THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
| 2,384 MLB PLAYERS | 15,801 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,384 MLB PLAYERS | 15,801 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Create Account
Sign in Create Account
High School  | Rankings | 2/4/2019

No. 1 Argyle sets eyes on prize

Photo: Brenden Dixon (Argyle HS Baseball)

2019 Perfect Game High School Preview Index


No. 1 Argyle Eagles (Argyle, Texas)

State Association/League: Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 4A Region I/District 8).
Head Coach: Ricky Griffin (13th season as head coach).
2018 Results: 37-0 overall; 10-0 4A Region II District 9 champion/UIL Class 4A state champion.

Key Departures: RHP/1B Bryson Hudgens (Angelo State); RHP/OF Parker Abrego.

Key Returners: Sr. OF/RHP Dillon Carter (Texas Tech); Sr. RHP Sean Bolin (Utah); Sr. INF Brenden Dixon (Texas); Sr. C/INF Austin King (UT Rio Grande Valley); Sr. INF Preston King (UT Rio Grande Valley); Sr. INF/RHP Chad Ricker (UT San Antonio); Sr. OF/LHP Hayden Clearman (Abilene Christian); Jr. OF/LHP Alex Gonzales (Baylor); Jr. INF/RHP Cade Merka (Texas A&M); Jr. C/INF Bo Hogeboom (Houston); Jr. RHP Tate Van Poppel.

Notable Matchups: Feb. 21-23 vs. Border Olympics Laredo; Feb. 28-March 2 vs. Collin County Tournament; March 29-April 26 vs. 4A Region I/District 8.

… … …


ANOTHER UNDEFEATED SEASON? NO ONE WANTS TO GO THERE. ANOTHER STATE CHAMPIONSHIP?
Bring it on. How about a second straight Perfect Game High School National Championship? Well, only time will tell.

The Argyle (Texas) Eagles ran the table during their historic 37-game march to the Texas UIL Class 4A state championship in 2018, the school’s second 4A state title in four years. And as a crowning achievement, once the final votes were tallied, Argyle also emerged as the 2018 PGHS National Champion.

Today, the veteran team that finished No. 1 a season ago debuts at No. 1 in the 2019 PGHS Preseason National Top 50 Rankings. Start planning the parades.

“They’re pretty relaxed,” head coach Ricky Griffin told PG over the phone last week when asked about his team’s mindset heading into the campaign. “They’re not over-confident and the undefeated stuff is not even ever in the conversation. But to win another state  championship, they’re smart enough to understand that we’re going to have to play as well or better than we did last year.

“To win a state championship a lot of things have to fall your way,” he added. “We realize that, but we also want to put ourselves in the right spot and give ourselves the best opportunity to do it again.”

Perfect Game ranks all of the Eagles’ top returning players (see above) as top-500 national prospects in the classes of 2019 and 2020; most are in the top-200 in the state of Texas.

The list is led by senior outfielder/right-hander and Texas Tech signee Dillon Carter at No. 285 (No. 28, Texas) and top-500 senior infielder Brenden Dixon (No. 57, Texas); identical twins Austin King and Preston King – both Texas Rio Grande Valley signees – are top-500s nationally that are ranked Nos. 110 and 111, respectively, in Texas.

Other top-500s include seniors Sean Bolin (Utah signee) and Hayden Clearman (Abilene Christian), and juniors Alex Gonzales (Baylor commit), Cade Merka (Texas A&M) and Bo Hogeboom; top-500 junior right-hander Tate Van Poppel is the son of former big-league right-hander Todd Van Poppel.

Those rankings and the college signings/commitments indicate that these guys are obviously talented baseball players, but they’re not one-dimensional. Griffin said he isn’t able to do much with his team in the fall because right around 85 percent of his roster plays football for an Argyle program that annually challenges for state championships.

Argyle, Texas, is a suburb of Fort Worth and Griffin calls Argyle HS “an amazing school” regardless of pursuit, be it academics, athletics or fine arts. Students at the school have won UIL State Academic Meet Championships 16 straight years in either classes 3A or 4A, and in athletic it has been the UIL Lone Star Cup State Champions six times since 2012 (the Lone Star Cup is an all-sports award).

As the wins began to pile up for the baseball team last season, there was never really a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. Keeping the undefeated season in tact was always on the players’ and coaches’ minds, Griffin said, mostly because members of the local media brought it up regularly.

So, when he first brought his team together for a meeting this winter, Griffin said the undefeated state and national championship season of 2018 was hardly mentioned. No one saw the need.

“I talked to them and said to them that pretty much everybody is back and you knew what it took last year, so I don’t need to give you any long speeches about what we need to do this year, ” Griffin told PG. “I said let’s just go to work, and so far they have.”

Since there weren’t many seniors on last year’s team, the juniors took it upon themselves to assume a lot of the leadership roles. Now that those same players are seniors, they’re willing to share in the leadership duties without a single guy really standing out above the others.

All of these key senior have been playing varsity since they were sophomores and most of them have played summer travel ball together with the Dallas Tigers organization for the last three or four years.

“That’s a real strength of this team,” Griffin said of their togetherness. “They can still argue like brothers, but they definitely know each other. There’s a competition between each of them to out-do the other but there’s also – especially when they come and start playing for the high school team – definitely a team atmosphere and cheering for the other guy and just making sure the team is first.”

But there’s more. When asked if he could point to one aspect involved with actually the playing the game that could be described as a strength, Griffin hesitated briefly, acknowledged that it was “a good question” and then proceeded:

“We have a guy at every position defensively that is probably as good as I’ve coached in my 12 years here,” he said. “So I’d say the overall talent as a whole is probably a strength.”

With so many of his players having already made their college commitments, it wouldn’t be that much of a reach to assume Griffin runs his program much the same way a college program is run. In fact, he tries to take it another direction.

This is still high school baseball, after all, and while there are goals to be reached and championships to be won, the top priority is for the kids to have fun. The memories produced by these seasons in the sun should be joyous ones and not diminished because the players were bridled too tightly. That’s not to assume playing college baseball is all work and no fun, but Griffin wants to error on the side of fun.

The Eagles’ practice schedule is very regimented and the seniors are going through it for the fourth year this spring; they know exactly what’s coming next and what’s expected of them. Griffin doesn’t consider his practices to be intense, and even if they are, these guys – especially the football players – can handle it. So, they might as well enjoy it, too.

“I’m real big on us getting our work in every day in practice, and it’s OK if they have fun while doing that; in fact I encourage it,” he said. “If somebody says something that makes people laugh, that’s awesome too, as long as it’s not a detriment to what we’re trying to get done.”

Everything being equal and with every expectation taken into account, the goal – the spoken goal – is to win a second straight Texas UIL Class 4A state championship.

“Without a doubt,” Griffin said. “It’s going to be a disappointment (if that isn’t accomplished) and I want it to be. We also know how hard it is to do it again – so many things have to go your way. We’re realistic about it, but we don’t have another goal other than winning a state championship.”




High School | General | 12/24/2025

2025 Year In Review: High School

Cam McElwaney
Article Image
IMG Academy Takes Home the National Title Every year IMG Academy comes into the spring with top-to-bottom one of the top rosters in the country and every year have the expectation of winning the national championship. Well in 2025 they did just that after finishing the spring 24-1, winning the High School Showdown, and winning 15 straight games to end their season. Their high end offensive ability was on full display throughout the year and they will once again be one of the most talented teams in the country in ’26 as they look to go back-to-back. Two Top-10 Picks in the MLB Draft Headline National Players of the Year It was another loaded crop that took home the National Players of the Year as both Ethan Holliday, the National Player of the Year, and Seth Hernandez, National Pitcher of the Year, heard their names called within the first-10 picks in the MLB Draft. Another first...
Draft | Rankings | 12/24/2025

Top 2027 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Isaiah Burrows
Article Image
With the 2025 cycle officially behind us and the calendar nearly flipping over to 2026, it is time to start looking ahead to the future. More importantly, start looking ahead to the next season of college baseball and what that may mean for draft-eligible players with big dreams of continuing their journey. While the 2026 MLB Draft is now on the horizon, we are looking ahead to the future even further – to see which players have already made impacts upon their arrival to college campuses. We have already dropped our 2028 Top 75 collegiate prospects board, but this one is our Top 100 college prospects who will be eligible for the 2027 class. These are the Top 100 players in our eyes for this group, and many of them have already shown up on campus and been impactful in many ways. Whether its our top-ranked player in Oregon State’s Dax Whitney or ninth-ranked William Schmidt...
Draft | Rankings | 12/23/2025

Top 2028 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Vincent Cervino
Article Image
The college players in the 2028 draft class have yet to step on campus, but they're positioned to make an immediate impact. Several high end talents either turned down significant money last year or honored strong college commitments, resulting in their arrival on campus this fall. The class is currently led by a trio of high-upside arms in Jack Bauer, Angel Cervantes, and Cameron Appenzeller. They are followed by a deep group of bats that rounds out a strong, high end Top-10. Rk. Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State 1 Jack Bauer C LHP L-L Mississippi State Frankfort IL 2 Angel Cervantes C RHP R-R UCLA Lynwood CA 3 Cameron Appenzeller C LHP L-L Tennessee Springfield IL 4 Brayden Jaksa C C R-R Oregon Fremont  CA 5 JD Stein C SS R-R Wake Forest Carmel IN 6 Mason Ligenza C OF L-L Pittsburgh Brockton PA 7 Ty Peeples C OF L-R Georgia Lavonia GA 8 Lucas Franco C SS L-R TCU Katy TX 9...
Juco | Story | 12/23/2025

2025 Year in Review: JUCO

Blaine Peterson
Article Image
Looking Back at the 2025 Top 10  Matt Barr (‘25 Niagara, ‘26 Minnesota Twins) Bursting onto the scene last winter, footage of an indoor bullpen rocketed Barr onto the radar of many. Explosive fastball reaches near triple digits with incredible spin numbers across the secondaries. Huge numbers at Niagara earned him the title of the first Juco player drafted in 2025. JC Vanek (‘25 Chipola, ‘26 Kansas City Royals) Just a professional hitter. Vanek for two years at Chipola was an impossible out. While there are questions if the power will ever reach what it takes to play first base at the big league level, the bat and quality defensive skillset at first base may carry. Donovan Becerra (‘25 New Mexico, ‘26 Texas Tech) One of the more high octane arms anywhere in the country last year. Can reach back for upper 90’s and has shown serious swing and...
Draft | Story | 12/22/2025

2025 Year in Review: Draft

Isaiah Burrows
Article Image
2025 Year in Review: Draft We’ve reached the end of the 2025 calendar year, and while we’ve already jumped in on the 2026 cycle with some of the fall events and post-draft content we’ve had here at Perfect Game, there’s still one more piece on the docket, and that’s the 2025 Year-In-Review piece here from the PG Draft staff.  The 2025 MLB Draft took place in July, when many highly talented players heard their names called and continued their journey through the game to the next level. There’s already been some of those names making noise in the minors and guys who are moving up prospect lists and becoming names to know for MLB fans digging deep into the future of their organizations. While we are going to “close the book” on 2025 with this article, these players still have many years ahead of them, and many blank pages to continue...
College | Recruiting | 12/22/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 22

Jheremy Brown
Article Image
Lucien Saint Cyr, INF, Class of 2026 Commitment: Bucknell Saint Cyr announced his pledge to Bucknell, giving the Bison an interesting blend of present tools and projection. Saint Cyr stands 6-foot-1 and offers room to fill in his medium frame, profiling in the middle infield defensively. The New York product starts wide at the base in the right-handed box, keeping his hands high behind the ear. He works into a subtle outward step load, firing through a compact barrel that showcases bat speed and gap-to-gap impact. For head coach Scott Heather and Bucknell, they land a high-quality Northeast infielder in the ’26 cycle, adding to a class that takes the quality over quantity approach. Patrick Diaz ('26, NY) 102 EV off the bat. Impact to the pull side. #PGNational @PGMidAtlantic @PG_Uncommitted pic.twitter.com/NN0L3FRdO9 — PG Showcases (@PGShowcases) July 9, 2025 Patrick Diaz,...
High School | General | 12/19/2025

Huntington Beach HS World Series Recap

Steve Fiorindo
Article Image
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
Article Image
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
Article Image
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
Article Image
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...
Loading more articles...