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Tournaments  | Story | 3/2/2020

Stars set to shine at Showdown

Jeff Dahn
Photo: Blaze Jordan (Perfect Game)

Event Pages: PG HS Showdown | Showdown-Academies

HOOVER, Ala. – For almost a decade now, the Perfect Game High School Showdown has continued to grow in both stature and prominence in regard to the top teams and top prospects it is able to attract. This week’s PG HS Showdown is shaping up to be the biggest and the brightest of them all.

Thirty-six teams, eight of them ranked in the PG HS Top 50 National Rankings, and hundreds of nationally ranked prospects from the prep classes of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, will converge on the fields at the Hoover Met Sports Complex and Hoover High School March 5-7 for this year’s 8th annual event.

The participating schools all come from the PG HS Florida and Southeast Regions, including No. 3-ranked DeSoto Central (Mississippi), No. 8 Bob Jones (Alabama), No. 10 Parkview (Georgia), No. 22 Westminster Christian (Florida), No. 31 Buford (Georgia), No. 32 Hoover (Alabama), No. 37 Houston County (Georgia) and No. 44 Smiths Station (Alabama).

And as good as each one of the 36 teams are, the individual talent occupying spots on their rosters is nothing short of breath-taking.

In fact, the No. 1-ranked national prospect from the senior, junior and sophomore classes will all be on hand: Decatur HS (Ga.) third baseman/right-hander Jordan Walker (2020), Winder-Barrow HS (Ga.) shortstop/right-hander Brady House (2021) and Buford HS (Ga.) right-hander/infielder Dylan Lesko.

“I was looking at the national (prospect) rankings for some of the players that are in this tournament coming up, and it’s impressive what’s going to be gathered in one spot,” Houston County head coach Matt Hopkins told PG last week. “I’ve encouraged people who are here around town (Warner Robins, Ga.) to just go over and watch it.”

The teams have been separated into three divisions – Blue, Red and White – and into 12, three-team pools. Champions will be crowned in all three divisions, with the championship games played back-to-back-to-back at the Hoover Met SC Stadium on Saturday, March 7.

Head coach Andy Harlin first brought a Roswell (Ga.) Blessed Trinity Catholic HS team to the Showdown in 2017, and the Titans promptly finished as runner-up at the 24-team tournament to Providence HS (Fla.). They returned to Emerson the following year and won the Red Division championship, this time beating Providence in the championship game; those Showdowns were played in Emerson, Ga.

They were right back in the mix a year ago, too, when they advanced to the championship game in the Blue Division only to fall to Florida’s IMG Academy in the event’s Hoover Met debut; the Titans will be back for a fourth go-around this weekend

“You want to be consistent, whether you’re playing non-region games, you’re playing in tournaments, you’re playing region games, you’re playing playoff games – you want to be consistent with how you’re going at it mentally,” Harlin said when asked about his team’s approach going in. “When you’re playing against the quality of the teams that you’re (seeing) in that tournament, that’s really the only way you can survive. …

“When you get out there to an event like this, you have to take things in small doses,” he added. “You have to lock into who you’re playing first because if you look ahead you’re going to get drilled.”

The top prospects that will be in attendance are too talented to get drilled with any kind of frequency, and their presence alone assures that this Showdown will be one heck of a show.

Decatur HS’s Walker, a 2019 PG All-American and Duke signee, will not stand alone in the spotlight among his fellow seniors (2020s). He’ll be able to look right over his shoulder and see DeSoto Central third baseman Blaze Jordan, another PGAA and a Mississippi State recruit ranked No. 2 nationally. Jordan’s DeSoto Central teammate Cade Smith, a right-hander and a Mississippi State signee ranked No. 106, will be by Jordan’s side.

Other top seniors include Westminster Christian PGAA right-hander and Miami signee Victor Mederos, Rockmart HS (Ga.) right-hander/infielder Ty Floyd (LSU, No. 34) and Woodward Academy (Ga.) PGAA right-hander/first baseman Will Sanders (South Carolina, No. 49).

Florida’s IMG Academy will display the talents of top senior right-handers/infielders Charez Butcher (Tennessee, No. 62) and Mac Horvath (North Carolina, No. 64). The Ascenders’ roster also includes a trio of highly regarded juniors with infielder Drake Varnado (Arkansas, No. 29), right-hander/infielder Keegan Allen (Georgia Tech, No. 77) and outfielder/first baseman James Wood (Mississippi State).

Winder-Barrow’s House, a Tennessee commit, and IMG’s Varnado aren’t the only top-50 juniors. They will be joined by Westminster catcher Jayden Melendez (FIU, No. 22), Parkview infielder Ryan Spikes (Tennessee, No. 31) and Benedictine Military School (Ga.) left-hander/infielder Carter Holton (Vanderbilt, No. 46).

The sophomore class (2022s) features the uncommitted Lesko and his talented Buford teammates, outfielder/right-hander Riley Stanford (uncommitted, No. 9) and middle-infielder Jackson Gaspard (uncommitted, No. 116).

Westminster corner-infielder Sal Stewart (Vanderbilt, No. 16) and North Broward Prep (Fla.) first baseman/right-hander Yoel Tejeda Jr (Florida, No. 60) are included among the many other top juniors.

Houston County outfielder Drew Burress (uncommitted, No. 13) and Russell County HS (Ala.) catcher/outfielder Colton Wombles (Auburn, No. 21) are the top-two freshman rankings-wise, but others are close behind.

They include Locust Grove HS (Ga.) right-handers Connor Crisp (Georgia, No. 32) and Bransen Powell (Georgia, No. 66), Blessed Trinity righty Jake Lankie (Georgia, No. 36) and IMG infielder Stone Russell (Florida, No. 37).

“That’s why you play. You want to play against that level of competition,” Blessed Trinity’s Harlin said of all the talent that will be gathered. “Anytime you go up against some of the top players in the country it gets your antenna up and you really get amped-up to play.

“Every single year this tournament is just loaded to the teeth with talented players and talented teams, and there’s no question that you get fired-up for that.”

Houston County’s Hopkins agreed: “We love it because it does expose (the players) to so much,” he said. “I love how it gets exposure for a lot of our kids who might not play high-level travel ball. It gives them a chance to experience a little bit of that life because it’s similar to what you would experience in that high-level travel.”

THE 7TH ANNUAL PG HIGH SCHOOL SHOWDOWN-ACADEMIES will also be played here this weekend, with 19 teams vying for the championship in games played Friday through Sunday; the academy teams in attendance come from eight states and Puerto Rico.

It is that team from Puerto Rico that is certain to attract the most attention. International Baseball Academy & High School (IBAHS) features seniors Mario Zabala, a Perfect Game All-American and FIU signee ranked No. 11 in the 2020 class, and Steven Ondina, another FIU recruit ranked No. 65; six other IBAHS prospects are ranked in the top-500 nationally.

Georgia Premier Academy Sox senior shortstop Harold Coll is a North Carolina signee ranked No. 99. ECB Academy Texas Orange junior shortstop Rob Gordon is a Vanderbilt commit ranked No. 41.
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