STORY
The Amateurs’ Takeaways from Kejuaraan Nasional Baseball U15 dan U18 2021
An exclusive coverage of the national youth baseball tournament in Indonesia amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 Kejuaraan Nasional Baseball U15 dan U18 is over. This tournament was organized by Pengurus Besar Perserikatan Baseball Softball Seluruh Indonesia, also known as PB Perbasasi. The tournament was held at Rawamangun Baseball Field, Jakarta, from March 28, 2021 to April 8, 2021.
Eight provinces participated in the 2021 Kejuaraan Nasional Baseball U15 dan U18. Previously, this event was planned for 21–26 July 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed this event to 2021.
To comply with the health protocol, this event was held without spectators. All athletes and officials complied with the “3M” rule to prevent the spreading of COVID-19. Officials will spray disinfectants regularly during the tournament to sanitize the area frequented by people. Also, antigen swabs were applied to athletes, officials, and committees one day before the tournament, on the third day of the tournament, the fifth day, and three days after the end.
Monster Glove was the official live streaming provider and main sponsor of the event. The Amateurs collaborated with PakPok Indonesia as a media partner for the coverage of this tournament. Other sponsors and promoters of the tournament were Artha Graha Peduli, DADU promotions, Rudy Project, Prambors Baseball Club, and First Shop 87.
Day 1 (April 6, 2021)
On what was actually the second day of the U15 tournament, the №1 seed Jawa Timur faced the №2 seed Banten Hijau. The match was expected to be a tightly contested ballgame.
Despite being the top seed, Jawa Timur were clearly the less prepared team in this match since they came with very little preparation time during the COVID-19 pandemic, per team manager Reza Pahlevy. On the other hand, Banten Hijau slightly had the edge on this match by having three national team players in Jesse Parengkuan, Jericho Gaffar Jr., and former national team ace pitcher Chindy Patria Yudharana in their dugout as coaches, with all having Asian Games and Asian Championship experience under their belts.
During this nail-biting match, the hard-hitting Jawa Timur lineup was kept in check by Banten Hijau’s uncompromising defense. Nevertheless, as the game progressed Jawa Timur proved that they were better by winning the game on a walk-off base on balls with bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning.
One particular player worth noting in this match was third baseman and starting pitcher Jovaneld Nolan Ramiro. Jovan, who coincidentally wore 35 — identical to MLB pitcher Justin Verlander — showed his ability to mix inside fastballs and curveballs to keep Jatim hitters off-balance for nearly the entire match. His final line was spectacular for his age with 7 strikeouts, a good sign for Indonesia’s future starting pitcher.
One particular thing to see was both side’s ability to execute the dead-ball era style of hit-and-run. This old-school approach is largely abandoned in higher levels of baseball because of its perceived complexity and contemporary pitcher’s tendency to strike out the batter rather than pitching to contact.
The second match pitted Jawa Barat against Kalimantan Timur. Both sides proved themselves to be tough competitors by playing in the afternoon heat. Jawa Barat, who stacked a lot of left-handed hitters, proved too strong for Kalimantan Timur’s lack of experience playing against other provinces. The men in navy blue jerseys scored early runs and prevailed 8–2 against Kalimantan Timur.
Day 2 (April 7, 2021)
Two games, two quick mercy rule wins. Quite a letdown for the regular audience, despite the earlier concerns about Rawamangun ballpark’s condition after the torrential rain in the Jabodetabek area.
In the first match, Kalimantan Timur were outclassed by Jawa Timur and lost the game by 16 runs.Then, Banten Biru, whose starting up were dominated by women baseball players, were shut out and dismantled by Jawa Barat by a whopping 26 runs.
So, what is a mercy rule in baseball? Per Baseball Reference, the mercy rule is a provision in the rules that terminates a game early if one of the two teams has taken a substantial lead, considered to be insurmountable after a minimum number of innings have been played.
The rule is designed to avoid humiliating losses and to prevent games whose outcome is no longer in doubt to be played any further. In this edition of the national championship, the mercy rule is applied when the winning team leads by 10 runs before the commencement of the fifth inning.
Kalimantan Timur, on paper, were no match for the Jawa Timur team who steamrolled through them right from the first batter. Their inability to provide consistent pitching and defense proved fatal as Jawa Timur won 17–1, extending their winning streak.
Jawa Timur’s spark plugs in Gede (31), Samudra (32) and Danendra (44) provided constant pressure on their opposing side as they relentlessly stranded many Kalimantan Timur’s runners on base. On the other side, the short-handed Kalimantan Timur did some real fighting as they were able to strike out some Jawa Timur hitters, predominantly the bottom third of the batting order.
On the other match, there’s a unique fact about Jawa Barat, as one of their representatives said the roster consisted mostly of players from Sekolah Salman Alfarisi Bandung and played together since the PONY League the year prior. That explains the chemistry Jawa Barat showed on the field.
Nevertheless, they lacked bench players as they only brought 14 players. But they still dominated against Banten Biru, whose roster included several players from the women’s national baseball team.
Maliqul Zaidan Arhaburrazzaq’s ability to set the tone from the lead-off spot for Jawa Barat was the key to the game. Even with Maliqul on-base, the 3–4–5 punch of Adla Muhammad Hafil, Adika Silmi Ladiansya and Argya Bimo Satyoadhi still proved too much for Banten Biru to contain as they keep driving runs during the match.
Day 3 (April 8, 2021)
The last day of the 2021 Kejuaraan Nasional Baseball U15 and U18 started with the third place match between Banten Hijau and Kalimantan Timur at 8:30 a.m. In their previous meeting, Banten Hijau narrowly beat Kalimantan Timur 7–6.
In this match, Banten Hijau eventually beat Kalimantan Timur 5–3 despite not having the same controlling presence from Jovan, who had already passed his pitching count limit. Kalimantan Timur, on the other hand, played boldly and even put pressure in the first two innings before they exhausted themselves and eventually surrendered the game to Banten Hijau.
The final itself brought the biggest match in this tournament between Jawa Timur against Jawa Barat. In the first match, the two teams drew and Jawa Timur won 5–4 in extra innings.
Despite that, Jawa Timur showed that they were the best team in this tournament by demolishing Jawa Barat 10–0 and winning the tournament by mercy rule. With that win, Jawa Timur also went undefeated in this tournament by going 5–0 and showing a dominant run in a tournament without the nation’s top team in DKI Jakarta.
Jawa Timur’s trio of Gede, Samudra, and Danendra led the charge in the final. Their overall ability to disrupt Jawa Barat’s solid defense proved to be the key to their triumph in this tournament.
Nevertheless, Jawa Barat were still able to land key awards in this tournament. Adika led the tournament with .615 batting average, Argya Bimo also led the tournament with .889 slugging average, and Maliqul brought home the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.
Besides Jawa Barat, athletes from the other four teams also received awards for their respective performances. Banten Hijau’s Dylan Lemuel brought home the Earned Runs Average leader award (1.00 ERA) and his teammate Gregorius Damian with 18 steals brought home the Most Stolen Bases award. Jawa Timur’s Danendra Fathya Mahardika brought home the Most Runs Batted In award, as he hit 7.
The 2021 Kejuaraan Nasional Baseball U15 was still a celebrated event by baseball people around Indonesia and probably South East Asia, as it was live-streamed after Fox Sports Asia dropped the MLB commitments following the COVID-shortened 2020Major League Baseball season. The tournament wouldn’t be a success without the organizing committee, especially Mr. Leo Agus Cahyono as the chairman of the Indonesian Baseball Directory for his overall leadership of this event.
One thing to note from this tournament is that Indonesia is still sustaining a baseball environment similar to its heyday back in the 1990s. Regardless of what happened in their regeneration process, there should still be support for baseball in Indonesia for it to not die young because of its long and illustrious history in Indonesia.
This tournament was definitely a colorful one, with a newcomer in Kalimantan Timur. Despite being widely known as national powerhouses at the senior level, they weren’t known for their youth talent pool. But their debut did flash a glimmer of hope that the province’s athletes will be available and thrive in the Indonesian baseball scene.
There’s a glimmer of hope that the more exposure this tournament gets, the more support from private companies or state-owned companies it can get. Just like coach Yudharana from Banten Hijau said after the game, “discipline, diligence during training, and never-say-die attitude will make a strong mentality” as the recipe for being a top-tier athlete, so it does as well for the sports overall.
Farhan Muhammad Aditomo is a lifelong baseball fan who also happened to found love in other sports such as combat sports, motorsports, association football, and gridiron football. He aspires to make a living out of the texts about people within the sports. Worships Hideki Matsui, but not New York Yankees anymore. Loves fried chicken with mustard dip.
You can follow him on Twitter as @fmaditomo or Instagram as @iniaditomo.
