Top 5 (Power 25) Breakdown ~ Impact Contributors

1) Dixie ~ 22-3 / 10-2 ( W1 )

The Flyers reeled off a 4-0 record to win the Red Rock Classic as the host school in late March. The Flyers have won 18 of their last 20 games and the blessing that any Region 9 school has, is when you have 3 reliable starters, and only play 2 league games a week vs the 3 games a week that northern Utah schools do, it provides a weapon out of the pen in close games, or was the case in week 3, when Coach Danny Ipson decided with his 1st two starters to go in a piggy back situation. Ipson then throws his 3rd starter in game two. The Flyers are much like Snow Canyon, Mountain Ridge, Maple Mountain and Brighton in next level talent, with C-Ridge Erickson (BYU) the top defensive catcher in the state since MLB catcher, Payton Henry. SS-Boston Vest (New Mexico State), 3B-Logan Leavitt (Glendale CC), 1B/RHP-Cooper Bartholomew (CSI), LHP-Braxton Yates (CSI).

Impacting the Ball Club: 

Boston Vest SS / Dixie, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 9 / POS: 1 Committed: New Mexico State Player of the Week

Logan Leavitt 3B / Dixie, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 40 / POS: 5 Committed: Glendale CC (AZ)

Braxton Yates LHP / OF / Dixie , UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 19 / POS: 2 Committed: College of Southern Idaho Player of the Week

Ridge Erickson C / SS / Dixie, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 4 / POS: 2 OverallRank: 471 / POS: 46 Committed: Brigham Young U

Jake Andreas RHP / 3B / Dixie, UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 22 / POS: 5 UNCOMMITTED

Carter Turley C / 2B / Dixie , UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 24 / POS: 3 UNCOMMITTED

2) Snow Canyon ~ 20-5 / 11-1 ( L1 )

The Region 9 Champions by virtue of a split with #1 Dixie this past week put the Warriors in the driver's seat to become the top ranked team, but with the final regular season loss to 11-8 Lehi, kept the top 2 teams the same. The Warriors are loaded with next level talent with RHP-Talan Kelly (Utah Tech) and touched 94 vs Lone Peak, earlier in the year and sits 89-92 with flashes of 93. SS-Crew Secrist (CSI), transfer RHP-Darius Henderson who at some point will make his debut up to 94, while nursing tenderness in his right arm. RHP/OF-Makaio Swensen (Salt Lake CC) hitting .414 with a 88-91 mph FB. OF-Ryder Harrison (Salt Lake CC), RHP-Jackson Kirby (Glendale CC), RHP-Kyson Goates (Lassen CC) and RHP-Andrew Lyon and his mid to upper 80’s FB. Damon  Ence leads the team in hitting at .458, while Henderson is far in front of the pack in region 9 with a .643 OB%. C-Hayden Smith (Glendale CC) is hitting .358 with 6 2B's and 2 HR, after hitting 14 2B's with 7 long balls a year go. 

Impacting the Ball Club:

Makaio Swensen RHP / OF / Snow Canyon, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 13 / POS: 5 Committed: Salt Lake CC

Damon Ence 2B / OF / Snow Canyon , UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 39 / POS: 1 UNCOMMITTED

Ryder Harrison OF / 1B / Snow Canyon, UT / 2024 Committed: Salt Lake CC Player of the Week

Talan Kelly 3B / RHP / Snow Canyon, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 12 / POS: 2 Committed: Utah Tech 𝑳𝒆𝒉𝒊 @ 𝑺𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝑪𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏 𝘒𝘰𝘯𝘢 𝘐𝘤𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭@UtahTech_BASE signee ~ @TalanKelly1 2024 Talan Kelly, 3B/RHP, 5-11 195 (Snow Canyon HS/CBA Summit) The two sport standout, was also a 4A 2nd Tm All-State QB1 and legitimately go both ways at the next… pic.twitter.com/ywZjcEsCyc — Prep Baseball Utah (@PrepBaseballUT) March 10, 2024

Crew Secrist SS / 2B / Snow Canyon, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 21 / POS: 3 Committed: College of Southern Idaho

Dewy Gibb 1B / RHP / Snow Canyon, UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 49 / POS: 2 UNCOMMITTED

Hayden Smith C / 3B / Snow Canyon, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 27 / POS: 6 Committed: Glendale CC (AZ)

Jackson Kirby RHP / Snow Canyon , UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 41 / POS: 10 Committed: Glendale CC (AZ)

Darius Henderson 1B / RHP / Snow Canyon , UT / 2024 UNCOMMITTED

Andrew Lyon RHP / UTL / Snow Canyon, UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 23 / POS: 6 UNCOMMITTED Player of the Week

3) Maple Mountain ~ 20-2 / 11-0 ( W17 )

With 5 games to go and in the driver's seat in Region 7 with a 1.5 game lead over 2nd place Salem Hills who are 7-1 in league. The two Power 25 teams matchup this Thursday and Friday, before the Golden Eagles finish regular and region season play against Power 25, the Orem Tigers with a 2.5 game lead on the Tigers. So with this close a gap between the three schools, it could get interesting and any one of the three could win the crown headed into the two out of three district tourney format play. The Golden Eagles are loaded with next level talent with Junior LHP-Chase Johnston (BYU) and his 88-91 mph FB and big breaking swing and miss CB. Senior RHP/CF-Bennet Averett closes and touches 90-91 and provides power and a big arm from CF. AJ Thomas is the heady, high IQ backstop and switch-hitter who drives the ship from the lead off spot and senior RHP/OF-Jake Roscher (Mt Saint Mary’s commit) takes his turn in the rotation along with senior RHP-Blake Carter. The Golden Eagles have a solid 3 man rotation and then feature the #1 player in the 2026 class with 1B/3B-Cy Chrisman who punishes balls and has plus to at times projectable ++ raw power and has shown it with a couple monstrous HR’s while hitting .492!

Cy Chrisman 3B / 1B / Maple Mountain , UT / 2026 Rankings  State Rank: 1 / POS: 1 Overall Rank: 336 / POS: 24 UNCOMMITTED 𝑼𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 🔦 𝘊𝘺 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯, 1B/3B@PBR_Uncommitted ~ @cy_chrisman 2026 Cy Chrisman, 1B/3B, 6-4 210 (Maple Mountain HS) 2024 @prepbaseball Future Games Invite 2024 West Coast ProCase invite (June 2nd at Pepperdine U) The top power bat… pic.twitter.com/qXwD5JLJGx — Prep Baseball Utah (@PrepBaseballUT) April 3, 2024

AJ Thomas C / SS / Maple Mountain , UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 33 / POS: 5 UNCOMMITTED

Braiden Catterson C / 3B / Maple Mountain , UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 49 / POS: 8 UNCOMMITTED

Bennett Averett OF / RHP / Maple Mountain , UT / 2024 UNCOMMITTED

Blake Carter RHP / OF / Maple Mountain, UT / 2024 Rankings  State Rank: 45 / POS: 11 Committed: College of Southern Idaho

Jake Roscher RHP / 1B / Maple Mountain, UT / 2024 Committed: Mt. Saint Mary's U

Chase Johnston LHP / 1B / Maple Mountain High, UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 3 / POS: 2 Overall Rank: 388 / POS: 39 Committed: Brigham Young U

4) Brighton ~ 19-2 / 17-0 ( W18 )

The Bengals are a great story, and are fulfilling their promise with 3 certifiable HS aces on the mound with all three juniors. RHP-Josh Mawhinney, (Utah Valley commit) one of this week's Players of the week, threw a 5 inning NO-HITTER last week and allowed only one walk along with 9 strikeouts touching 89 with the FB. Past player of the week and the author of his own NO-HITTER a few weeks back, is 2-time Future Gamer Miles Layton who has added 35 Lbs since last summer and sits in the mid 80’s and flashes upper at times. The 3rd ace is another Future Gamer in nasty RHP-Case Beames, who sits mid 80’s as well and touches 88, but it’s his nasty two plane shaped CB with past flashes of over 3,000 rpm’s with the spin and considerable depth. 

At the plate, the Bengals are also loaded with top 3B and #2 uncommitted players in the state in Riley Brown and his 6 HR’s. Brown is a Sr. Future Games invite and has game changing triple digit EV power. Junior SS-Jack Saba is finally having the year with the bat that a D1 commit (BYU) should and has 11 extra base hits after only 3 a year ago. It’s been a coming out of sorts for the slick defender who is also hitting .414. OF-Easton Fry has been on fire of late as well and one of the top uncommitted OF’ers in the state is having a banner year as well. Fry is a very strong candidate for the October West Coast Games if he makes it that far, before a team snags him. Fry is hitting .405 with 12 extra base hits with four of the long ball variety. 

As a team the Bengals are hitting .372 and pitching to a team ERA of 2.17, just behind Dixie at 1.85 and Maple Mountain for the leaderboards among 4A-6A schools!

Braxton Biesinger SS / Brighton , UT / 2024 Committed: College of Southern Idaho

Josh Mawhinney RHP / 1B / Brighton , UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 9 / POS: 2 Committed: Utah Valley  𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕 @ 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒐𝒏 (ᴀᴘʀɪʟ 24)@UVUbsb commit ~ @JoshMaw23 2025 Josh Mawhinney, RHP, 6-4 200 (Brighton HS/GBG Utah) 𝗡𝗢-𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 🚨‼️ IP 5 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 1 SO 9 The future Wolverine and #9 ranked player in the class, pitches a master piece at home, to propel… pic.twitter.com/3UanleE43v — Prep Baseball Utah (@PrepBaseballUT) April 26, 2024

Riley Brown 3B / 1B / Brighton, UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 10 / POS: 2 UNCOMMITTED 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒐𝒏 @ 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕 (𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭 𝟤𝟥） 𝖱𝗂𝗅𝖾𝗒 𝖡𝗋𝗈𝗐𝗇@PBR_Uncommitted ~ @rileybrown35 2025 Riley Brown, 3B, 5-11 195 (Brighton HS/Wow Factor National ‘25/Mtn West) ‘24 Sr. Future Games Invite The #10 ranked player in the class…The 6th HR on the year for Brown… pic.twitter.com/xq45ybxspN — Prep Baseball Utah (@PrepBaseballUT) April 25, 2024

Jack Saba SS / OF / Brighton , UT / 2025 Committed: Brigham Young U

Easton Fry OF / C / Brighton , UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 25 / POS: 4 UNCOMMITTED 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒐𝒏 @ 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕 (𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭 𝟤𝟥） 𝖤𝖺𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗇 𝖥𝗋𝗒@PBR_Uncommitted ~ @eastonfry_25 2025 Easton Fry, OF, 6-0 185 (Brighton HS/GBG Utah) Fry is an intriguing bat w/emerging power this spring. Smoked this ball to deep CF over 400’ for a solo HR! Was the start of… pic.twitter.com/3GW1L6ecu1 — Prep Baseball Utah (@PrepBaseballUT) April 25, 2024

Bubba Ellis OF / 3B / Brighton High, UT / 2026 Rankings  State Rank: 17 / POS: 5 UNCOMMITTED

Case Beames RHP / OF / Brighton , UT / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 11 / POS: 3 OverallRank: 468 / POS: 143 UNCOMMITTED

Miles Layton RHP / 1B / Brighton , UT / 2025 Rankings  State Rank: 26 / POS: 7 UNCOMMITTED Player of the Week

5) Orem ~ 17-5 / 8-3 ( W2 ) 

Breaking down the Tigers is fun as many familiar faces to Prep Baseball Utah are dotted around the diamond. They have also been a 5A juggernaut for the past handful of years and no more than when these players first entered the halls of Orem High. It starts with staff ace RHP-Easton Davies and his 89-94 mph FB that’s headed to Arizona State this coming fall. But Davies has been swinging a big stick this spring as well with a handful of long HR’s and was last week's Player of the Week with the bat as he hit 3 round trippers and drove in 13 Tiger runners. 3B-Merrick Bostock has also been swinging for extra base hit after hit and producing long ball power. One of the top exit velo leaders at state, regional and national events, Bostock’s “stock” is sure to climb this summer on the recruiting circuit. MIF and utility HS performer Zach Engemann has had another big year at the plate and provided solid defense wherever Coach Hermansen has employed him. RHP-Owen Miller is another power bat in the middle of the order, but will be taking his upper 80’s FB and devastating CH across town this fall to the campus of BYU what’s even more impressive is the Tigers have done this without 3rd starter RHP-Blake Brotherson, who blew out his elbow in the fall, but will back this coming fall and ready to lead the staff in ‘25 as the ace of yet another quality Orem squad! 

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SCOUTING DIRECTOR (BIO)

Scholzen comes to Prep Baseball after serving 9 years as the "Four Corners" Scouting Supervisor with the Milwaukee Brewers (2011-2020). Prior to his run with the Brewers, Scholzen worked for the Los Angeles Angels for 11 years (1999-2010), serving in the same capacity as the "Four Corners" Scouting Supervisor (UT, WY, So-ID, Las Vegas, AZ, CO, NM and El Paso). Scholzen received a 2002 World Series ring for his contributions as a scout with the Angels. 

With the Angels, Scholzen created an Angels Scout Team, in which he coached the following MLB players: Kris Bryant, Kevin Gausman, Greg Bird, Tyler Wagner, Aaron Blair, Joey Rickard, Donn Roach, Johnny Field, Taylor Cole, Andy Burns and Paul Sewald to name a few.

During his run with the the Angels, Scholzen also served as the hitting coach for the Angels rookie ball affiliate in the Pioneer League, the Orem Owlz, helping guide the Owlz to the 2005 and 2007 Pioneer League titles, which earned Jeff two more championship rings.

In Scholzen's 20 year scouting career, he was credited with the signing of 6 MLB players starting with: Brandon Wood, SS, Angels 2003, 1st Rd ~ Efren Navarro, 1B, Angels 2007, 50th Rd ~ Donn Roach, RHP, Angels 2010, 3rd Rd ~ Tyler Wagner, RHP, Brewers 2012, 4th Rd ~ Payton Henry, C, Brewers 2016, 6th Rd ~ Ryan Aguilar, 1B/OF - Brewers 2017, 31st Rd ~ Scholzen also had an additional 3 players added to various clubs 40 man MLB rosters over the years. Currently 2019 (14th Rd) draft pick, RHP-Paxton Schultz from Utah Valley U, is currently in AAA with the Toronto Blue Jays, and former 40 man Brewes rostered RHP (Utah Tech) just recently returned from Korea and signed with the NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks and will most likely start the year in AAA and once stretched out after an injury plagued 2023, File will move up to AAA!

Prior to becoming a professional scout, Scholzen served as the head coach at Southern Utah University between 1993-1997. At the time, Scholzen was the youngest Division I head coach in the country, when he was first hired at 24 years old. The Southern Utah baseball program was dropped after the 2012 season. While coaching at Southern Utah, Scholzen served as the hitting coach for the Alaska Goldpanners in 1995, as they won the Alaska League Championship. Scholzen also recruited and coached World Series RHP-Ryan Jensen of the San Francisco Giants, who would earn a top 5 finish for NL Rookie of the Year in 2022. Scholzen and Jensen had the unique opportunity, to be on opposing sides of the ledger, when Scholzen's Angels and Jensen's Giants squared off in the 2002 MLB Fall Classic.

Scholzen also had the pleasure of coaching Jensen's roommate and back up catcher, Kyle Turner who has worked in professional/major league baseball for 24 years. Kyle currently is in his 14th season with the big league Kansas City Royals and serves as the clubs Head Athletic Trainer. Turner was instramental, while a young player for Scholzen at Southern Utah, in introducing Scholzen to his first wife, the late Heidi Dalton Scholzen, who passed away in December of 2014. A native of Utah, Scholzen played at Hurricane HS and was twice named 1st team All-State and an AAU HM All-American, before moving on to Utah Valley CC and Eastern Oregon University, earning All-Conference honors on three separate occasions. Scholzen played in the Angels’ organization in 1991.

Scholzen was married to his late wife Heidi for 20 years and their union produced four children - McKyla 27, Miranda 24, McKenzie 22 and the couples only son, Grant Scholzen 19, who is a freshman 2B at D1 WCC school, the U of the Pacific (Pacific Tigers) on scholarship. After Heidi's passing in 2014, Scholzen married Cami Macias Scholzen, a widow herself and the same age as Heidi and the couple now have been married 8 years. Between both families, Jeff has 3 grandchildren and 5 step grandchildren (8 total) and the Scholzen's reside in Hurricane, UT in the bottom left SW corner of the state near the most iconic and scenic national parks in the country.