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College  | Story | 3/17/2020

College Top 25: On the Cusp

Photo: Connor Prielipp (Alabama Athletics Photography)

College Top 25: Moving Forward | College Player Database | College Player Rankings

On Monday we took a look at the PG College Top 25 teams, breaking down each squad while looking for positive developments each program can look forward to heading into 2021. In that feature (linked above) it was noted that we don’t know what to expect when it comes to player graduations. For now, most of that focus relies on the underclassmen as we don’t know if there will be draft, which players are coming back, roster and scholarship limitations and so many other variables.



Listed below are the six teams that entered the 2020 season ranked within the PG College Top 25 but had since fallen out in addition to six other teams that were among the programs most seriously considered for inclusion during the four in-season ranking updates.

6 that fell out
Listed below are the six teams that opened the 2020 season ranked within the PG College Top 25 but fell out.

East Carolina
Getting the boot from the Top 25 might have been a little harsh, but the bottom line is that ECU went 1-2 at the Keith LeClair Classic, hosted annually by the Pirates in Greenville, losing the first two games to their two toughest opponents of the season, Indiana and Ole Miss. East Carolina was already embarking on a transition season with 11 true freshmen and seven sophomores on their roster. Some of the more productive players of that group include Lane Hoover, who was hitting .353-1-12 with six steals as the team’s leadoff hitter, as well as CJ Mayhue (0.56 ERA in 16 innings) and Garrett Saylor (0.82 ERA in 11 innings), the team’s most frequently turned to relievers through the first four weeks of the season.

Florida State | Scout Take
The Seminoles were removed from the Top 25 after losing four games to Top 10-ranked opponents, Texas Tech and Duke. However, two days before the season was banged FSU got a big midweek win over Florida, something they’ve been unable to do in recent years. The core of the offense has been in place since last season as Robby Martin, Elijah Cabell, Matheu Nelson and Nander De Sedas have been starting together since their freshmen years. Freshman Tyler Martin also was earning more and more playing time hitting .310 with five doubles through the team’s first 17 games. The pitching staff had more upperclassmen leading the way, but sophomore Jack Anderson and freshman Parker Messick had ERAs of 0.79 and 0.77 respectively as the team’s primary bullpen arms.



Louisiana State | Scout Take
LSU’s biggest blemish this season was their 1-2 showing at the Shriner’s College Classic, with one of those losses coming against Dane Acker and his no-hitter for Oklahoma. So in reality, the Tigers were one SEC series win away from jumping right back in. And they have (had) a lot of pieces to be excited about, young and old, but it’s the pitching staff that especially stood out. Cole Henry is draft eligible as a sophomore, as Landon Marceaux, AJ Labas and Jaden Hill are also sophomores, pitching significant innings for a staff that had a 2.38 ERA when the season closed shop. The starting lineup has similar youth as Giovanni DiGiacomo, Cade Beloso and Gavin Dugas are also part of LSU’s promising sophomore class and Cade Doughty and Collier Cranford are freshmen.



North Carolina
It was clear through the first four weeks of the season that UNC hadn’t quite figured out which players were going to step up and assume key roles. Age eligible sophomore Aaron Sabato is one of the college game’s best sluggers, and he was just heating up, blasting six of his seven home runs over the last six games. Shortstop Danny Serretti is also a sophomore, while outfielder Angel Zarate, like Sabato, is draft eligible, but as a redshirt sophomore. The same is true for primary ‘pen arm Austin Love, while weekend starters Will Sandy and Connor Ollio are also part of the UNC sophomore class. Max Alba is a redshirt freshman after missing his rookie year in 2019 due to injury and we hadn’t quite received a good look at promising new recruit Joe Charles.

Oklahoma State
Although Oklahoma State went 1-2 at the Frisco College Classic, they did have single wins over a pair of ranked opponents through 18 games: Texas A&M and Arizona State. Entering the year the Cowboys’ biggest questions surrounded which of their young players would be productive. Freshman Bryce Osmond was their prized recruit, and while his numbers suggest significant room for improvement (5.06 ERA in four starts), he did strike out 19 batters in 16 innings of work, a testament to his pure stuff. Sophomore Brett Standlee had the third-most innings on the team (19.2) and did so primarily coming out of the bullpen. Hulking freshman Justin Campbell was hitting .414 through part-time duty and outfielder Caeden Trenkle was just starting to heat up, hitting .333 with 10 extra-base hits, four of which were triples.

Stanford
Stanford’s offense batted only .207 in 16 games and the team’s defense had an extremely uncharacteristic .950 team fielding percentage, leading to their 5-11 record. Many of those struggles could be attributed to a new-look roster, as six freshmen (Brock Jones, Cole Hinkelman, Kody Huff, Adam Crampton, Brett Barrera and Carson Greene) were receiving regular playing time in the starting lineup in addition to a handful of sophomores. Per usual the Cardinal was faring much better on the mound with a 3.50 team ERA as sophomore Alex Williams was having a big season (2-1, 0.51 ERA) coming off of his Freshman All-American campaign. Three more freshman – Quinn Mathews, Nathan Fleischli and Max Meier – were all receiving substantial innings, and making the most of those opportunities, through the first four weeks of the year.

6 teams considered
Listed below are the six teams that were most strongly considered to be included in the in-season Top 25 rankings updates.

Alabama
Rebuilding a program from the bottom up takes some time, and that’s exactly what head coach Brad Bohannon since he took over. That starts with recruiting and one recruit in particular shined through the early part of the season. Freshman lefthander Connor Prielipp was the team’s Friday starter from day one and he was phenomenal, going 3-0 in four starts without allowing an earned run, allowing just five hits and six walks in 21 innings with 35 strikeouts. Four other pitchers had yet to give up an earned run, plus, their Saturday starter (Connor Shamblin) is a sophomore and their Sunday starter (Antoine Jean) is also a freshman. In addition, the team’s two standouts on offense – Sam Praytor and Owen Diodati – are a sophomore and freshman, respectively, giving the SEC one more team for everyone else to contend with.



Dallas Baptist
Under the guidance of Dan Heefner DBU is always in the Top 25 mix and they already had a loud statement series win over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Jimmy Glowenke had picked up where he left off from his two previous, productive seasons, hitting .415-1-7 and the team’s second leading hitter was freshman second baseman Jeffrey David. David was hitting for average (.351) and power (.526 slugging) as he and another first-year player – outfielder Jace Grady – were receiving regular looks since the beginning of the season. The pitching staff had even more youth present as sophomores Chandler Arnold and Zach Heaton had mixed results as each had already made four starts while fellow sophomores Cole Reeves and Luke Trahan as well as redshirt freshman Kyle Rich received frequent looks out of the ‘pen.

Georgia Tech
It was hard leaving Georgia Tech out of the initial 2020 Top 25, but they lost numerous key contributors from their 2019 team that earned the No. 3 national seed. And they appeared to be cruising to open 2020 until they were swept by in-state rival Georgia the third weekend of the year. The future remains bright for the Jackets as three of their everyday regulars in the starting lineup, three of their starting pitchers and two key bullpen arms are all underclassmen. Freshmen sluggers Drew Compton and Stephen Reid were batting in the middle of the order with a third freshman, Jake Holland, assuming the everyday catching duties. Two more freshmen, Zach Maxwell and Dalton Smith, were already logging significant innings on the mound as Maxwell and sophomores Luke Barnicki and Cort Roedig had all received weekend starts.



Pepperdine
One of the more compelling teams to open 2020, Pepperdine already had some loud wins leading up to conference play, including a series win over visiting Michigan. With a .301/.390/.441 team triple slash line and 2.91 cumulative ERA, everything appeared to be clicking for the Waves. The keytstone tandem of Wyatt Young (sophomore) and Ryan Johnson (freshman) should be intact for at least another year with Young doing a good job to set the table at the top of the order and Johnson providing some middle-of-the-lineup run production. The pitching staff is where the underclassmen really stood out, with nine freshmen and sophomores receiving regular innings. Of this group, sophomores Cooper Chandler, Gunnar Groen and Trevor Kniskern made 10 of the team’s 15 starts.

San Diego State
Although their 10-6 record doesn’t stand out, the Aztecs had wins over Coastal Carolina, Cal State Fullerton, Iowa, UC Irvine, Oregon State, Long Beach State and Oklahoma with a very challenging non-conference schedule. Star two-way player Casey Schmitt was hitting .323 and was tied for the nation’s lead in saves with six through those 16 games. Three of the team’s regular hitters – Jaden Fein, Brian Leonhardt and Wyatt Hendrie – are sophomores, pointing to a likely return for at least one-third of the team’s batting order. Like Schmitt, Leonhardt pulls double duty, and two of his four appearances were starts. The most intriguing part of the SDSU roster is the fact that all three weekend starters – Michael Paredes, Troy Melton and Aaron Eden – are also sophomores, meaning these Aztecs will remain competitive on a national level.

Tulane
It had taken a few years to get to this point, but head coach Travis Jewett appeared to finally be making headway on building a perennial postseason program. Staff ace Braden Olthoff was enjoying a breakthrough season and the team was playing well in all phases of the game. Numerous veterans made up the starting lineup, but prized sophomore prospect Hudson Haskin hadn’t even hit his stride yet and still was slashing .333/.452/.500 through the first 17 games of the year. Haskin is age-eligible for the draft, so we’ll see if scouts got a good enough look at him early. Redshirt sophomore lefthander Jack Aldrich followed Olthoff in the weekend rotation and freshman lefthander Luke Jannetta provided some key midweek starts in the weeks leading up to the premature end of the season.




College | Recruiting | 12/22/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 22

Jheremy Brown
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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,...
Draft | Story | 12/22/2025

2025 Year in Review: Draft

Isaiah Burrows
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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