Team Vegas steps up in competition

Last summer Buck Thomas was able to offer his players the chance to be noticed by college and professional scouts.

This year the owner and manager of the Las Vegas Summer Baseball Club is able to offer his team something more tangible: a postseason.

After playing an independent schedule in the franchise’s first season in 2009, the team joined the California Collegiate League this season. The move has players and coaches shooting for a spot in the National Baseball Congress World Series in August in Wichita, Kan.

“Last summer was a steppingstone, and now these guys have a World Series in front of them and they’re fired up,” Thomas said. “They’re playing their tails off. They know there’s a mission: Wichita, Kansas, is the goal.”

The club, which also goes by Team Vegas, has opened 3-3 with all six games in CCL play. Both the champion of the seven-team, wood-bat league and the winner of the Santa Barbara Tournament in July will clinch spots in the World Series.

Third baseman Kris Bryant, a recent Bonanza graduate in his second season with the club, said Team Vegas is energized by the goal of reaching the postseason.

“We’re actually playing for something,” he said. “It’s kind of like high school ball — you’re playing to win. In scout ball, you feel so pressured. Now we can just perform for our team and that one goal.”

Bryant, an 18th-round draft choice by the Toronto Blue Jays on June 8, expects to fulfill his college commitment to the University of San Diego in the fall. The 6-foot-5-inch slugger is one of several local high school graduates who returned from last summer’s team that had a 27-10-1 record.

Others include Centennial product and San Diego signee Michael Wagner, a right-hander drafted in the 28th round by the Boston Red Sox, and Palo Verde graduate Dan Jaffe, a catcher headed to Villanova.

Also back are UNLV freshman outfielder Kris Kaplan (Cimarron-Memorial) and Long Beach State freshman infielder R.J. Santigate (Bishop Gorman).

Players from outside Las Vegas, such as right-hander Kevin Gausman of Centennial, Colo., a sixth-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers who has committed to Louisiana State, stay with host families during the season.

Thomas, a part-time regional scout for the Los Angeles Angels who runs a recruiting service called The Best College Placement in the Four Corners, said the club is designed to help players improve, gain exposure and become acclimated to a schedule heavy on travel.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us to play against the top teams in the nation,” said former Sierra Vista right-hander Nick Kingham, an Oregon signee and fourth-round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Just to be in this league is big for us.”

The other six teams in the league are based in California, including the two-time World Series champion Santa Barbara Foresters.

“This is for the Four Corner kids to play at the next level,” Thomas said. “It’s about the kids.

“We’re trying to rival the Cape Cod and Alaska (amateur leagues) and put a stamp on college baseball that the CCL is where it’s at. With the kids we have, it can only benefit them to play against the best.”

Team Vegas’ 18 home games will be played at the College of Southern Nevada, and it hosts the San Luis Obispo (Calif.) Blues at 7 p.m. Saturday to open a three-game series.

Thomas said Team Vegas signed a three-year contract with the CCL and hopes the club can become a local fixture, with talent from UNLV, CSN and local high schools building a perennial contender.

“My intention is to do this until I can’t do it anymore,” he said. “Everybody else in this league has been doing it 17, 20 years and they’ve built franchises and host families. I think we have a great base and families here in Vegas.”