-Lewis-Palmer junior right-hander Paul Tillotson, a University of Nebraska commitment, showed really high-end stuff on Wednesday afternoon. A well-built prospect, Tillotson stands at 6’2” or 6’2” and weighs in at a sturdy 200 pounds, showing present strength and athleticism with some room to fill out as well. Tillotson showed why he’s presently a Top 200 Prospect overall in the Class of 2016. He worked 90-91 early in his start, settling in at 88-91 for the entirety of his start. He employs long arm action to a near overtop slot, generating excellent arm speed and pretty quality overall command once he hones it in. His fastball shows excellent life to the arm side, both when commanded down in the zone as well as when elevated. The fastball is obviously his bread-and-butter pitch, but he complements it with both a curveball and changeup. He took an inning or two to get the feel for his changeup, but when he did it showed as a quality pitch. Thrown at 76-78 MPH, it has a significant velocity differential from his fastball, and mimicked the fastball well in terms of arm speed and life to arm side. He struggled with consistency of the pitch, but turned over quite a few solid ones and got several swings and misses off the pitch. His best secondary offering on this day was his curveball, which ended up being a true weapon pitch and flashed legitimate above-average potential pretty often. Thrown in the low 70’s, the pitch presents 11/5-12/6 break, quality shape, and very hard downward bite. When commanded--which he did pretty well with the curveball—it was a very effective pitch both in the zone and out of it. He got several awkward looking swings on the pitch, as well as some jelly-legged takes on the pitch. En route to racking up double-digit strikeouts, the curveball played a big role for Tillotson.

 -Monarch HS (Colorado) played Jesuit HS on Wednesday morning, starting sophomore right-hander Blake Rohm. Despite mixed results in the scorebook, Rohm showed some impressive things, especially considering his age. Working from a long, lean 6’4” 170-pound frame, Rohm combined solid arm speed with a balanced delivery to hurl mid-80’s heat in the early part of his start, generating solid plane to the plate despite some spine tilt in his delivery. He worked 83-85 early, dropping more to 81-82 after 50 or so pitches, and while the looseness of his command is what got him into trouble, the raw stuff is intriguing. He flashed quality feel for a changeup, throwing it at around 75-76 with fade and thrown with good arm speed.

 -Senior right-hander Tucker Klein of Pine Creek HS (Colorado) did a little bit of everything on Wednesday, leading his team on the mound and with the bat. He works in the 80-82 range with his fastball, employs short arm action to a high ¾ slot, generates solid arm speed, arm works well, uses his lower half effectively, and offers an athletic delivery and quality overall command profile. He pounded the zone with all of his pitches and did an excellent job of challenging opposing hitters. He showed very good athleticism, hopping off the mound to field his position effectively as well. Helped himself out with the bat, showing some surprising pop from a smooth stroke that resulted in a double over the CF’s head in the opposite-field gap. 

-Brian Sakowski

-A long 6-foot-6 right-hander, Tualatin’s Jacob Bennett is coming off a successful basketball season but it’s on the diamond where he truly shines. A University of Oregon commit, Bennett works from a high three-quarter slot which when combined with his long levers and athleticism allows for him to create solid downhill plane on fastball which sat in the 86-88 mph rather comfortably with more on the high end of the range. 

His fastball shows heavy life down in the zone and was able to miss bats with the pitch, though when the ball was put in play it was weak ground ball contact more often than not. Bennett shows a quick arm coming through the backside and projects to only throw harder as he continues to fill out and incorporate more of his lower half into his delivery. A separator for Bennett throughout the game though was his slider, a solid offering in the 80-81 mph that he used to pick up more than a couple of his punch outs. From the first slider to the last one he threw, Bennett had an exceptionally strong feel for the pitch, maintaining his arm action and arm speed allowing him to generate short and late break on the pitch. 

-An uncommitted senior left-hander, Ponderosa’s Brian King in an intriguing arm who is more than capable of pitching at the next level and projects very well on the mound. Listed at 6-foot, 175-pounds, King came out in the first inning sitting 85-86 mph, touching an 87 from a high three-quarter release, allowing him to generate solid downhill plane. With broad shoulders, King still has room to fill and will help his stuff take the next step.  He creates nice angle on his fastball and shows occasional cutting action while showing a balanced and fluid delivery on the mound. He worked more in the 82-83 mph out of the stretch but in the fifth inning came back out sitting 85-86 mph. The Colorado native also showed a low-70s curveball with nice 1-7 shape and flashed a slider with short break at 80 mph. King did a nice job of filling up the strike zone and getting in on right-handers, inducing consistent, weak ground ball contact. 

-A junior right-hander and already a San Diego State commit, Mitchell Allen of Boulder Creek (AZ) got the start opposite of Bennett and showed interesting stuff of his own on the mound. With also worth pointing out that when he isn’t pitching Allen plays first base and is one of Boulder Creek’s top bats, serving as their three-hole hitter where he shows plenty of strength from the right side. With a lower arm slot on the mound, Allen makes for an uncomfortable at-bat when he stays on top of the ball, creating angle and late life to his arm side. Throughout the game he sat in the 84-87 mph range, touching a handful of 88s and peaked at 89 mph twice. He attacked hitters with the pitch and filled up the zone, showing a quick but compact arm action, adding to deception in the delivery. With the ball getting on hitters quickly, the future Aztec also mixed in a short 11-5 curveball in the mid-70s and flashed a changeup that was up to 83 mph.