Before the best in Major League Baseball took the field to compete in the All-Star Game festivities last week, a couple of Moore League baseball athletes had the opportunity to compete with Compton\u2019s MLB Youth Academy during the MLB Commissioner\u2019s Cup in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Long Beach Poly\u2019s Malakai Pruitt and Millikan\u2019s AJ Nonato were able to compete in the annual 17U baseball tournament that\u2019s composed of teams from MLB Youth Academies from across the country and Puerto Rico.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a part of the event was an absolute blessing,\u201d Millikan\u2019s AJ Nonato said. \u201cIt was an awesome experience, being in the beautiful city of Philadelphia and going to all the cool all star game events.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a special year for the MLB Youth Academy, as it celebrates its 20th season serving the local community which has featured some future big leaguers including Lakewood alum and Mariners shortstop, JP Crawford.<\/p>\n
It was Nonato\u2019s first year competing with the team after receiving an invite from coach Lorenzo Gray to join the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very excited as well as my parents,\u201d Nonato said about getting the invite. \u201cWe were very grateful for the opportunity coach Gray gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Pruitt, it was his third year playing for the team but it\u2019s always an experience he cherishes being able to participate in.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, playing in the Commissioner\u2019s Cup is a blessing,\u201d Pruitt said. \u201cYou go to many events, for example you get to go to the Home Run Derby, HBCU Classic and the futures game. As a young player, as a young baseball player,\u201d Pruitt added. \u201cReally looking up to those people that are playing on the field and makes it seem like I want to be there one day. Also playing in the tournament was also a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the tournament, the teams received free gear and were able to attend multiple events once the tournament was over including the Futures Game that featured Lakewood alum and rising big leaguer Anthony Eyanson who is the Boston Red Sox No. 2 prospect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was awesome seeing a fellow 562 guy pitching in a game like that,\u201d Nonato said. \u201cHe did great and it really made me realize that us Moore League kids are hungry and when we have a goal we will do what we need to achieve it \u2013 that\u2019s the Moore League way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eyanson wasn\u2019t the only Moore League representative to take the field during All-Star Weekend as Wilson alum Myles Dismute was on the National League roster for the HBCU Swingman Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty cool to see another guy involved in a big game,\u201d Nonato said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Pruitt and Nonato said it was great to be able to participate on the team and make it to the championship game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to share the field with Malakair was great,\u201d Nonato said. \u201cWe have to play against each other all the time but being able to be on the same team was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and AJ are friends so we got along very well,\u201d Pruitt added. \u201cIt meant a lot to me to show these other coaches that the Moore League is a good league and we have good baseball players and good people in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the tournament the team were able to attend the Home Run Derby where St. Louis\u2019 Jordan Walker won in electric fashion to defeat Philadelphia\u2019s Kyle Schwarber in the final round.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing out there was crazy,\u201d Nonato said. \u201cI mean the atmosphere at Citizens Bank Park was exciting and awesome. Phillies fans were goin crazy for every event especially during the home run derby. The ending was insane, Jordan Walker\u2019s comeback was definitely one for the history books and being abe to be there and experience it was amazing.<\/p>\n
Pruitt and Nonato have since continued their tour with the MLB Youth Academy where they won the MLB Nike RBI Regional Tournament in Portland. They will now compete at the Nike RBI World Series in Vero Beach, Florida in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the best in Major League Baseball took the field to compete in the All-Star Game festivities last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-405542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}