Justin-Siena’s Young to tryout for Team USA in mid-August; Bon-Borquez chosen as an alternate
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
For Justin-Siena’s Noah Young and Sebastian Bon-Borquez July 16th was a big day towards their futures in baseball after their high school years are over.
On that day both of them went down to Evans Diamond at UC Berkeley to attempt to make the Northern California team that will compete in Cary, North Carolina August 15th-19th for a chance to make the 15-and-under USA team and to play in front of numerous NCAA division one baseball coaches. The sophomore Young made the Northern California team and will go North Carolina in the middle of August, while Bon-Borquez was selected as an alternate, so if other people can’t make it he’d be selected to go play.
For Justin-Siena head baseball coach Jeremy Tayson it’s an honor to have two of his players make it this far.
“I would say it’s as high a recognition as you can get to have a chance to play for your country and to have a Justin-Siena Brave playing baseball across the country is quite the honor and experience for Noah. He takes sports seriously putting in extra time in the cages and weight room – he acquitted himself as someone mature enough to handle himself as a varsity starter as a freshman on a section quarterfinalist team this year and now this achievement shows where he stands amongst those his age,” Tayson said via email on July 19th. “Sebastian’s achievements aren’t lost either despite being an alternate – he held his own against some really high caliber players and blended right in. Both these guys are high level multi sport athletes within their age groups and it’s a sign of good things ahead for them as athletes and young men in the Justin-Siena athletics landscape.”
Last season as a freshman Young hit .304, with a .333 on-base percentage, .357 slugging percentage, and had an on-base plus slugging of .690. The Braves went 9-15-1 overall and had a 6-12 mark in their final Marin County Athletic League. They beat Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa in the first round of the NCS division III playoffs before losing to Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland.
This summer they’re both playing for the Sonoma Stack 18-and-under team, but Young is also playing for Napa Valley Baseball Club’s 17-and-under team.
During the summer Young is hitting an eye-popping .434, and is a mainstay in the middle of NVBC’s order.
“Definitely a huge accomplishment for Noah to get asked to play in that,” NVBC 17U coach Jason Schnaible said of Young. “Noah’s been an absolute integral part for us this year; I mean he played predominantly right field for us throughout the year. You know he bats in the five (or) six hole, which is very similar to where he batted for Justin-Siena, so we wanted to keep him in the same spot in the lineup, but he’s been a great player, he’s been an absolute pleasure to coach, and I think it’s a huge accomplishment.”
Also, Young has found a home in right field for Napa Valley Baseball Club, which is also where he plays for Justin during the spring.
“He has (found a home in RF),” Schnaible explained. “So we haven’t moved him around too much, he’s actually one of the players that hasn’t moved to many positions. One of our goals coming into this summer season was to get kids ready for their varsity high school (team), so if there’s a particular position that they feel that they’re playing in high school, if there’s a particular position that their high school coach wants to see them at that’s what we’ve tried to do here is keep the kids in the positions that they’re going to be battling and fighting for jobs at the varsity level, so that’s been our main goal is to get the kids ready for the high school level — that’s been the number one goal throughout the summer season. Number two goal has just been trying to get these guys as many swings and as many innings on the mound as we can get them, but the overall goal of the whole entire program is just getting these kids ready for whatever it is high school has to offer them, and these guys are obviously moving from the JV level up to the varsity level, so that’s been our goal is to get these guys ready for that position at the high school level.”
