Brunswick School’s baseball team placed third in the Academies Tournament at the 2020 Perfect Game High School Showdown and Adonys Guzman, who was then a sophomore, sparked the squad with his bat and glove.

“We went to the semifinals of the tournament and he was phenomenal,” Brunswick coach Johnny Montanez said of Guzman. “You could tell he had great tools. He hit the ball far, hit it hard, could throw the ball and his hands were great. It was like watching a shortstop over and over.”

Montanez was also impressed with how Guzman handled the Bruins’ pitching staff.

“He was exceptional behind the plate,” he said. “His focus the way he can command a game was outstanding. We saw that early when he was a sophomore.”

The 2020 Perfect Game High School Showdown took place in Alabama in early March, just before the COVID-19 pandemic fully hit the nation, resulting in athletics at all levels being canceled.

“We flew back home from the tournament and then the world shut down,” Montanez said.

Like all teams, Brunswick’s 2020 season was canceled. Yet the Bruins returned to the baseball diamond this past spring and Guzman helped lead the team to a winning season. A tough out throughout his junior season, Guzman hit .560 with a team-high 12 home runs and 37 RBIs for the Bruins, who were co-champions of the FAA. His skills at and behind the plate are certainly well known. USA Baseball recently announced its 40-player 18U National Team Trials roster selected from the 2021 Prospect Development Pipeline League and Guzman was selected as a member of the team.

The 2021 18-Under National Team Trials will take place Aug. 27-31 in Sarasota and Bradenton, Fla. In a press release on its website, USA Baseball announced that the final, 26-man 18U National Team will be named on Aug. 31. The 18U National Team will compete against Canada in a seven-game friendship series, scheduled to take be held Sept. 3-9.

“We are thrilled to have this talented group of athletes as part of the 2021 18U National Team Trials,” Ashley Bratcher, the USA Baseball 18U National Team General Manager said in a press release on the USA Baseball website. “The competition and depth at this summer’s PDP League was unmatched and it made for some incredibly difficult decisions for our coaches and staff, but we are confident in each of these players to represent the U.S. at the highest level. We are excited to get back on the field and get the process of naming our final team started.”

The Team USA press released noted that the 40 players chosen for the 18-Under National Team Trials roster hail from 20 different states and were selected out of a pool of 96 athletes that competed in the 2021 PDP League, which was held at the National Training Complex from July 24-31. The Prospect Development Pipeline (PDP) League is an invitation-based development league for high school players eligible for the following year’s Major League Baseball Draft.

A Valley Cottage, N.Y., resident, Guzman, a rising Brunswick senior, has already committed to play baseball for Boston College’s Division I program.

“He carried us offensively,” Montanez said of Guzman. “Everything the kid did was exceptional, he had monster numbers. He was playing most of the year beat up, because he was our only catcher, so he was taking a beating behind the plate. Sometimes would play first base, third base and he really responded.”

During previous summers, Guzman competed for the Bronx Bombers program, which consists of travel teams for athletes ages 10-16. This summer, he is playing for East Cobb Baseball in Georgia, which is regarded as one of the premier youth baseball programs in the country.

“They invited Adonys to the Perfect Game tryout, which includes the top 96 kids in the country and he ended up doing really well and made the All-America game,” Montanez said.

Guzman will serve as a captain of the Brunswick baseball team during the spring of 2022, along with pitching ace Josh Feldman and outfielder/pitcher Cole Mascolo.

Mascolo has committed to the Elon, Feldman is being heavily recruited and Michael Yeager, a rising sophomore, has committed to attend the University of Virginia.

“Brunswick is going to have about eight kids and Adonys leads that charge, so we are going to have a very strong team next season,” Montanez said. “We are looking forward to competing at the national tournament for Academy teams next spring.”