Annual awards recognize the top Underclass athletes at the high school level

St. Louis, Mo. (March 21, 2023) – Rawlings and Perfect Game announced today its Preseason All-American Teams to recognize the top underclass high school baseball athletes in the U.S (Class of 2024, 2025, 2026).

The Rawlings-Perfect Game Preseason All American 1st, 2nd and 3rd team recognizes 300 players from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Each team consists of 100 players who are currently juniors, sophomores, or freshmen in high school. There is also a high honorable mention and all region lists to identify other potential top underclassmen.

“With more than 450,000 high school baseball players in the nation, the Rawlings-Perfect Game Preseason Underclass All-American players represent the very best in their class,” said Mike Thompson, chief marketing officer for St. Louis-based Rawlings. “Rawlings and Perfect Game are synonymous with the game of baseball, and the preseason awards allow us to recognize and reward these elite athletes for their hard work and contribution to the game.”

“To receive the Rawlings-Perfect Game Preseason All-American or All-Region Award is a tremendous achievement for these high school student-athletes,” said Rob Ponger, CEO of Perfect Game. “We are proud to recognize their talent as they prepare for their careers playing collegiate or professional baseball.”

About Rawlings:
Established in 1887, Rawlings is an innovative leading global brand and manufacturer of premium baseball and softball equipment, including gloves, balls, and protective headwear. Rawlings' unparalleled quality, innovative engineering and expert craftsmanship are the fundamental reasons why more professional athletes, national governing bodies and sports leagues choose Rawlings. Rawlings is the Official Base, Baseball, Helmet, Face Guard and Glove of Major League Baseball, the Official Baseball of Minor League Baseball and the Official Baseball and Softball of the NCAA and the NAIA. The company is headquartered in St. Louis. For more information, please visit Rawlings.com.

About Perfect Game:
Perfect Game is the world’s largest elite youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, producing over 9,800+ events, hundreds of thousands of games, and showcases each year across the country. Perfect Game is dedicated to giving amateur players exposure to take their game to the next level, whether that be in college or in the professional ranks. At Perfect Game events, players are performing with top-level competition in front of college recruiters and professional scouts from all over the country. As a result, these events prove to be invaluable to college coaches as well as Major League Baseball, as they can scout a large population of talented ballplayers in one location. To date, more than 2,072 players that have played in a Perfect Game event have also played in Major League Baseball. Since 2003, 14,476 Perfect Game alumni have been selected in the MLB First-Year Amateur Player Draft. In the 2022 Draft, for example, more than 90 percent of all players selected had played in Perfect Game events, and 29 out of 30 players drafted in the first round had previously attended Perfect Game events. For more information, please visit www.perfectgame.org