Texas JUCO baseball is vibrant in 2019 and Noah Sharp, the PBR Texas JUCO Insider, is dedicated to watching over the state’s lively and competitive baseball scene. Texas alone named five of its programs in PBR JUCO’s Preseason Top 25 Rankings, and Sharp also produced the state’s very own Texas JUCO Top 25 Rankings, too. In this weekly column, we’ll break down the most notable D1, D2, and D3 action in the state from the past week. This week has had the most movement so far this season; with another team making its way into the Top 25.

Texas Scouting Director Toby Bicknell was in Houston this past weekend to cover the Tournament of Champions. Click the links below to view video and scout notes. 

+ Day 1
+ Day 2
+ Hitters to Watch

Newcomers:

UR→ #24 Hill

With wins over (unranked) Cedar Valley and two against NCAA Division 2 St. Edwards JV, Hill started their season this past week outscoring their opponents 32-6. One of the biggest offensive weapons for them opening week was SO INF Josh Smeltzer (uncommitted). Despite going 2-7, he had 1 home run, 1 double, drove in 8, along with being walked 4 times.

UR -> #25 North Central

Defeated Oklahoma Christian in two games, and took one from Paris to bring their early season record to 4-1

ON THE RISE:

#16→ #14 MIDLAND

Midland traveled east this past weekend to take on #7 Weatherford where they took 2 of the 3 games. After losing the first game, the Chaps came back in game two with a win which was dominated by starter SO RHP Garrett Egli (uncommitted) who went 6 innings striking out 6 while only allowing 5 total players on base. In game 3 the bats showed up as the Chaps scored 8 with the help from SO OFJordan Billups (Marshall Commit) (3-5, 1 Triple, 1 RBI, 1 Run) and FR SS Mason Weathers (2-4, 2 RBI, 1 Run).

#8→ #6 ODESSA

Odessa’s only loss this weekend came against #4, Grayson. Despite that, they had a huge extra-inning win against #1 San Jac, in addition to wins over #9 Navarro and #17 Alvin. The biggest contributor for the Wranglers this week was RS SO OF Kyler Castillo (uncommitted) who went 8-13 with 1 double while bringing in 3 runs and scoring 3 himself.

#5→ #2 HOWARD

Howard had the most impressive week out of any team in the state. They were able to come out of the Tournament of Champions without a single loss. Their successes included big wins over #1 San Jac, #3 McLennan, #9 Navarro, and #17 Alvin. This was in part due to SO Brett Cain (Houston Commit), whose timely hitting helped them out tremendously during the weekend.

DROPPING:

#17→ #20 Alvin

Alvin's only win this past week came against #4 Grayson. They, however, lost to #3 McLennan, #5 Howard, and #8 Odessa. They were outscored 36-13 during the week. Their best performance came from FR INF Tyler Hendrick in their win over Grayson where he went 3-5 with 2 doubles and 1 homerun.

#12→ #16 Northeast Texas

Northeast had another tough week going 1-4. In their win against Pratt, they showed that walks do hurt. They were walked a total of 20 times throughout the day with the biggest contributor being FR 2B Kody Cleveland. He went 1-1 with 4 walks, scoring 4 times, while bringing in 1. On the mound during their win was SO LHP Chandler Maul (uncommitted) who had a good showing; going 6 innings with striking out 7 while only allowing 1 run off of 3 hits.

PBR Texas JUCO Top 25

JUCO WIRE