Tournament Features High-Ranking Participants

The National Classic prep baseball tournament begins its seventh year today with one of its strongest fields.

Eight of the 16 teams have appeared in various national top 25 polls, led by Canyon, which began the season ranked No. 1 by USA Today. The Comanches are one of five county teams in the tournament along with Mater Dei, Capistrano Valley and tournament co-hosts Esperanza and El Dorado.

Tournament games will be played at Amerige Park in Fullerton, Glover Stadium in Anaheim as well as El Dorado, Esperanza and Mater Dei highs. The championship game is at 7 p.m. Thursday at Cal State Fullerton.

Other teams competing in the tournament are from Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Washington, as well as Northern California.

“This is definitely the most balanced tournament, competition-wise, that we’ve had,” tournament director Iran Novick said. “Usually you can see three to four teams who are clearly better than everyone else. But this year there are eight to nine teams that are capable of being in the finals. There could be another surprise like Germantown [Tenn.] was a couple of years ago.”

El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti likens the tournament to a “College World Series-type atmosphere.”

“[This] is what [Esperanza Coach] Mike Curran and I wanted when we started this seven years ago,” Gullotti said. “You want the field as strong as you can make it. We wanted this tournament a cut above others.

“To win it shows the quality of your team, especially pitching. Because you play four consecutive days, you have to have four good pitchers, as well as playing defense and offense.”

Even though the tournament is without a corporate sponsor this year--the Dole food company and Upper Deck card company have supported it in years past--the National Classic is still viewed as a springboard for national recognition. Two of the past mythical national champions, Germantown and Westminster (Fla.) Christian, were tournament winners in 1995 and 1996.

That’s one of the attractions for Miami (Fla.) Southridge Coach Fred Burnside, whose team traveled the farthest to get here.

“You can get your kids exposure, which translates into more college and professional opportunities,” Burnside said. “And it also gets your team toughened up for their state playoffs.”

Canyon begins the tournament as the team everyone wants to beat, but Coach Mike Najera--while wanting to win--does not want the Comanches to lose sight of their main objective: winning a second consecutive section title.

“I want them to go out there and have fun,” Najera said. “I want them to do their best and what happens, happens. Winning league and the playoffs are still the main goal; this is icing. But I also hope we can measure up and make believers out of people who may still doubt us.”