Monarchs Baseball Set for National Title Run In Youngstown

A baseball team made up of some of the elite high school players in Anne Arundel County is on its way to Youngstown, OH to go after its second National Championship in three years.

The Maryland Monarchs 18U team completed a 34-6 season and will look to improve upon their second-place finish in last year’s National Amateur Baseball Federation championship. The Monarchs won the title in 2009.

The 18U team, which played its home games at Arundel High School, will look to match the success of the Monarchs 17U squad, which recently won a national title in Knoxville, TN.

“The past couple of weeks, we’ve been playing really well,” said pitcher Rob Warwick, a recent graduate of Arundel High who also played for the Monarchs in 2010. “If we play like we have been, we’ve got a pretty good shot.”

Monarchs head coach Tom Keating said the team was strong offensively for most of the year, but that the pitching was a strong suit in recent week. He has worked to keep the team in game shape as they prepare for stiff competition in Youngstown. On Monday, he arranged a scrimmage with DeMatha High School that allowed every player to get at least one inning of work.

Bernie Walter, the legendary former head coach for both the Monarchs and Arundel High, has assisted the team over the last month. Walter is now the director of baseball operations at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Keating and Walter each criticized the team for a perceived lack of focus during the scrimmage, but said the mood of the team is upbeat heading into the playoffs.

“I would say [the players] are optimistic,” Keating said. “They know they are going to be in it. They are going to be one of the marked teams. With our [17U] team winning it, they’re not going to surprise anybody.”

The Monarchs roster is essentially an all-star team of high school players from the area, some of whom will go on to play in college in 2012.

The team features former Arundel High standouts Warwick and Chris Vazquez, plus rising seniors Matt Shin and Keith Grassel. Top players from Chesapeake, Severna Park, Southern, Meade and Northern High Schools are on the roster, along with those from Archbishop Spalding, C.M. Wright and St. Paul High Schools.

“I was on the team last year, and it was a lot of fun,” said Vazquez, who has played first base most of the summer and plans to play at Coppin State in the spring. “It was a lot of fun this year and the coaches are great. You get to learn a lot, and it makes you a better ballplayer."

The competition in the playoffs is stiff, with many players often going on to be drafted by Major League teams. The 2010 champions Houston Raiders had seven draft picks, Keating said.

“Teams are stacked up just like us,” he said. “Going into a 15-team tournament, there are usually seven or eight teams that have a shot. If you don’t play well, you’re going home.”

The tournament started August 4.

Here's the roster of the Maryland Monarchs.