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Tournaments  | Story  | 3/13/2016

PG HS Showdown: Day 3 Recap

Matt Czechanski     
Photo: Perfect Game

2016 PG HS Showdown Event Page | 2016 PG HS Showdown-Academies Event Page
Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap


On Championship day for both the Academies portion and the PG High School Showdown, several offensive standouts made their presence known at LakePoint on Saturday. The Championship teams were set as of Friday evening, and Gulliver Prep from Florida faced off against the Sparkman Senators from Alabama in the early afternoon.

Leading the way for Sparkman offensively was outfielder Brock Anderson (2016, Huntsville, Ala.) collecting one of the 15 hits smacked by his club. There was not one occasion when Anderson hit the ball softly, peppering line drives all over the field, including a loud, deep double to right-center field.

Anderson stands at a physically impressive 6-foot-3 with a very athletic frame with broad shoulders and long limbs. He has good strength throughout and that should help his power to continue to develop. He showed excellent bat speed with smooth, natural life and a consistent plane through the zone.

The outfielder should continue to improve given his bat speed and strength as well as a sound approach. He’s signed to head to the great Northwest and play at Washington University next year.

Also hitting well for the Senators was Breonn Pooler (2016, Huntsville, Ala.) and Jacob Foster (Madison, Ala.). Pooler showed good quick-twitch athleticism in both the field and at the plate. He had smooth actions at second base, with a strong arm and good footwork around the bag. At the plate, he used a short, compact swing with good present bat speed and a line drive plane.

Foster hit from the No. 2 hole and showed very clear bat speed with good ability to recognize spin. He drove the ball well, including a double to left-center field with quick wrists and hand speed.

In one of the consolation games in the night slot, Michael Perez (2017, Orlando, Fla.) came in to the game in relief for Conrad Academy and impressed. He showed an easy, loose arm action from the left side and created good angle towards the plate. He has immense physical projection with long limbs and standing at 6-foot-4, 210-pounds.

His fastball worked 85-87 mph with lots of arm-side life, topping out at 88 mph. In the brief viewing, he had some ability to work both sides of the plate and had feel for the zone. The currently uncommitted lefthander also showed a 10-to-4 shaped curveball with some depth, up to 68 mph.

The highlight of the night was 6-foot-3, 200-pound Jordon Adell coming in to close the game out for Ballard High School. Adell is loaded with physical projection and there would not be much argument for the most athletic player in the 2017 class.




The junior from Prospect, Ky. used a high three-quarters arm slot on the mound with absolutely electric arm speed. He showed good hip rotation and hard downhill action with a long, loose arm action. He generates exceptional extension and did surprisingly well to keep the ball low.

His fastball that gathered crowds sat between 94-96 mph and hit 97 mph once with very sharp downhill action. The heaviness on Adell’s fastball looked like a bowling ball being hurled at the plate with late run. He couldn’t always find the corners, but Adell did avoid leaving it over the plate.

The Louisville commit generated nine swings and misses on the mound in his two innings, primarily from his fastball. He also mixed in a hard, 11-to-5 slider at 83 mph that showed good tilt and tight spin. He lowered his arm slot for the offering, but with repetition the pitch’s deception should improve.

– Matt Czechanski



On Championship Saturday at Lake Point, both the 2016 PG High School Showdown and Academies Showdown wrapped up their three days of action. All teams were still in play in some form, be it playoff action or consolation games, giving evaluators more opportunities to get looks at respective players.

Brandon Marsh (Buford, Ga.) has been mentioned frequently over the past few days as arguably the fastest climbing senior prospect in terms of draft stock, and while his results weren’t overwhelmingly loud on Saturday, his tools were still on full display. Showing the same loose, easy swing as he had all weekend, Marsh put a few quality swings on balls, including a hard rising line drive to center field that just about went over the defender’s head. Also on display again were his plus wheels, even turning in a dig time of 4.03 seconds.

In a hard fought game between two highly ranked programs, No. 7 Buford defeated No. 3 Oxford by a score of 1-0. Georgia Tech signee and middle infielder Austin Wilhite (2106, Buford, Ga.) will play for the Yellow Jackets in the fall as an infielder, but also put his pitching prowess on display to close out the game for Buford. He worked 87-88 mph with his fastball to earn the save, pounding the zone with the pitch and really attacking the Oxford hitters.

Oxford catcher Thomas Dillard (2016, Oxford, Miss.) is one of the more athletic catchers you’ll likely find, running above average times both in previous 60-yard dashes as well as down the line to first base. A switch-hitter with solid bat speed and raw power from both sides, he’s also completely fine with taking a walk, which he did twice on Saturday. With that athleticism, strength, hitting ability with approach from both sides of the plate as well as very good defensive tools, it shouldn't take him long to be an immediate contributor once he gets to Ole Miss, where he is signed to play.

Another prospect that bears repeating, senior center fielder Chavez Young (2016, Brandon, Fla.) once again loudly announced his presence to the scouting community on Saturday, launching a roped triple over the right fielder’s head in the championship game of the Academies Showdown. He has intrigued evaluators all weekend long and is certainly on the Helium List from this event, along with the aforementioned Brandon Marsh and Parkview righthander Will Ethridge.

Opposing Faith Baptist in the championship game of the Academies Showdown was the Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Academy, a scrappy bunch of players from Western Canada (based in Alberta, Calgary). Despite losing the game, several of their prospects stood out for various reasons.

Senior third baseman Brett Esau (2016, Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan) has great size and strength with enough athleticism and agility to profile well at third base, but where he will really make his mark is with the bat. With lots of leverage at contact with strength and bat speed throughout, he’s capable of punishing baseballs all over the field and will continue to add power as he matures.

Shortstop Peter Hutzal (2016, Calgary, Alberta) is signed with Washington State and really profiles well as a quality defensive shortstop who can add some value with the bat as well. He’s very smooth defensively to both sides with his glovework and hands, and his footwork is sound. His arm is also a quality tool, with more than enough strength to work from the left side of the infield.

Sophomore Carson Epp (2018, Grunthal, Manitoba) just kept taking great at-bats, fouling off tough pitch after tough pitch, not chasing borderline pitches and putting great swings on pitches he could handle. He’s very short to the ball with good balance throughout, with a swing built for hard line drive contact all over the diamond.

After a quality outing by Shameko Smith to start the Championship game for Faith Baptist, righthander Julio Blanco (2016, Brandon, Fla.) came in for his second outing of the event and ended up taking the win. He pounded the zone with his fastball, which started out 92-94 mph and ended up comfortably at 90-93 throughout his time on the bump. Despite being a bit undersized, Blanco has excellent arm speed and really does a good job getting on top of his pitches, driving them down in the strike zone with a hint of arm-side life. He missed plenty of bats with just the fastball alone, but also mixed in a usable breaking ball that he did a good job of throwing for strikes. It was the third straight Academies Showdown championship for Faith Baptist.

– Brian Sakowski
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