One of the Best in the West

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

When an opportunity comes you seize it. That is what Stowe Campbell did and now he is about to travel across the country to compete with and against some of the best baseball players his age.

Campbell, a fourth-grader-to-be at Palisades Charter Elementary, is one of only 36 kids selected to represent the West Region (consisting of California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho) at the USSSA All American Games in Viera, Florida.

For someone who has spent his life playing sports in the Palisades, Campbell is anxious to make his community proud when the week-long tournament begins July 24 at the 13-diamond Space Coast Complex, formerly the spring training facility for MLB’s Florida Marlins.

Cambell started T-ball at the age of 5, playing for the Mets in spring of 2019 at the Palisades Recreation Center. He has made it two PPBA World Series, winning the title with the Red Sox in 2021, his first year in Pinto. His Bantam Division basketball team (the Matadors) went undefeated in fall 2022 and his Bantam flag football team (the Raiders) went undefeated the fall before at the Rec Center. He also played AYSO in Region 69 for three years, making him a strong overall athlete. He was on the Mustang Cubs in the spring and currently plays for Top Level Baseball Academy. He plans to keep playing while at Paul Revere Middle School and then Palisades High.

“My main positions are pitcher, shortstop, first and third base,” he said. “My favorite is shortstop because there is a lot of action there.”

Campbell tried out for the West Region 9U squad at one of 20 tryout locations nationwide and was ecstatic upon receiving an e-mail that he made it. He was even more pumped when his uniform arrived Tuesday morning.

“I was evaluated on pitching, fielding, hitting and agility,’ Campbell said. “For pitching I threw into a strike zone and was evaluated on accuracy and speed. They looked at five pitches in a row. For hitting I hit off a 50-mile-per-hour machine and used Hit Trax to evaluate launch angle, exit velocity and distance. I also did fielding and throwing to a target for shortstop and caught a bunch of hard throws for first base. They evaluated me on my 10-yard dash time and broad jump distance.”

The 36 athletes picked for each region are divided into three teams and there are six regions, making a total of 18 teams per age group.

“I found out about the USSSA All-American Games on Instagram and thought why not go for it?” Campbell revealed. “What I like most about baseball is the fact that it’s a team sport, fun and technical. I can’t wait to start practicing with my team when I get to Florida.”

Rosters and schedules for every division (8U through 16U) will be posted July 17 on the All American website: aagbaseball.usssa.com.

The other five regions besides the West are the Southwest (consisting of five states); Midwest (11 states); South (four states); Northeast (17 states) and Southeast (seven states).

Asked to name the highlight of his blossoming baseball career so far, Campbell recalled belting a grand slam home run over the outfield fence for the Royals in a Pinto Division playoff qualifer. He hopes to get plenty of clutch hits, drive in plenty of runs, steal plenty of bases, field plenty of ground balls and throw plenty of runners out in this, his first trip to Florida. Oh yeah, and maybe visit Disney World while he is there.