids to make adjustments, they had not seen that college-level pitching. But we adjusted."
Altoona AAABA League playoffs
BEST-OF-THREE SEMIFINALS
at Vets Field
SUNDAY GAME 1
MH Electric Services (4) vs. Imler's Poultry (1), 1 p.m.
Alexander Financial Group (3) vs. Cumming Motors (2), 3:30 p.m.