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Tournaments  | Story  | 6/28/2018

14u WWBA Scout Notes: Day 6

Vincent Cervino      Jheremy Brown      Greg Gerard     
Photo: Connor Fuhrman (Perfect Game)

14u WWBA National Championship: Event Page | Daily Leaders
Scout Notes: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

A pair of hitters stood out in Elite Squad’s 12:30 matchup on Wednesday. Both Adrian Dominguez (2022, Miami, Fla.) and Wilder Puertas (2022, Orange Park, Fla.) had big days at the plate and show high-level skillsets moving forward.

First Dominguez, is a lean and athletic 6-foot-2, 160-pound lefthanded hitter. Dominguez was the extra hitter batting in the cleanup spot in this contest. While not playing at his primary first base position, Dominguez got to show off his hit tool early and often in this one. He picked up three hits on the day and found the barrel on all of them. Dominguez does not necessarily have the most bat speed in the world, but his hands are direct to the ball and the baseball jumps when squared. He had the chance to hit mistake pitches on the nose of the bat including a double that one hopped the wall to his pull side on one swing in particular.

Puertas, while recently up to 84 mph on the mound, has shown a nice feel for the left side of the infield as well. He started the game at third base and later moved over to shortstop and showed smooth actions while standing with a mature frame. Puertas, similar to his teammate Dominguez showed some ability to hit the ball hard to all fields. In his first at-bat, Puertas did not get all of the pitch, but still showed his strength through contact to muscle the ball through the infield for a single. In his second at-bat, He drove a ball to the opposite field for a double really displaying his ability to hit to all fields at a high level.

Gavin Meyer (2021, Hemet, Calif.) pitched his CBA Matadors team into bracket play with a strong performance on the mound while also showing plenty of projection on the mound. His fastball topped out at 82 mph while also offering a mostly clean delivery and nice overall pitchability. Meyer pitched to his maximum daily limit of 95 pitches and that was all he needed to finish off the complete game, run-rule win. While not showing it too often, Meyer mixed in a curveball in the low-70s to accompany his fastball that sat consistently in the 78-82 mph range for the duration of his outing. His arm stroke is a bit long, but Meyer is highly projectable standing at a high waisted 6-foot-2, 144-pounds. He pitches with very low effort and fills up the strike zone enough to get batters to make soft contact on his fastball that flashes sinking action.




While already eliminated from playoff contention, Louisiana Knights Black did not limit the high level arms they threw on the mound. The starter for the Knights, McClain Ray (2022, Tupelo, Miss.), has one of the cleaner deliveries that you are going to find from a rising freshman in high school and the velocity comes easy. Ray’s fastball sits in the 82-84 mph range with occasional life to armside. His delivery stays online throughout with his arm staying loose and whipping through the arm circle with ease. Ray is able to create angle on his fastball and pitches with such low effort making one think that there is still plenty of velocity left in his tank moving forward.

As far as the game is concerned, Ray ran into a series of unfortunate events and did find a couple of bats. The overall projection and cleanliness is too intriguing not to mention, however. Ray showed a nice arsenal of pitches as well mixing in three for strikes in his fastball, curveball and changeup. His curveball was the secondary offering he served, but the changeup may be the better of the two showing sink while maintaining his arm speed. His curveball did show potential, however, with short break in the low-70s.

Andrew Woods (2022, Monroe, La.) came into relief of his teammate Ray on the Louisiana Knights and offered up some similar type of potential on the mound. Woods topped out at 85 mph on the bump with a clean arm action as well. Woods does throw from an over the top arm slot while also throwing across his body some leading to the baseball being left up in the zone. Woods has a good slider to accompany the heavy and occasionally lively fastball. Woods did only pitch an inning but did show some of the better stuff of the day on the mound and was able to limit damage while running into some trouble. With a little mechanical cleanup, Woods should continue to see improvements in his velocity as he is really projectable having the frame he has at 6-foot-1, 160-pounds.

Cardell Thibodeaux (2022, Lafayette, La.) collected four hits and was all over the field for the Louisiana Knights. Manning the leadoff spot in the 11-9 victory, Thibodeaux has a small and young frame while having the ability to really hit. He plays with a lot of energy and showed early and often that he can hit the ball on the nose while also facing good velocity for his age as well. All four of his hits were hit on the barrel of the bat to the middle of the field or to his pull side. He has some twitch present in his swing and can fly around the basepaths.

The velocity that Thibodeaux was facing as mentioned in the last write up was from Beaver Valley’s Drew Lafferty (2022, South Park, Pa.). Lafferty is another pitcher that is highly projectable at his young age of 14 years old standing at 6-foot-1, 175-pounds. The righthander has multiple checkpoints to his delivery but the ball comes out cleanly and peaked at 85 mph on this day. Lafferty may have not had the best day in terms of performance, but he showed some potential to his fastball and curveball as well as further projection of his craft moving forward. Lafferty’s arm works full while appearing a bit tight through the arm circle. Lafferty certainly has upside with his size, velocity and projection and can really be a force on the mound with some minor adjustments to his delivery while the arm strength is certainly present.

– Gregory Gerard





Every so often you hear about a player who hasn’t played in a Perfect Game event and they absolutely dominate in their first appearance, some that was certainly the case of young lefthander Tristan Smith (2022, Chesnee, S.C.) who tossed a complete game gem to help the Canes get out of pool play. A long and loose limbed 6-foot-1, 175-pounds, Smith already checks plenty of boxes that recruiting coordinators are looking for and his performance only elevates what he was able to produce with his left hand.

Going the distance on 92 pitches, Smith was electric from the first pitch to the last, living in the upper-80s and bumping 88 mph in the opening frame and still sat 86 mph to the last batter of the game in the seventh inning. His delivery features a long and loose arm stroke through the back and though he lands closed with his strike foot and works across his body at release, Smith showed his athleticism as he repeatedly worked on top of the ball creating angle through the zone with late running life to the pitch. The velocity comes easy for the South Carolina native as he pumped the zone, missing plenty of bats with his fastball and racked up seven punch outs on the day. When working out of the stretch he’d occasionally rush down the mound with his lower half and get under the ball from being mistimed but as the box score reflects, it never truly impacted his performance.

He showed equal comfort in both his breaking ball and changeup, mixing both throughout the outing while leaning more on his curveball than the changeup. At its best Smith showed tight, late break on the mid-70s bender, showing more slider shape at times due to his release, and more than once back-doored the pitch on righthanded hitters for a called third strike. He flashed a seldom changeup that bumped 77 mph, a pitch that played well off his low-80s two-seam fastball which offered similar life down to the arm side. All the ingredients are there for Smith to become a big-time arm and it’ll be exciting to follow his development over the next four years.




After Day 1 of the tournament in which he was highlighted for his arm strength on the mound, Nathan Fink (2022, Charlottesville, Va.) has continued to swing a hot bat and definitely needs to be monitored closely for his abilities in the box. With a long and projectable, yet already strong 6-foot-2, 170-pounds, Fink shows some of the faster hands in the box I’ve seen this tournament and while he’s cranked a couple of long balls, his ability to drive the ball on a line to all fields is equally as impressive. Starting in right field with the requisite arm strength as highlighted by his 86 mph fastball, Fink picked up his four extra base hit with a double down the third base line, again highlighting those hands and fluid stroke through the zone.

Daniel Corona (2021, Brooklyn, N.Y.) may have been held hitless in the game against Swingman baseball, but his abilities and athleticism up the middle at shortstop proved to be just as pivotal as he played lockdown defense at the premium position. A young rising shortstop, Corona’s skills up the middle are evident and plenty advanced from his footwork to and through the ball, rounding it like few others in the tournament have shown, while putting one of the stronger arms on display across the diamond while looking as though he were simply playing catch. He’s improved his physical strength over the last year and has focused on his lefthanded swing, showing more loft and bat speed through the zone which will only continue to improve with physical maturation.

In what seems to be a talented position in the 14u WWBA, Phillips Daniels (2022, Columbia, S.C.) put his defensive abilities behind the plate on display while also swinging the bat well from the right side. Strongly built at 5-foot-9, 160-pounds, Daniels shows loose and flexible actions behind the plate with a quick transfer and plenty of arm strength to produce consistent pop times in the 2.0s in between innings with accuracy down to the bag. It didn’t take long for him to make his presence felt offensively either as he jumped on a first pitch fastball in the bottom of the second inning and did a nice job of staying compact to it while lining a double down the pull side line, his second extra-base knock of the tournament.

Listed as a primary catcher per his Perfect Game profile, Ellis Yohn (2021, Smiths Station, Ala.) showed definite upside on the mound during the final day of pool play for the Dulins Dodgers and should be a key piece for this group moving forward. With broad shoulders and advanced strength for this age at 5-foot-10, 190-pounds, Yohn exuded confidence on the mound and came out attacking hitters with a game plan of his own. Over four innings of work Yohn managed to strike out six, mostly on the strength of his fastball which he repeatedly ran up to 86 mph throughout the contest. What stood out during Yohn’s performance was his ability to add and subtract on the fastball, often sitting in the low-80s at the start of an at-bat, working ahead of a batter before ramping it back up to 85-86 mph with the same lower effort release. His delivery is a simple one as he stays online towards the plate and the velocity comes easy, showing short running life while also possessing the comfort to run it up on the hands of opposing hitters. He flashed a slider in the low-70s and was able to land the pitch for strikes, though it was the fastball in which he repeatedly went to for his outs.

Simply put, East Cobb Astros’ centerfielder Lleyton Lackey (2022, Grovetown, Ga.) plays the game in fast forward mode and even if you happen to catch just one at-bat or watch him track down a fly ball, you’d see to agree. Picking up another two hits yesterday from the top of the order, including a double to his pull side while hitting lefthanded, Lackey has continued to show a handle for the barrel from either side of the plate while impacting the game with his speed as he collected his 11th stolen bag of the tournament. He isn’t overly physical at 5-foot-9, 145-pounds but he doesn’t need to be in order to execute his game plan, either offensively or out in center field where he shows solid range with light, gliding steps to the ball.

– Jheremy Brown





Turning in what was one of the better starts of the tournament, Braedon Karpathios (2021, Willow Street, Pa.) helped pitch his GoWags team to victory and showed off lots of pitchability an a good breaking ball in the process. The southpaw stands at a listed 5-foot-10, 160-pounds with a loose, whip-like arm stroke through a lower three-quarters slot, all of this combines for the ability to hide the ball well and create some running life on his fastball. What Karpathios does so well is pound the zone with fastballs that were in the 78-82 mph range, and then brings out his big-breaking, high spin rate curveball to put hitters away. The curveball worked in the mid-60s with big 1-to-7 shape and tons of spin, routinely putting up spin rates of around 2600-2700 rpm. The breaking ball is a difference maker and racked up a ton of strikeouts for the lefty as he went six shutout innings while allowing just one hit and striking out ten batters on the afternoon.

TEST Baseball shortstop Anthony Silva (2022, San Antonio, Texas) has impressed throughout most of the week with his defensive actions and athleticism at shortstop. He’s made a couple of really impressive plays look smooth and easy with good range and funnel-work with his hands. During the game on Wednesday he wasn’t at shortstop, instead starting on the mound where he showed off the arm strength by running his fastball up to 81 mph and tossing four strong innings while only allowing one run. The swing is smooth and full through extension of the hands. He generates some bat speed through the hitting zone and meets the ball nicely at the point of extension; Silva recorded one hit batting out of the leadoff spot during the game.

In one of the most highly-contested matchups of pool play during the event, Swingman SC battled the Canes National to a 0-0 draw and the talented South Carolina group had been impressive all week long. Shortstop Jack Reynolds (2022, Columbia, S.C.), in particular, has been very impressive both with his defensive and offensive capabilities. One such play comes to mind during the first game of the event where he made a diving stop up the middle, got to his feet, set to throw, and fired a strike to first and nail a runner. The lefthanded hitter has a fairly smooth swing path with some natural loft and really showed off the extra base power during their game on Tuesday with a couple of triples during the affair. Reynolds also showed off the arm strength on the mound during the final inning of the game, where he worked with a short, fast arm stroke that saw his fastball top out at 84 mph.

The Dirtbags failed to advance to bracket play after drawing a tie in their final game against Canes-VA-Roop, but three-hole hitter Connor Fuhrman (2022, Daleville, Va.) had a very strong tournament, showing a balanced swing and solid approach in the middle of the order while batting over .500 for the event. Fuhrman has a smooth barrel plane that works best when going through the point of extension. The hand quickness and fluidity of the swing path allows him to cover the plate and either pull the ball hard with intent and on a line, or go to the opposite field with authority as he did during the game on Wednesday that saw him push across a run in the first inning. Fuhrman’s balance at the plate and ability to drive the ball make him very intriguing and the loft of the plane should give way to power in the near future as he continues to add strength.

– Vincent Cervino
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