THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
| 2,416 MLB PLAYERS | 15,806 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,416 MLB PLAYERS | 15,806 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Sign in Create Account
Sign in Create Account
Tournaments  | Story | 7/28/2021

Winning ways boost CBA at 17u WS

Jeff Dahn
Photo: Ryan Ward (Perfect Game)

SURPRISE, Ariz. – As the players from the first teams taking part in this week’s 10th annual Perfect Game 17u World Series began filtering into the Surprise Spring Training Complex Tuesday morning, it was no surprise at all to see Jon Paino’s CBA Marucci National team among the entrants.

After walking into the Royals’ side of the complex – Kansas City shares the state-of-the-art Cactus League Spring Training facility with the Texas Rangers – Paino, the longtime CBA director and 17u head coach, couldn’t help but feel at home.



CBA Marucci has been a regular at the PG 17u World Series since 2015, when it advanced to the final-four in its inaugural appearance. It has never won a 17u PGWS championship but is always in the hunt for one it seems, and on Tuesday Paino recalled many of the format changes and the unique challenges each new year brought. It has, however, remained one of his favorite events.

“Obviously now, expanding the field a little bit [to 35 teams] makes it a little more interesting with teams coming in from other places that we don’t normally see,” he told PG on Tuesday. “It’s always good to play new teams and new people and get the kids that much more exposure at an event like this. It’s on the schedule every year and we definitely look forward to it.”

Ryan Ward, a talented 2022 infielder/outfielder and recent performer at the PG National Showcase in St. Petersburg, Fla. who just recently de-committed from Arizona, is here as the No. 103-ranked overall prospect in his national class.

The son of the late big league outfielder Kevin Ward, Ryan has a real appreciation for the game and the opportunities he’s been given through his association with CBA and Perfect Game. And he’s certainly happy to be here this week.

“I feel like this is the best competition here on the West Coast,” Ward said when asked about being at the invitation-only 17u PGWS. “I’ve really been looking forward to competing with my teammates and having fun like we always do as a team.”

The whole “having fun” theme runs non-stop throughout the entire CBA organization. It’s a program that has proven time and again that fun fuels passion and passion leads to an overt sense of competitiveness that in turn leads to the players wanting to be on the biggest stages. Welcome to the PG 17u World Series.

“I feel like there’s a lot of good competition here and I think we’ve got a pretty good chance of winning this,” No. 207-ranked and uncommitted infielder Cutter Coffey told PG Tuesday. “It’s going to be fun.”

Marucci National seemed to be enjoying themselves in their tournament-opener Tuesday, a 4-1 win over Colorado-based Slammers Holzemer in which CBA led 4-0 after six with Slammers scoring its lone run in the top of the seventh.

The CBA Nats’ Ethan Hott (No. 419, Stanford) doubled and drove in two runs; Maddox Haley (t-500, San Diego State) tripled with an RBI; Coffey, Brady Reynolds (’23 No. 165, Stanford) and Victor Heredia Jr. (’22 t-500) all doubled as part of a six-hit attack. 2022 lefty Ben Jacobs (t-500, UCLA) threw the first 3 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with four strikeouts and two walks.

This is a CBA Marucci National team that kicked-off the summer by going 3-0-1 at the PG 17u Ultimate Baseball Challenge-West in San Diego June 30-July 3. The CBA Nats then hopped on a plane and jetted to Atlanta where they competed at the blockbuster PG WWBA 17u National Championship in the north suburb of Marietta. And they competed extremely well, by the way, finishing 6-1-1 after a second-round playoff loss to fellow SoCal entrant BPA, which is also here this weekend.

CBA Marucci is no stranger to success playing at the WWBA 17u National Championship, having won the title in 2015 and sharing it in 2018. Paino said there is a different kind of energy that comes with playing in the South, something that is difficult to replicate here in the desert or in Southern California.

And, he said, there is also the adversity his players face that comes from numerous weather delays and all of the unknowns that accompany playing teams from other regions of the country.

“With this group, more specifically, I think in Georgia we became closer as a team,” Paino continued. “[They] became a lot more resilient as players learning to play on the road, learning to deal with some weather and some other things outside of what we deal with [here]. It helps contribute to preparing a kid as best you can for college and professional baseball.”

Eight CBA Marucci National players earned all-tournament recognition in Marietta, including the previously mentioned Coffey, Haley and Jacobs, and 2022 top-500s Andrew Carroll (Arizona), Austin Charles (UC Santa Barbara), Jack Smith and Andrew Walters (UCLA).

If anything, the CBA Marucci National players were able to use the weeklong stay in rain and lightning-plagued north Georgia as a learning experience. Maybe even more than any valuable lessons they learned, it was definitely a maturation process at a variety of levels, as well.

“It’s a lot of fun mixed in with some of the adversities of the game (like) having a game get rained-out and having to adjust mid-tournament,” Ward said. “That’s a big part of the game and you have to learn how to deal with those things, and I think that we did and we kept playing...

“We did everything we could, we battled our hearts out and we had another fun trip as a team; I think that’s what it’s about, honestly.”

Paino brought a roster here this week that is largely intact from the WWBA 17u NC. It did lose 2022 outfielder Justin Crawford (No. 73-ranked, uncommitted), ’22 pitcher Xavier Cardenas III (No. 152, San Diego State) and ’22 outfielder/third baseman Payton Brennan (No. 345, UCLA) to the USA Baseball PDP in Cary, N.C., but everyone else is present and accounted for.

Some adjustments were necessary so Paino added local Phoenix-area outfielder Ethan Hott (No. 419, Stanford) and right-hander/third baseman Kole Klecker (t-1000, TCU) to fill a couple of spots. Taken as a whole, it’s a collection of talent that won’t take a seat at the end of the dugout to any other team here this week, all boasting rosters that are as equally as impressive as that of CBA National.

“It does make you play your hardest and not take anybody lightly during the games,” Coffey said of the stellar competition they’ll face. “By wearing ‘CBA’ we’ve got a name for ourselves already and we just have to go out and prove it. I feel like we do that most of the time; we go out and play hard [and the winning] it’s kind of contagious. Once we start winning I feel like we can keep on going; I love playing with these guys.”

This event marks the end of the PG summer travel ball season for the teams here this week, although a full fall season awaits in September and October for quite a few of them. Coming into a season-ending tournament like this one, Paino is kind of the mind that he’s said all that’s need to be said by this point – his message has been heard and his players have responded in kind.

After all, he admitted, one of his great strengths is knowing the right time just to shut up. It all goes back to allowing the players to have as much fun as possible while performing in what can be a demanding, stressful and often pressure-packed environment.

“We don’t want to restrict them at all. We want them to play free; we want them to play without the fear of failure,” Paino said. “As long as they prepare themselves the best they can, hustle all the time and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, there is no failure for us. We want them to play free and understand that and I think this group really has taken that and ran with it.”

It’s an approach that resonates with his players: “Coach Paino, he’s a good leader,” Ward said. “He knows how to fire up a team when it needs to be fired up and he also knows how to put the brakes on when they need to be put on; he lets us have own space and I really appreciate that. He just encourages us to play hard, honestly; play hard and have fun are his two things.

“There’s three things you can control: having fun, your attitude and your hustle. I think our team conveys those three things on the field while we play.”

When asked about this CBA Marucci National’s collective personality, Paino smiled and even chuckled a bit before finally saying – not surprisingly – they just like to have fun. Providing experiences that allow these talented teen-aged baseball players to enjoy themselves as much as possible has long been a cornerstone of the CBA program and it certainly applies to this group.

“Being on the road now for a long time this summer they’ve grown super close together,” Paino said. “I think they all play for one another; they look forward to each other’s success and they celebrate each other’s success whenever it happens.”

As of Wednesday morning, four days of what promised to be some pretty intense action remained at the PG 17u World Series. There were teams that took their lumps during day one but, mathematically anyway, there’s time to rebound.

Paino knows it’s important to keep his players in some sort of routine and that won’t be nearly as challenging here as it was with all the weather-woes in Georgia. Keeping focused and at the ready at all times won’t be an issue for the CBA Marucci National; it’s all about perspective.

As an example, Ryan Ward believes it’s vitally important for he and his teammates to remember that this is just a kids’ game they’re playing. If that notion gets lost in the shuffle, the outside pressures and expectations will, in his words, “eat you up and spit you out.” Now, that doesn’t sound like much fun.

And remember, fun fuels this group. It’s a team that has become tighter and more close-knit with each passing tournament and the players all feel like it’s just a great time to be wearing the letters “CBA” across the front of their game jerseys.

“This group is as energized as ever,” Ward said. “I’ve played on some special teams in my very, very young career, and it’s a good vibe, it’s a good energy, a lot of good players; our depth is probably second to none. After this, I’m looking forward to the [PG 17u Fall Championship], Jupiter [WWBA World Championship] and whatever else is yet to come.”

Certainly no surprise there.
Give us your feedback
Tournaments | Story | 4/21/2026

Southeast Super NIT #2 Scout Notes
Jason Phillips
Article Image
Chase Jelks (‘30 GA)- with a long double to deep CF. Huge day from the primary SS, 5-for-6 w/ 4 doubles & 6 RBI. #SESuperNIT @TheDreamBall @PG_Georgia https://t.co/biFSzXCrUt pic.twitter.com/HCQMduedb5 — Perfect Game Youth (@PGYouthBB) April 20, 2026 Chase Jelks (’30, Atlanta, Ga.)- the left-handed hitting Jelks was all over the barrel on Sunday in a pair of games for The Dream 14U Black. He finished the day with five hits in six at-bats which included four doubles and six runs batted in. His two doubles and four runs batted in played a big part in the Gold Playoffs Round 1 victory over the talented BPA squad out of California. He backed up that performance with three more hits in a quarterfinal’s loss to the East Cobb Astros 14U Orange to finish the tournament with a .600 batting average and 1.636 on-base plus slugging percentage. A primary utility infielder,...
Read More
Draft | Prospect Scouting Reports | 4/24/2026

2026 MLB Draft Reports: Top 100

Vincent Cervino
Article Image
PG Draft: Top-100 Reports (April Update) 1. Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA R-R, 6-2/202, Chandler, AZ Previously Drafted: Never Drafted Roch Cholowsky has consistently ranked at the top of the class throughout the cycle due to the safety and upside of the profile. Defensively, he is a plus defender at shortstop with soft hands, consistent actions, and quality range. Not only should he stick at the position long term, he should excel there at the next level. Offensively, there is a strong mix of hit and power potential from the right side of the plate. The swing is a bit unorthodox with a shorter finish, but Cholowsky consistently finds the barrel and drives the ball with authority to all fields. He has strong bat to ball skills with impact. He has walked more than stuck out during his collegiate career, giving him a high on-base ability. The run tool is the only tool that doesn’t jump...
Read More
Draft | Rankings | 4/24/2026

2026 MLB Draft Board: Top 400

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
Rk. Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State Commitment 1 Roch Cholowsky C SS R-R UCLA Chandler AZ 2 Grady Emerson H SS L-R Fort Worth Christian Argyle TX Texas 3 Vahn Lackey C C R-R Georgia Tech Suwanee GA 4 Jackson Flora C RHP R-R UC Santa Barbara Pleasanton CA 5 Jacob Lombard H SS R-R Gulliver Schools Miami FL Miami 6 AJ Gracia C OF L-L Virginia Monroe NJ 7 Ace Reese C 3B L-R Mississippi State Canton TX 8 Eric Booth Jr. H OF L-L Oak Grove Bassfield MS Vanderbilt 9 Justin Lebron C SS R-R Alabama Miramar FL 10 Drew Burress C OF R-R Georgia Tech Perry GA 11 Gio Rojas H LHP L-R Marjory Stoneman Douglas Coral Springs FL Miami 12 Ryder Helfrick C C R-R Arkansas Discovery Bay CA 13 Chris Hacopian C SS R-R Texas A&M Potomac MD 14 Cameron Flukey C RHP R-R Coastal Carolina Egg Harbor Township NJ 15 Cole Carlon C LHP L-L Arizona State Tempe AZ 16 Jared Grindlinger H LHP/OF L-L Huntington...
Read More
Press Release | Press Release | 4/23/2026

Kash Shaikh Named Perfect Game CMO

Article Image
  667 Progress Way | Sanford, FL 32771 | 319-298-2923 www.perfectgame.org | facebook.com/perfectgameusa | @PerfectGameUSA     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   PERFECT GAME NAMES KASH SHAIKH CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AND HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL   Sanford, Florida (Thursday, April 23, 2026) - Perfect Game, the world’s largest youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, today announced that Kash Shaikh has been named the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Head of International. In this role, Shaikh will serve on Perfect Game’s executive leadership team, overseeing global marketing, brand strategy, creative, partnerships and sponsorships, while leading the company’s international P&L and expansion. Shaikh brings more than two decades of experience building brands, businesses and communities across sports, media and consumer...
Read More
Softball | Softball Tournament | 4/22/2026

PG Softball Battle for the Belt

Article Image
Perfect Game Softball Battle for the Belt April 18-19, 2026 Des Moines, Iowa It was a cold and very windy weekend, but the girls still came out and put in their best efforts. If you wanted the place to see some of the state’s top talent, this was the tournament to be at. The 18u division was quite the slugfest! The Ankeny Centennial 18U -Kennedy team took down a tough Iowa Alliance Select-Benge team in the championship. Both teams had double digit homeruns on the weekend. In the 16u division the Iowa Aries CE Fire Black took control of the game from the start and never let up on the gas, taking down a solid Alliance Select- Harper team. 18U Division Kori Lincicum (2026 Ankeny, IA) of the Centennial Jaguars- Kennedy and Drake Bulldog softball commit was the weekends MVP Pitcher. Lincicum defeated a tough Alliance team in the championship game finishing with that game with 11...
Read More
High School | General | 4/23/2026

Northeast High School Notebook

Jheremy Brown
Article Image
In a season that has already had many exciting matchups across various events, we as a staff would like to highlight or “Shout-Out” notable performers along with an Uncommitted Spotlight and Team Spotlight.  Uncommitted Spotlight: Mason Rosenberg, 1B, 2027, Bishop Eustace Prep  Uncommitted Mason Rosenberg (2027, NJ) has been an absolute force within the Bishop Eustace lineup, as the left-handed hitting slugger is hitting .481 through eleven games including six homers. The strength has vastly improved, allowing for Rosenberg to impact the baseball with authority to all fields. Couple that with improved speed and athleticism, this uncommitted 2027 can be a welcomed addition to a class looking for offense.  Team Spotlight: Northern Burlington (9-0) Northern Burlington is once again off to a hot start, as the Greyhounds sit at 9-0 thus far and have continued to...
Read More
Juco | Rankings | 4/22/2026

JUCO Top 25: April 22

Blaine Peterson
Article Image
Another week down and Johnson County continues their torrid run to remain at number 1. They're 46-2 on the season with multiple hitters over 25 bombs which is astonishing for the level as the Cavs have announced themselves as title favorites. Just a couple of weeks left heading down the stretch and our field remains mostly the same with the two additions of midwest powerhouse Iowa Western and the Warriors of East Central who will have a tough test Wednesday in Poplarville against fellow Mississippi adversary Pearl River in a mid-week double header.   Rk. School Record 1 Johnson County (KS) 46-2 2 Gaston (NC) 47-3 3 Walters State (TN) 42-10 4 McLennan (TX) 38-8 5 Southern Nevada (NV) 33-9 6 Chipola (FL) 39-9 7 Blinn (TX) 33-12 8 Florida Southwestern (FL) 32-13 9 Florence-Darlington (SC) 42-10 10 Pearl River (MS) 39-9 11 Cloud County (KS) 40-4 12 Cochise (AZ) 39-11 13 Midland (TX)...
Read More
College | Story | 4/23/2026

Coppy's Corner: April 23 POY Deep Dive

John Coppolella
Article Image
Each week I huddle with Vinnie Cervino and Craig Cozart  to discuss Top-25 rankings and Players of the Week. In Coppy’s Corner, I dive deeper into these Players of the Week, providing analysis from 20+ years working in baseball front offices at the highest level.     Player of the Week: Tague Davis – University of Louisville  Between 2016-2022, the University of Louisville produced 14 players taken in the Top 5 Rounds of the MLB Draft, seven of whom were taken in the 1st Round. The Cardinals haven’t produced a Top 5 Rounds pick since 2022, but that will change soon with Davis. Still only 20 years old and not draft-eligible until 2027, Davis continued his assault on college baseball this weekend with a 7-for-12 performance that included 5 HR. On the 2026 season, Davis is hitting .389 AVG / .489 OBP / .911 SLG / 1.392 OPS. That’s a 400+...
Read More
College | Rankings | 4/22/2026

DII/DIII/NAIA Rankings Update: April 22

Nick Herfordt
Article Image
The final weeks of the college baseball regular season have a way of separating programs that are genuinely postseason-ready from those that have simply been good enough for long enough. Conference tournaments loom, selection committees are paying close attention, and every game on the schedule carries weight that it simply didn't in February. This week's action, combined with the latest Perfect Game Top 25, paints a picture of a college baseball landscape where the top is clearly defined — and where the middle is a genuine battle. What follows is a cross-level look at teams across the NAIA, NCAA Division II, and NCAA Division III ranks who find themselves in that uncomfortable space: not safely in, not clearly out, but firmly on the bubble. Some have built compelling résumés that should hold up under scrutiny. Others have excellent records against soft competition...
Read More
High School | Rankings | 4/21/2026

High School Top 50 Update: April 21

Tyler Russo
Article Image
Another few weeks have wrapped up this high school season as we’re flying through the spring and most southern states are starting playoffs right around the corner. With the end of the regular season, we have another National Top 50 update to bring to you, along with this will be the start of the weekly editions of our National Top 50. We have a change at the top of the rankings as Venice (FL) takes over the top spot after just dominating their competition in the state of Florida this year. Orange Lutheran (CA) drops one spot to No. 2 after dropping a series but still holds firm at No. 2 in the country. Barbe (LA) has continued to dominate and holds onto the No. 3 spot while Tomball (TX) skyrockets in this update to No. 4 in the country, currently holding an incredible 30-0-1 record. The rest of the top-10 is names we’ve become accustomed to see with Aledo (TX) at No. 5, IMG...
Read More
Loading more articles...
About Perfect Game :: Contact us :: Terms of Use :: Privacy Policy :: Testimonials :: Job Opportunities
Copyright 1994-2026 by Perfect Game. All rights reserved. No portion of this information may be reprinted or reproduced without the written consent of Perfect Game.