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Tournaments  | Story | 7/9/2011

Yak Opens 17u With Statement Win

Photo: Todd Gold
MARIETTA, Ga. -- Over the past decade the 17u WWBA National Championship has developed into one of the premier scouting events of the year. The list of organizations in the loaded 216 team field for 2011 reads like a who's who of perennial powerhouse programs. On Opening Day of the 2011 edition it was a newcomer that grabbed the attention of scouts and recruiters in attendence at the East Cobb Baseball complex -- Yak Baseball (West).

Yak (West) opened the tournament in front of a large crowd of scouts, most of whom were there to watch perennial national powerhouse Marucci Elite. Marucci boasts a roster of 17 players already committed to Division I programs, with several more likely to do so in the near future.

Yak (West) is a team put together by James Byers to provide an opportunity for underprivileged players from southern California to showcase themselves to pro scouts and college recruiters at no cost. In spite of the limited exposure for most of the players on the Yak (West) roster, a few have already established themselves as high level prospects. Ron Miller is known for having one of the quickest bats in the class of 2012. Dominic Smith and John Paul Crawford are a pair of exciting young players who are ranked #13 and #19 respectively in the class of 2013. And as the large contingent of evaluators found out on Saturday morning, there is much more talent on the Yak roster than those three.

Marucci sent five highly ranked pitchers to the mound to try and pull out a victory in the opener, with each working with fastballs above 90 mph. But as head coach Carl Nichols explained "we face this kind of competition all the time, for us it was no big deal." His team's performance certainly is a big deal to scouts that witnessed the 8-3 win though. For a team that is playing together in their second event ever to come in and knock off a loaded team like Marucci says a lot about the caliber of its players.

The team is the focus of a documentary being produced for Fox Sports called Dreaming of the Big Leagues. The show's host Antonio Todd  explained "when they came to me with this idea I was all in with it. For a guy to do what James Byers is doing for these kids is great." Todd added "I can't say enough about him, he'll probably be broke after all of this."

With a 1-0 start to the tournament and a win over their biggest competition in pool K already under their belt things are looking good for Yak (West). But Nichols isn't worried about his players looking ahead, saying "all these kids are thinking about right now is going to the pool, they're not looking ahead and for us coaches it's all about the next game."

Footage of Ron Miller's 2nd inning Home Run:

Tournaments | Story | 1/27/2026

MLK East Scout Notes Recap

Perfect Game Staff
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‘28 OF Jakob Groeschel (OH) continues to impress with the bat on the circuit, picked up 2 2Bs in the first game today. Really athletic, went 4.4 on turn; easy to dream on all the traits. #MLKEast @PG_OhioValley pic.twitter.com/wOIwnGKnkg — Perfect Game Florida (@Florida_PG) January 17, 2026 2028 OF Jakob Groeschel (Springfield, Ohio) broke out at this event last year hitting a casual .909, and although he didn’t turn in quite the same performance, he hit a strong .462 with 4 extra-base hits, 5 walks, 5 bags and only struck out once. He’s a pretty dynamic athlete who can do a lot of things well, but the bat is the calling card as he just lives on the barrel and has no problem handling all kinds of pitching. It’s a simple swing, but he’s got fast hands and he can really impact the ball without being overly physical yet.  2030 RHP Michael Vazquez...
High School | Rankings | 2/10/2026

Texas Region Top Teams

Tyler Russo
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Texas All Region & Top Tools Rk Texas Record 1 Grapevine 36-3 2 Memorial 28-6-1 3 Lake Travis 28-12-3 4 Kingwood 39-4 5 Aledo 31-8 6 Atascocita 33-12-2 7 Calallen 35-2 8 Pleasant Grove 36-6 9 Prestonwood Christian 25-5 10 The Bennett School N/A 11 Lovejoy 30-9 12 Allen 16-16-1 13 Prosper 33-10-1 14 Flower Mound Marcus 30-13 15 Tomball 34-7-1 16 Waco Midway 35-8 17 Dallas Jesuit 23-9-1 18 Flower Mound 21-12 19 Buda Johnson 26-13 20 The Woodlands 29-6-1 21 Katy Taylor 26-13-1 22 Rockwall Heath 15-9 23 Rockwall 29-10 24 Lutheran South 34-3-1 25 Keller 29-11
College | Story | 2/10/2026

Conference Preview: America East

AJ Denny
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2026 College Preview Index | Preseason Top 25 | Preseason Collegiate All-Americans For all of Perfect Game's conference previews as part of the 2026 college baseball preview content, the 2025 records and all-conference teams are available for free. The conference top prospects and individual team breakdowns can be viewed with a subscription. 2025 Records Teams are listed in alphabetical order* Team W L W L Binghamton  13 11 28 26 Bryant  18 6 36 18 Maine  13 11 20 31 NJIT  14 10 27 26 UAlbany  10 14 22 32 UMass Lowell  8 16 18 35 UMBC  8 16 18 28 Preseason All-Conference Team Pos. Name School Stats/Notes C Levi McAllister UAlbany 2025 2nd Team America East All-Conference; hit .310 last season w/ 9 HRs and 25 XBH. Do-it-all guy for UAlbany, reliable behind dish w/ ability to hit for both AVG + power offensively 1B Sean O'Leary UMass...
Softball | Softball Tournament | 2/9/2026

Perfect Game Softball Winter Warm Up 18U Division

Erica Beach
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Perfect Game Softball Winter Warm Up Burlington, IA Jan 30-Feb 1, 2026   BURLINGTON, IOWA- 23 teams across two age divisions converged onto Fun City Turf last weekend to compete to be the Winter Warm Up champions. In the 18U division, the Iowa Nationals 18U came out on top in a hard-fought game, defeating the Iowa Gold Prospects 2-1. On the weekend, several athletes stepped up big for their teams and below we highlight some of the top performers of the tournament.   18U Division   Julia Roth (2026, Dubuque, IA) of the Lady Expos Blue was one of the most effective hitters of the weekend. She finished her weekend batting .583, tallying seven hits, four of them being home runs. Her power was on display, and she came in clutch multiple times, driving in nine runs for her team. This right-handed hitter showed great composure in the box, working counts, and making defenses earn...
High School | General | 2/9/2026

Deep South Region Top Teams

Tyler Russo
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Deep South All Region & Top Tools Rk Deep South  Record 1 Magnolia Heights (MS) 39-5 2 Barbe (LA) 35-7 3 Catholic (LA) 37-5 4 The Baylor School (TN) 22-8 5 Nolensville (TN) 20-14 6 Hoover (AL) 22-20 7 Sam Houston (LA) 36-8 8 Christian Brothers (TN) 26-13 9 Hartselle (AL) 35-8 10 Lipscomb Academy (TN) 28-9-1 11 Lewisburg (MS) 21-10 12 Farragut (TN) 32-11 13 Tuerlings Catholic (LA) 36-5 14 Tuscaloosa County (AL) 33-13 15 Petal (MS) 18-10 16 West Monroe (LA) 26-9-1 17 Brandon (MS) 24-14 18 Auburn (AL) 21-18 19 Oak Ridge (TN) 36-9 20 Bob Jones (AL) 37-12 21 Thompson (AL) 30-15 22 University Lab (LA) 29-12 23 Knoxville Catholic (TN) 23-16-1 24 Sumrall (MS) 25-9 25 Benton (LA) 35-6
College | Story | 2/10/2026

Conference Preview: Horizon

Scott Rankin
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2026 College Preview Index | Preseason Top 25 | Preseason Collegiate All-Americans For all of Perfect Game's conference previews as part of the 2026 college baseball preview content, the 2025 records and all-conference teams are available for free. The conference top prospects and individual team breakdowns can be viewed with a subscription. 2025 Records Teams are listed in alphabetical order* Team W L W L Milwaukee 22 35 16 13 Northern Kentucky 31 25 18 12 Oakland 18 41 10 20 Wright State 40 21 25 5 Youngstown State 15 42 11 19 Preseason All-Conference Team Pos. Name School Stats/Notes C Jake Paulick Northern Kentucky Slashed .265/.404/.518 with 8 homers and 41 RBI in ‘25  1B Jp Peltier Wright State 1st team All-Horizon playing OF in ’25 and hit 20 homers with a 1.019 OPS 2B Hunter Warren Wright State 1st team All-Horizon in ’25...
High School | General | 2/9/2026

Deep South All Region & Top Tools

David Rawnsley
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DEEP SOUTH REGION (AL, LA, MS, TN) The Deep South Region is absolutely loaded with position talent and would certainly have a chance to outscore any of the other Regions in a straight offensive battle.  And this trend doesn’t look like it’s going to change soon looking at the 2027 and 2028 classes for the Region. All the starting lineup, for instance, is made up of Perfect Game All-Americans if you excuse the recently re-classified Will Brick.  That leaves a pair of Louisiana All-Americans, Miller Sheets and Braylon Montgomery, out of the starting lineup.  Also missing is another re-classified player, Alabama shortstop Rocco Maniscalco, who has been talked about as a potential Day One draft in 2026. A strange twist in the Region is that it is abnormally well supplied with catchers, more so than any other region in the country really.  Nowhere does that...
College | Story | 2/9/2026

Conference Preview: Ivy League

Jason Phillips
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2026 College Preview Index | Preseason Top 25 | Preseason Collegiate All-Americans For all of Perfect Game's conference previews as part of the 2026 college baseball preview content, the 2025 records and all-conference teams are available for free. The conference top prospects and individual team breakdowns can be viewed with a subscription. 2025 Records Teams are listed in alphabetical order* Team W L W L Brown 7 14 11 28 Columbia 16 5 30 19 Cornell 7 14 12 22 Dartmouth 8 13 11 25 Harvard 9 12 14 28 Penn 13 8 21 20 Princeton 8 13 12 31 Yale 16 5 31 14 Preseason All Conference Team Pos. Name School Stats/Notes C Owen Estabrook Columbia 9 HRs in 109 ABs, Buster Posey Award Midseason Watchlist 1B Giovanni Colasante Harvard .314-10-33, 7 2Bs/ 31.2 IP, 36 SO, 2025 1st Team Ivy League UTL/P INF Jack Kail Columbia .312-7-45, 14 2Bs, 2025 1st Team Ivy League INF Davis Baker...
High School | General | 2/8/2026

California Region Top Teams

Tyler Russo
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California All Region & Top Tools Rk California 2025 Record 1 St. John Bosco 30-4 2 Orange Lutheran 23-7 3 De La Salle 29-4 4 Corona 28-3 5 Huntington Beach 24-5 6 Harvard-Westlake 19-10 7 Mater Dei 19-15 8 Aquinas 25-3 9 Norco 22-9 10 Cathedral Catholic 19-12 11 Sierra Canyon 16-13 12 St. Mary's 26-9 13 Santa Margaraita Catholic 20-14 14 La Mirada 21-7 15 Notre Dame 15-14 16 Gahr 17-13 17 JSerra Catholic 17-10 18 Eastlake 21-11-1 19 Patrick Henry 23-11-2 20 Ganesha 23-3 21 St. Ignatius College Prep 17-10-2 22 Mira Costa 28-3 23 Cypress 18-11 24 Redondo Union 16-13 25 Oaks Christian 20-9
College | Story | 2/6/2026

Conference Preview: Ohio Valley

Kyler Peterson
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2026 College Preview Index | Preseason Top 25 | Preseason Collegiate All-Americans For all of Perfect Game's conference previews as part of the 2026 college baseball preview content, the 2025 records and all-conference teams are available for free. The conference top prospects and individual team breakdowns can be viewed with a subscription. 2025 Records Teams are listed in alphabetical order Team  W  L  W  L  Eastern Illinois  17  77  31  22  Lindenwood  14  12  30  30  Little Rock  8  16  27  34  Morehead State  4  23  14  39  SIUE  18  8  26  28  Southeast Missouri  16  11  30  25  Southern Indiana  15  12  27  29  Tennessee Tech  18  9  37 ...
College | Story | 2/9/2026

Conference Preview: Summit

Jay Vossler
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2026 College Preview Index | Preseason Top 25 | Preseason Collegiate All-Americans For all of Perfect Game's conference previews as part of the 2026 college baseball preview content, the 2025 records and all-conference teams are available for free. The conference top prospects and individual team breakdowns can be viewed with a subscription. 2025 Records Teams are listed in alphabetical order* Team W L W L Northern Colorado 18 33 9 21 North Dakota State 21 34 13 15 Omaha 20 30 12 16 Oral Roberts 37 22 21 9 South Dakota State 16 36 12 18 St. Thomas 29 21 21 9 Preseason All-Conference Team Pos. Name School Stats/Notes C Wailele Kane-Yates Oral Roberts .341/.425/.576 12 HR, 50 RBI. Big time power bat with pro looks. 1B Jackson Trout Omaha .328/.404/.451 5 HR, 37 RBI. One of better athletes in the League. Versatile defender. 2B Tanner Recchio St. Thomas .324/.418/.415 30...
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