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College  | Story | 12/6/2024

College Fall Report: UNCW

Photo: Tanner Thach (UNCW Athletics)
Players Mentioned: Tanner Thach, Kevin Jones II, Aiden Evans, Brock Wills, Alec DeMartino, Trevor Lucas, Ryker Galaska, Zane Taylor, Connor Marshburn, Trace Baker, Cameron Bagwell, Christopher Morris, Baker Cox, Cyle Phelan, Ty Lawson, Mason Murdock, Aubrey Smith, Cooper Allen

Last Spring: Head coach, Randy Hood, has been a fixture in eastern North Carolina for almost his entire life after starring at South Wayne HS and playing collegiately at Campbell University. He would go on to play a few years professionally before starting his coaching career at his alma mater and then made the move to UNCW where he has been since the fall of 2002. After taking over for legendary coach, Mark Scalf, Hood guided the Seahawks to their second consecutive CAA Tournament championship in 2024. They would win 40-games before going (1-2) in the Athens Regional where they shutout Georgia Tech in Game 1.



Carrying Tool for 2025: Hood has long been revered for his ability to get the most out of his players and consistently mold his club into an offensive juggernaut. He blends athleticism and speed as bookends to his lineup and usually can do damage in the middle with plenty of power. The 2025 offense will feature exactly that, and it all revolves around one of the premier left-handed sluggers in the nation in Tanner Thach. The junior is an imposing 6-4/220 and carries a career slash line of .308/.626/.383 with 22 doubles, 42 home runs and 143 RBIs in his career thus far. With five other returning starters supporting Thach, this will be another potent offense. Senior, Bryan Arendt returns behind the dish with 127 career games played and is an elite defender, while slick fielding Kevin Jones II returns at shortstop. Last year, Aiden Evans elevated his batting average by almost 100 points from his freshman campaign and junior infielder Brock Wills is a grinder who does the little things to put his club on the scoreboard. Alec DeMartino has started 111 games in the last two years and will provide some of that pop in the middle of the lineup with 17 career home runs. JUCO transfer, Trevor Lucas, brings a blend of power and speed and should lock down the hot corner and UNC transfer, Ryker Galaska, is showing promise with the stick and could land in center field.

Concerns for 2025: The pitching staff has some questions to answer and will need to figure out the rotation in the non-conference segment of the season. The anchor of the rotation will be senior, RHP Zane Taylor who has made 42 career starts and is the consummate pitcher. He pounds the zone with three quality offerings and reports have his velocity trending upwards, grabbing the mid-90s with his fastball. Outside of Taylor, there are a couple returners who should garner attention for the rotation in 6-6/230 sophomore righty Connor Marshburn and junior Trace Baker. Marshburn works downhill with his sinker/slider combo both with above average traits, while Baker shows more of a power repertoire with a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and a well tunneled slider to go with it. Cam Bagwell, a 6-5 freshman RHP had a lot of heat in to see him last spring but made it to school and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he works his way into the rotation in the latter part of the season. His fastball already rides comfortably in the low-90s, and he shows feel for a tight two-plane breaker that misses barrels often. If senior, DII transfer, Khris Morris can duplicate his success from last year then he could give the Seahawks real depth in the rotation.

Two senior lefties will lead the way for the bullpen in Baker Cox and Cyle Phelan. They both proved their worth last season and have the flare for getting outs in high leverage situations. Phelan has also stepped into the rotation when needed, garnering 18 starts throughout his time in Wilmington. Juniors Ty Lawson and Mason Murdock with sophomores Aubrey Smith and Cooper Allen are all sturdy righties with 90 mph fastballs and quality breaking balls to go with it that will give Randy Hood plenty of options to finish a game.

Season Outlook: The Seahawks have put together an extremely difficult early season schedule with two games against UGA, a road series at Southern Miss and a home series against Charlotte. On top of that, most of their midweek competitions will be against Power-5 in-state programs. This is all a part of the process that Hood uses to get his club ready for the CAA gauntlet. So, as usual, we should expect UNCW to compete for the regular season title and find itself comfortably in the Field of 64 come June.

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...
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...
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...
Tournaments | Story | 12/13/2025

Finest in the Field: Class of 2029

Tyler Russo
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Finest in the Field: Class of 2026 | Class of 2027 | Class of 2028 These guys might just be entering high school, but they've certainly already made a name for themselves on the national circuit, especially with their abilities on the defensive side of things.  C: Xavier Rodriguez (Logansville, GA) Rodriguez is a polished defender with real arm strength behind the dish, while showcasing the ability to impact the baseball with authority to all fields evident by thirty of his sixty-five hits going for extra-bases including seven bombs. He handles high-level pitching extremely well, commands his staff and his offensive prowess makes him a true two-way asset. 1B: Cooper Knight (Buda, TX) Knight is a smooth operator at first base with plenty of range, fluidity and agility in his footwork around the bag. Add-in a rocket for an arm, the ability to change slots and to...
Tournaments | Story | 12/12/2025

Scout Stories: Part 5

AJ Denny
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Best Game I Saw: The Dream NTL 18U vs. MBA Scout Team Murphy Jupiter always brings out the best, and we got fireworks from the jump. Turner Marshall gave The Dream an outstanding 4+ innings of work on the mound, holding a lethal MBA team at bay with Chance Dixon, Derrick Carter, and Ellis Appling providing an offensive spark out of the gate for the Georgia based boys. However, it was only a matter of time before the talent on the other side got going, as MBA erased a 3-run deficit in the 5th to take a 4-3 lead led by a Parker Loew HR. The Dream then took command again in the Top of the 6th, before MBA punched right back with a huge 5-run inning in the bottom half capped off by a clutch RBI single from Matthew Kerrigan, ending a wild sequence with tons of notable performances from two very competitive rosters. Best Tournament Performance I Saw: Surely someone has already brought this...
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