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College  | Story | 4/30/2016

Stallings’ slam leads to big win

Photo: Danny Karnik/GT Athletics
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Georgia Tech 9, No. 13 Coastal Carolina 1

In a late season, out-of-conference game, Coastal Carolina took on Georgia Tech in Atlanta and started draft hopeful, Alex Cunningham.

Cunningham does not have elite size with a 6-foot, 210-pound frame with good strength in his lower half. He uses a drop-and-drive delivery with a short, compact arm action and arm circle. He’s very slow towards the plate and has some effort at release. Cunningham replicated his modest lower half drive well throughout the game. His entire windup comes off a bit stiff as he cuts off his extension and lands closed, spinning off towards first base.




He throws from a three-quarters arm slot and showed good, present arm speed on the mound. His fastball worked consistently 91-93 mph with subtle arm-side life and he did well to maintain that velocity from the stretch. However, he had issues with command. Cunningham struggled keeping the ball low in the zone and found it often getting barreled all over the field. When he was keeping it low, he consistently lost his release point and ended up having it nearly bounce.

He featured a pair of breaking ball offerings, a slider with looser rotation and sweeping action at 80 mph that he quickly scrapped in favor of his curveball. The curveball showed more consistent shape at 75-76 mph. Cunningham showed some feel for the offering with solid 11-to-5 bend, but neither could help him put away opposing hitters. He went very deep into several counts and allowed a veteran Georgia Tech lineup to work a handful of walks.

Georgia Tech draft-eligible sophomore outfielder Kel Johnson continued his torrid stretch at the plate with a pair of doubles. One was laced down the right field line while the other was hit to the left-center field gap. No one has doubted Johnson’s power potential, but he did well facing good velocity as he put three very hard hit balls in play on the evening on fastballs all over 90 mph. Johnson also looked slightly more comfortable in the field than he has in past games. He made three putouts on the evening with relative ease and got decent jumps on balls that he had to track towards the foul line.

The star of the evening was Georgia Tech Junior righthander, Brandon Gold. Gold stands at 6-foot-3, 203-pounds with an athletic frame that could handle additional strength at the next level. Gold starts with a slight perch and then works into his windup with a modest leg lift. He showed good arm speed and a longer arm action with a slight stab at the end of his arm circle. He rotates his upper half coming towards the plate showing his back to the hitter. He finishes with a slight fall off towards first base, but was athletic and balanced on the mound.

His arm action was super repeatable Friday night as he landed online and got to both sides of the plate with his fastball with ease. Gold’s fastball worked 87-89 mph on the night and hit 92 mph in the first inning, but hovered around 90 for most of the start. The pitch generates good arm-side life, but he threw it for strikes the entire evening. He did really well to generate weaker contact for his fielder on lots of shallow pop ups and groundballs, keeping hitters off balance.

He showed a pair of secondary offerings last night as well. The first a slurvy offering that worked at 79 mph, but he had trouble getting the pitch over for strikes. He didn’t have a ton of feel for the pitch last night, but it did not hold him back. He started throwing an 80 mph changeup significantly more often with good sink that hitters struggled to pick up. He liked using the pitch when he got ahead in the count, but also to setup his fastball for a strikeout. All told he collected five strikeouts to a pair of walks over eight very strong innings.

Talented freshman, Brandt Stallings had a big day for the Jackets at the plate as well. He knocked in four runs on the night including a mammoth grand slam home run in the bottom of the fifth inning. He waited back on a 79 mph slider and cleared his hips with good explosiveness through the zone. Stallings, who won the home run challenge at the 2014 PG All-American Classic, stands at 6-foot-4, 217-pounds with super long limbs and raw strength. He utilizes a power approach at the plate and showed good pitch recognition as he spit on a pair of low and out-of-the-zone sliders on pitches beforehand. He generates good extension and showed impressive bat speed.

Coastal Carolina’s most impressive player on the day was junior shortstop Michael Paez. Paez, who manned the two-hole spot in the Chanticleers’ lineup and put on impressive display during batting practice and in the game. Paez only stands at 5-foot-6, 175 pounds, but his tools stand out at the plate. He starts from an upright stance with a narrow base and uses a simple hand load and weight shift to the ball. He has very impressive bat speed and swings with intent with a line drive plane through the zone. He generates good extension, despite his lack of size and very sneaky raw power. It’s easy to project him for a lot of doubles in pro ball with possibly double digit home runs as well. He can get to the inside pitch as well, with explosive hands and the aforementioned bat speed to turn on them with authority.

Paez does not have blazing speed, as he was clocked with a 4.50 time on a turn to second and a much slower time on a hard hit groundball. He sees an impressive number of pitches in each plate appearance with good knowledge of the zone and the ability to recognize and lay off of spin. In the field, he likely has an arm for second base, but he made several solid plays to each side of him at short. He gets a good first step with good instincts and showed off a quick transfer, all of which helped make up for the lack of impact straight-line speed. He collected a single in his first trip to the plate on Friday as well as a walk.

Coastal Carolina’s final pitcher tossed the last 2 2/3 innings on the mound with relative ease. Freshman righthander Jason Bilous came in to stop the bleeding with an impressive bullpen outing. He stands at 6-foot-2, 180-pounds with lots of remaining physical projection in his frame. He showed an exceptionally quick arm with a long, loose arm action and upbeat delivery. He landed online with good balance and athleticism and moderate effort.

Bilous’ fastball worked 94-96 mph in his outing with good arm-side life and heavy action to it. He generated lots of good angle towards the plate with his long limbs and extension. Bilous also mixed in a sharp slider at 87 mph with good downward tilt and 11-to-5 shape. The pitch was late breaking and was a very good complement to his fastball. Bilous threw 23 of his 32 pitches for strikes and did well to get to both sides of the plate. He’s definitely one to watch in the coming years as he’ll likely move into their rotation for the 2017 season.



College | Recruiting | 12/15/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 15

John McAdams
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Tucker Rice (27 MS) bumping up to 91; living hi-80s from real fast arm. Good SL @ 77-79 w/ depth & sold w/ intent. Loads of traits & strikes. #WWBA @PG_Uncommitted @PG_DeepSouth pic.twitter.com/DEjFqRcsIY — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) July 6, 2025 Tucker Rice, RHP, Class of 2027 Commitment: Alabama Alabama has continued to stay red hot in the recruiting trail ever since August 1st rolled around on the calendar and have continued to stack major pieces in their ’27 class. They dip into Mississippi to land one of the premier arms and one that’s stood out on the circuit for quite some time. It’s a fast arm and the athleticism certainly shines working down the slope. The velocity has continued to tick up over the last calendar year and reached into the low-90s towards the end of the summer. He’s confident in his changeup and the breaking ball is...
High School | General | 12/19/2025

Huntington Beach HS World Series Recap

Steve Fiorindo
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MVPitcher: Duncan McLeod The uncommitted junior toed the slab in three of the four games for Team Mick, tossing 3 2/3 innings.  Zero walks, zero hits and 6 punchouts for the lefty who was used both as a starter in the series clinching game 4 and he closed out game 3 on Friday in quick fashion.  McLeod was very efficient as well, needing just 42 pitches over all his outings.  In the game 4 start, over two innings he punched out 3, with one strikeout with all of his offerings.  The mid 80’s fastball regularly played up, set up with efficient use of the secondaries, with the breaking ball 73/74 and fading change-up 72-74.   Owen Bone (2026) at it again... Solo shot in the 5th to tie things up. Back to back days with a home run for Bone. #PGHS pic.twitter.com/2JC9qETI5h — Perfect Game California (@California_PG) December 13, 2025 MV Hitter: ...
Tournaments | Story | 12/19/2025

13u Tourney All-American Team

Jheremy Brown
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What a year it was in 2025 on the national landscape at the 13u level as Perfect Game continues to expand its reach around the country, providing an even bigger schedule of events coast-to-coast which has allowed players all over show out and gain their deserved recognition. Whether in Texas for the Houston 1000 or the 13u WWBA in West Palm Beach, we saw huge, eye opening performances from the players placed below, knowing that we could EASILY build a third team and likely a fourth without much effort.  As we do every year with this exercise, it's worth pointing out the trickiness of this age group and putting the teams together with the 13u group. While the players are all members of the Class of 2030, some are younger for the grade, which allowed them to play at the 12u level where's it's a smaller field, shorter mound distance and different bats, so we'll separate them out and...
Tournaments | Story | 12/18/2025

14u Tourney All-American Team

Tyler Russo
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Player of the Year: Asher Williams It was an incredible year for Williams that was rewarded with a trip to the 14U Select Fest, before some more impressive play in the fall. He came to the plate almost 250 times in PG tournaments throughout 2025 and reached base in well over half of them, hitting to a .500 AVG while slugging a 14U circuit best 12 bombs and driving in 113 runs. The numbers on the surface are ridiculous, but when you look at the high-level events he put them up in, it makes it even more impressive. Pitcher of the Year: Tristan Blalock Blalock earns this honor after a dominant 2025 where he struck out 85 batters in just 48.2 innings of work with a minuscule 1.58 ERA. This included several strong performances at many national level tournaments and showcases where he was able to bully some of the best hitters in the country. It’s hard not to fall in love with...
Draft | Story | 12/18/2025

PG Draft: Gut Feel Guys

Tyler Henninger
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While we are nearing the turn of the calendar to the 2026 year, that means we are just inching closer to the beginning of the season for many high school players and college baseball is on the horizon. We are prepping for a reshuffle of the 2026 MLB Draft Board as well here amongst the PG Draft staff. But before we get to that, we sat down and have each picked a couple of players who are in the mix to get selected in a couple of different buckets.  We have prospects who could go into the Top 30 picks or so, prospects who could be selected in the Top 5 rounds, and prospects who could go inside of the Top 10 rounds. With the draft quite far down the road and a lot of re-shuffling to be done as these players play themselves into certain spots on the draft board, our scouts picked some players who fit into these “buckets” who are gut-feel guys. These are the guys that our PG...
Tournaments | Story | 12/17/2025

15u Tourney All-American Team

Jason Phillips
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Hitter of the Year: Landon Bonner The 2028 class saw many players from across the country take the next step in their development as they entered the High School ranks. There were huge performances from highly ranked players on the PG circuit as well as some under-the-radar guys who burst onto the scene. Landon Bonner came into Sophomore National as a Top 500 ranked player and after an impressive showing, left with all eyes on him as a rankings riser in the class. The left-handed hitting shortstop from The Colony, Texas, had a summer to remember with All-Tournament Team selections in three of his next four events culminating with a historic performance at the 2025 PG 15U WWBA National Championship. The Hebron High School prep went 20-for-24 in nine games for 5 Star Mafia 15U Black with four homeruns and 12 runs batted in. He also scored 17 runs and finished with a mind-boggling 2.500...
Tournaments | Story | 12/16/2025

16u Tourney All-American Team

AJ Denny
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Hitter of the Year: Koa Romero is the Hitter of the Year for the 16u group, as he would come to every premier event of the summer and earn All-Tournament honors (Beast of the East, 16/17u WWBA, Jupiter) in every single one. Over 82 plate appearances, Romero would pump ten homeruns with forty two RBI and sixteen walks, good for a .378 average and 1.339 OPS. The performance on volume at the best events of the year pushed Romero over the edge here, as he’d hit a pair of homeruns in Jupiter (one of them at 112 EV) as an underclassmen and collect double digit hits in BOTH WWBA events with a combined six jacks over the two tournaments. It was a summer that combined performance and winning on the biggest stages for Romero. It’s a quiet left-handed swing that packs a punch. He would reap the benefits of his performances, earning a commitment to LSU and jumping to the #74 prospect in...
Tournaments | Story | 12/15/2025

17u Tourney All-American Team

Vincent Cervino
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There’s a lot of talent throughout this 2026 class, filled with the big-name stars, to talent that spreads across the nation. It’s been a lot of fun seeing these prospects grow and develop over the years, from the days of watching some of these guys at the 13/14u days at events on the circuit, to now where they are all graduating seniors in 2026. There’s been new faces who have popped along the way over the years, even in 2026, where some players who were relatively undiscovered, have come out and made a name for themselves with a statement performance. Between the familiar and the new, there’s a lot of names on this list that are going to be quite regularly talked about on the circuit, and for good reason.  Whether it’s PG All-Americans or not, there’s a lot of names with superstar potential at the next level. We’ve got 14 PG All-Americans...
Tournaments | Story | 12/13/2025

Finest in the Field: Class of 2029

Tyler Russo
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Finest in the Field: Class of 2026 | Class of 2027 | Class of 2028 These guys might just be entering high school, but they've certainly already made a name for themselves on the national circuit, especially with their abilities on the defensive side of things.  C: Xavier Rodriguez (Logansville, GA) Rodriguez is a polished defender with real arm strength behind the dish, while showcasing the ability to impact the baseball with authority to all fields evident by thirty of his sixty-five hits going for extra-bases including seven bombs. He handles high-level pitching extremely well, commands his staff and his offensive prowess makes him a true two-way asset. 1B: Cooper Knight (Buda, TX) Knight is a smooth operator at first base with plenty of range, fluidity and agility in his footwork around the bag. Add-in a rocket for an arm, the ability to change slots and to...
Tournaments | Story | 12/12/2025

Scout Stories: Part 5

AJ Denny
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Best Game I Saw: The Dream NTL 18U vs. MBA Scout Team Murphy Jupiter always brings out the best, and we got fireworks from the jump. Turner Marshall gave The Dream an outstanding 4+ innings of work on the mound, holding a lethal MBA team at bay with Chance Dixon, Derrick Carter, and Ellis Appling providing an offensive spark out of the gate for the Georgia based boys. However, it was only a matter of time before the talent on the other side got going, as MBA erased a 3-run deficit in the 5th to take a 4-3 lead led by a Parker Loew HR. The Dream then took command again in the Top of the 6th, before MBA punched right back with a huge 5-run inning in the bottom half capped off by a clutch RBI single from Matthew Kerrigan, ending a wild sequence with tons of notable performances from two very competitive rosters. Best Tournament Performance I Saw: Surely someone has already brought this...
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