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College  | Story  | 5/5/2018

College Notebook: May 5

Vincent Cervino     
Photo: Matt Wallner (Southern Miss Athletics)



College Notebook: May 4 | College Player Database

During the season Perfect Game scouts will be traveling to some of the top series to watch the very best players in college baseball. Those observations, captured with both written notes and video, will be shared in the College Player Database as linked above, notes that can also be accessed on the players' individual PG profile pages. Throughout the season select reports will be shared in feature format to promote the players, the teams and college baseball as a whole.


Luke Reynolds, 3B, Southern Miss



Mississippi State transfer Luke Reynolds is enjoying a breakout season for Southern Miss following sitting out a year, and the lefthanded slugger provides an intriguing profile for scouts to evaluate. Reynolds is your prototypical lefthanded hitting infielder with tons of strength and physicality from a well-built 6-foot-1, 215-pound frame. 

Defensively, Reynolds will be a corner infielder at the next level, with some questions as to the overall athleticism and actions to stick at first base. The third baseman didn't really get tested much and didn't have a chance to show off the arm strength, but the main allure of his profile will be his ability to generate offense. 

The stance is well-balanced and Reynolds has a very advanced approach at the plate both in terms of pitch selection and expanding the strike zone. He often doesn't expand the strike zone, sometimes to a fault, and is able to recognize spin well-enough to punish mistakes but can be fooled with well-executed offspeed pitches; Reynolds has a walk to strikeout ratio of 44:40 on the season. The swing is quick through the zone with lots of lower half torque through the trigger and natural loft and leverage to the swing plane. 

The power to the pull side is loud, and he displayed it during game twice during this two game-look. Both being mammoth home runs, Reynolds handled the inner half of the plate well on the first shot while having enough strength to pull the ball during the second one, despite his lower half being gone from being out in front on an offspeed pitch. 

Numbers wise Reynolds is having a very good season with a .387 batting average with twelve home runs on the season and Reynolds has attractive lefthanded power for an infielder and has a very intriguing draft profile. 


Matt Wallner, OF, Southern Miss



Following up a sensational freshman season, Matt Wallner has been very impressive in his sophomore campaign as he is showing to be not only one of the top sophomores in the nation, but one of the top draft prospects for the 2019 class. Wallner has pretty loud tools on the offensive side of the ball while offering the upside of a centerfielder. 

The frame jumps out immediately as he looks the part of a big leaguer with a slender 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame with long limbs, a high waist, and an imposing stature in the batter's box. Wallner plays centerfield but may profile better as a right fielder at the next level with an above-average arm, he closes for the Golden Eagles too, with more of a slugger than speed presence in the box. 

The offensive tools jump off the page from the moment he swings the bat. Wallner doesn't have a lot of moving parts to start, he sets up wide in the box with a very quiet hand load through the swing. However, the trigger into the swing is extremely quick with very fast hands and plus bat speed. This allows Wallner to get to a lot of power, as he's shown with eleven home runs on the season, that plays mostly to the pull side of the field (both he and fellow slugger Luke Reynolds were shifted to pull all series). 

Wallner's looseness and speed of his hands allow him to fight off tough pitches and wait for a pitch to handle in the middle of the plate. There is some swing and miss there, but the swing path is smooth and naturally lofted, although he will get a bit too inside of the ball at times and cut himself off. That being said, Wallner handles the barrel well and has walked almost as many times as he's struck out on the year (37:38 BB:K). 

Next season will be an intriguing one to follow for Wallner just in terms of his draft stock, but he's shown to be one of college baseball's top second-year players with some of the most exciting power bar-none. Wallner is immensely talented and will be very fun to monitor as he continues to grow and develop. 
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