EMERSON, Ga. - It was a 3 1/2 hour ride from Brentwood, Tenn. to Emerson, Ga for Zane Denton, but the switch-hitting third baseman showed no signs of rust at the Sunshine Southeast Showcase, going 1-for-4 with two runs scored at the plate in his first game of the showcase.
“My approach is to stay on top of it more, try to hit more line drives, stay up the middle, that way I’m not pulling off,” Denton said.
Denton, a sophomore at Ravenwood High School, is ranked as the No. 79 overall prospect for the class of 2019, and the No. 3 prospect in the state of Tennessee.
He listed his whole family as people who have helped him get to this point as a baseball player. The members of the Denton family are no strangers to the baseball life. Zane’s older brother Bryce was listed as the No. 53 overall high school prospect for the class of 2015, per Perfect Game, before he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round of the 2015 MLB First Year Player Draft.
“[Bryce] has helped me a lot,” Denton said. “Having that knowledge from him, and getting tips from him has helped me a lot.”
His oldest brother Chase played junior college baseball at Jackson State CC before moving on to play at Martin Methodist College.
Zane would love to follow in his brother’s footsteps to play professionally, and ultimately desires to reach the Major Leagues.
“It’s been a dream ever since I was little, and it’s always going to be my dream.”
Zane will follow his brother Bryce’s path by playing his summer with Team Elite 16u Prime. He feels that he has already benefitted from spending the fall season with the organization.
“It was great, I got to see a lot of competition with [playing for Team Elite in the fall],” Denton said.
He feels that making the switch to bigger baseball organizations in the past few years has given him the confidence to compete at a higher level. He also said that he feels he has matured in multiple aspects of his game over the past few years with the help from his coaches, his family and in facing better competition.
“I think I’ve grown a lot, and I also think I’m starting to mature mentally,” Denton said. “Seeing a lot more better players, it helps me be able to know that I can compete with that [level of talent].”
Denton, listed at 6-feet, 180 pounds, has definitely grown over the past year and a half, when he was listed at 5-foot-8, 160 pounds in October 2015.
With the high school season recently ending, Denton decided to take his skills to the Sunshine Southeast Showcase.
“It means a lot [to be at the Sunshine Southeast Showcase],” Denton said. “It just helps me get a feel for being down here and being around a lot of good players.”
Although he had attended PG tournaments with his teams over the past few summers, being named to the 2016 Underclass Honorable Mention list and the 2017 Underclass High Honorable Mention list, this weekend marked his first time attending a Perfect Game showcase event.
“I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve been to a few before [with my brothers], so I knew generally how it went, but I didn’t know about all of the Diamond Kinetics stuff, so it’s going to be cool,” Denton said. “I think it’s good to be around more players all trying to do the same thing. Going from high school to [the showcase] will help to transition to Team Elite.”
With it being his first experience, Denton said that he will use the showcase to gauge his skills against other top prospects, in addition to increasing his numbers on the mound and at the plate. He certainly did that, posting an 83 mph fastball velocity, up six miles per hour from the last time he was clocked in 2015. His curveball was also clocked at 71 mph, and it was his out pitch in his first game, garnering four swinging strikeouts on that pitch in two innings.
At the plate, the switch hitter said that he was looking forward to hitting batting practice on the LakePoint fields, something he had never been able to do before. He excelled in BP, posting an 88 mph exit velocity in his round on LakePoint Field 10. Switch hitting is no easy task, but Denton says that he has taken to drill work to keep sharp, and revels at an opportunity to face live pitching.
“I’m a switch hitter, that’s what I focus on mainly. I love hitting, that’s my favorite thing,” Denton said. “To keep up with it, it’s a lot of tee work, a lot of cage work, and most off, game reps.”
In the field, Denton says that he takes any opportunity he gets to work on his defense. He showed his defensive skills in the first game by flashing range on a ball to his left, and making a few routine plays with ease. In the infield portion of the showcase, Denton hit 84 mph while throwing across the diamond from the left side of the infield.
The 16-year-old is looking forward to playing more at LakePoint with Team Elite this summer and is excited for the opportunity to flash his skills in a showcase event.
“I just want to keep progressing and keep getting better,” Denton said.