The scouting highlight of Day 3 was the heavily anticipated start by 2016 righthander Kevin Gowdy (Santa Barbara, Calif.) who took the mound for GBG Marucci Navy in a second round playoff matchup against fellow SoCal powerhouse CBA Marucci 2017. Gowdy touched 90 mph in the first inning and snapped off a 77 mph hammer curveball with sharp 12-to-6 break that hit the bottom outside corner on his glove side for a called strike.

His limber low-effort delivery typically lends itself to quality command, which in turn causes Gowdy to attempt to live on the corners. In the early going his fastball command was a touch off and he didn't quite have feel for the end point of the run on his fastball, causing him to miss on a lot of borderline pitches and run his pitch count up early. As his outing went on he found the feel and in the third inning he painted with his upper-80s fastball, frequently starting it off the backdoor corner and running it back over for called strikes to right handers. It wasn't Gowdy's sharpest outing by any means, but his stuff is high quality and he projects well going forward.




A number of the players in the prospect laden playoff matchup between CBA Marucci 2017 and GBG Marucci Navy have been covered thoroughly in this space over the past two editions of the EvoShield Underclass National Championship, but the depth of both teams leaves several more worth touching upon.

Gowdy's batterymate 2016 catcher Lyle Lin (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) showed off a strong arm behind the plate and quick feet. He also passes the eye test with a big sturdy frame while having good athleticism for his size as well. He went 1-for-3 and cut down a would be basestealer and showed frequent sub-2.0 second pop times on between inning throwdowns with good carry.

On the theme of catchers, it appears that the McGuire family has now produced a third prospect who will play at the next level. 2017 catcher Shane McGuire (Kent, Wash.) showed interesting ability at the plate and behind it. His oldest brother Cash is currently a junior infielder at Seattle University, and the middle brother Reese (also a lefthanded hitting catcher) was the 14th overall selection in the 2013 MLB Draft. Shane doesn't have the same foot quickness and athleticism as Reese (few humans do) yet, but Shane is a skilled receiver in his own right and is advanced for his age on both sides of the ball. His lefthanded swing has similarities to Reese's and he went 1-for-2 with an RBI single in the Rijo Athletics' playoff loss to Team Northwest.

While it's difficult to get a strong feel for the ultimate long term upside of the players who have already begun to emerge from the class of 2018, there have been a handful that have started to make an impression. One of those was shortstop Tim Borden (Henryville, Ind.) is one of them. The fact that he moved Jason Jones, who has been highlighted in this space for his own impressive abilities, off of shortstop in a playoff game speaks to their coaches confidence in Borden's ability, as well as his position in the lineup hitting leadoff. Borden certainly held his own against older competition (going 2-for-4) and is showing the underlying quickness and coordination to develop quality tools as he matures physically.

One of the highlight performances of the day offensively came in SACSN's quarterfinal playoff victory, as 2016 outfielder Wyatt Featherston (Lakewood, Colo.) crushed a pair of opposite field triples showing a quality combination of speed and power, to both burn the right fielder and leg out triples. He would add a single in his third at-bat to finish the day 3-for-3 and break out of an early slump as the games become even more important.

2016 catcher Ryan Hernandez (Pinecrest, Fla.) showed that he can provide similar quality defense behind the plate when high level teammate Tyler Duval gets a break from catching duties. Hernandez has a similarly strong arm and is a quality receiver and blocker. He continued to show quality offensive ability also and went 1-for-3 while posting frequent sub-2.0 pop times between innings.

SACSN National Team third baseman Daniel Bakst (2016, New York, N.Y.) has had a strong event thus far, going 4-for-10, including a double and a triple, to go with five walks and six RBI. He has some of the best raw bat speed in the 2016 class nationally and the ball just explodes off his barrel. The righthanded hitter has unusual hitting mechanics in a late hard shift into contact that really gets the lower half of his 6-foot-2, 175-pound body into his swing. That hard, late shift will occasionally cause Bakst timing problems but one can only imagine in a couple of years when he's filled out with about 20 pounds of strength what his bat speed in going to be like. As Bakst's defensive tools are high level already, that bat speed potential puts him into a possible high round draft category.

Righthanded pitcher Jack Weisenburger (2016, Rockford, Mich.) is part of what makes SACSN truly a "National" team, as he may be the only player from Michigan in Arizona this weekend. The two-way prospect – he has also started three games in the outfield, going 3-for-8 at the plate – threw a three-hit shutout in his team's 8-0 win over Trosky Baseball in the first round of the playoffs Sunday. Weisenburger is listed at 6-foot-3, 200-pounds but appears slimmer on the mound and has a very young face. He throws from a very low effort delivery with a fluid arm action that produces an 85-89 mph fastball that is no doubt going to add a few ticks, and perhaps many ticks of velocity, as he matures physically. One thing that Weisenburger will have to work on in his delivery is pitching taller and not drifting out to his front side so quickly. He flashed hard spin on a curveball up to 76 mph when he stayed back just a bit but most of his curveballs were "cast" in scouting terminology due to his body being so far in front of his hand coming through.

Shortstop Donovan Langston (2017, Frisco, Texas) finished the event a perfect 7-for-7 in stolen base attempts in Phenom Texas' five games. At least four of those steals were of the "steal second, steal third, score on the wild throw to third" variety that produces a run all by itself. Part of SACSN and lefthander Jake Wilson's (2016, Las Vegas, Nev.) ability to shut out Phenom Texas in the quarterfinals 5-0 was holding Langston to an 0-for-3 performance.

This entire event has been marked by the significant number of high level young shortstops that have shown their tools and skills in the Arizona heat, including Langston, SACSN's Nicholas Quintana (2016, Las Vegas, Nev.), CBA Marucci 17's Nick Allen (2017, San Diego, Calif.) and GBG Marucci Navy's Will Proctor (2016, Manhattan Beach, Calif.).

Add another name to that shortstop list in Rijo Athletics shortstop Kyler McMahan (2017, Lynwood, Wash.). The 5-foot-10, 165-pound McMahan especially stood out on defense, where his combination of a very quick release and a strong accurate arm produced a number of impressive defensive plays. That combination is so effective and polished that McMahan tends to lay back on some ground balls that he will need to be charging as the game speeds up but he will learn that with experience and repetition. McMahan also has some present bat speed and will do very well offensively moving forward, although it will be his defense that carries him in the future.

Righthander Adrian Mardueno (2016, Upland, Calif.) may only be 5-foot-10, 175-pounds but he's going to get lots of outs in his future career on the mound. Pitching for the Phenom 14U (not a 14U team, by the way), he faced the hot hitting AZ T-Rex Baseball Club in the first round of the playoffs and tossed a two-hit, 84-pitch complete game in Phenom's 6-2 victory. Mardueno has a fast paced deceptive delivery that hides the ball well and throws in the 84-87 range, plenty firm enough to force hitters at this level to adjust. His key ability, and the one that will win him plenty of future games, was a sharp breaking ball that he could work anywhere between 71 and 77 mph with command, alternately pulling the string on it, powering it in on lefthander's fists or dipping it outside to righthanded hitters and forcing lots of soft contact. Notably, one of the few hard hit balls was by infielder Jacob Gonzalez (2017, Scottsdale, Ariz.), who rocked a triple off the left-center field fence as one of the two hits that Mardueno allowed.

One of the most impressive hitters of the week has been CBA Marucci 16U outfielder Aaron Greenfield (2016, Los Angeles, Calif.), who went 7-for-12 in five games, including a pair of triples, and drove in seven runs. Greenfield has a strong 6-foot-1, 175-pound build that should continue to fill in nicely and a notable ability to square up the baseball. Sometimes it looks as if he tries to stay inside the ball too much and he had a number of ground ball hits to the right side. Then just when one is considering that from a scouting perspective, Greenfield turns on a pitch and hits a rocket up the left-center field gap to show his bat speed and power potential.

GBG Marucci Navy outfielder Jordan Prendiz' (2016, Visalia, Calif.) production numbers and style mirror Greenfield's in some ways. Prendiz is one of the fastest players in the event and is 6-for-11 in the tournament, with four walks thrown in, but among his six hits are a pair of doubles and a pair of triples. All of those extra base hits have come to left field off the bat of the lefthanded hitting Prendiz, who is a spin hitter with a slashing opposite field swing but shows surprising power in that direction. The extra base hit total is helped by the fact that the 100 percent all out hustling USC commit automatically thinks double on any hit in front of outfielders and triple on anything an outfielder has to move much for. And then, just like Greenfield, when one is thinking "opposite field only" with Prendiz, he'll turn on an inside pitch and hit a line drive to right field.

GBG Marucci Blue has powered into the semifinals on the basis of their strong and consistent offense that has produced 37 runs in five games and at least six runs in every contest. That offense has been led by second and third baseman Riley Livingston (2016, Redondo Beach, Calif.), who has nine hits in those five games (9-for-20) and has scored seven runs. The 5-foot-9, 155-pound Livingston has surprising bat speed and power for a small bodied player and four of his hits have gone for extra bases, including three doubles.