6/15/2016 8:19:08 PM
It didn’t take long for the North Carolina Tar Heels to see an immediate impact from their presence at the Perfect Game Junior National as they’ve been able to bring a new recruit aboard in each of the last two days. While nothing in recruiting is guaranteed except the uncertain, I can guarantee that this is just the beginning in terms of young talent committing post-Junior National as several players impressed with their performance over the last four days.
Kicking things off for North Carolina was Aaron Sabato out of New York, the younger brother of 2016 recruit Teddy Sabato, who gave his verbal to Coach Mike Fox Tuesday evening. The Heels survived the 2016 MLB Draft arguably better than any school in the country and could come away with the top ranked class while turning their attention to the future as well.
Sabato, who is listed at 6-foot-2, 200-pounds, is a strongly built third baseman who showed both the looseness and strength to his arm to play there at the next level and do so rather easily. Perhaps the bigger tools that’s often associated with the hot corner is the bat and Sabato can certainly swing it with the best of them. After taking one of the louder rounds of batting practice at the Junior National and a potent team that featured several high ranking positional players, Sabato showed the same short and powerful stroke in game lining a double hard to the gap on a line.
Less than 24 hours later the Heels were at it again, this time with two-way Austin Elliott of Delaware. Truly there doesn’t appear to be much that Elliott can’t do on the diamond as he ran a 7.13, threw 93 mph from the outfield, and also swung a loud stick from the right side with whip to the barrel and strength to the pull side.
The tools undoubtedly play at the next level though his highest upside might just be on the mound. Showing the same type of athleticism that he had in the outfield, Elliott came out pounding upper-80s fastballs to the lower third of the strike zone with hard plane and command to either side. The ability to miss bats with the fastball was evident though he also showed a strong feel for a vicious curveball with tight rotation and hard downer life in the mid-70s and a firm, low-80s changeup with solid arm speed.
Overall Sabato and Elliott are the third and fourth commits to North Carolina’s 2018 recruiting class, joining righthander Michael Bacica and middle infielder Nick Biddison. If the classes that the Heels’ coaching staff have put together are any indication of things to come, expect a few more big names to be wearing Carolina Blue in a couple of seasons.