Prep Baseball Report

Utah HS Team Preview: Union HS


Jeff Scholzen
Utah Scouting Director

Utah HS Team Preview: Union Cougars

 

 

Opening Day is around the corner, try outs have been scheduled starting Feb 27th, and rosters are soon to be set. The Utah High School Activities Association has announced that opening day of the 2022 season will commence on Monday March 6th. Jeff Scholzen (Utah Scouting Director) begins the 2023 season coverage with our annual preseason team previews, where we will take notes from coaches, and highlight returning players, newcomers, and some sleepers. Over the next couple weeks and leading up to opening day, we will be highlighting some of the top programs in the state in our team previews. 

PBR Utah will also be publishing its state “Power 25” rankings that will be updated every Monday once the season begins. Throughout the season, PBR Utah will be pumping out coverage, highlighting individual players, games, rankings, scouting reports and naming players/pitchers of the week, every Tuesday as well. We will also in June unveil the 2023 PBR Utah Player of the Year. Past recipients saw former American Fork star SS and current TCU Horned Frog, Fisher Ingersoll take home the 2021 honors and in 2022, we saw former Snow Canyon Warriors CF and current BYU Cougar, Luke Anderson haul in the 2022 honors. Anderson has won the starting LF job as a true freshman. PBR Utah looks forward to getting out there this spring to see some great baseball. 

Union by the numbers

Head Coach: Matt Labrum (MANY Years)

Former Head Baseball Coach returns, after taking a year off, and also served 11 Years as the Head Football Coach as well. Also took Baseball Theory as a PE class in the mid 90’s at SUU, from Former SUU Head Baseball Coach and PBR Utah Scouting Director, Jeff Scholzen!

Classification: 3A

Region: 14

2022 Win-Loss: 11-14 (Coach Labrum took a year off to watch his daughter play softball as a senior)

2021 Win-Loss: 16-8

State Playoff appearances in last 10 years: 8

State Championship appearances last 10 years: 0

State Championships last 10 years: 

Key Returners with Class/Position

Brady Meacham 2023 P

Kason Maycock 2023 SS

Kasen Huff 2023 P/DH

Payton Verduzco 2023 C

Maddux Russell 2023 P

Zander Nielsen 2023 OF

Peyton Marx 2023 UT

Young players who have College potential down the road

Kason Maycock 2023 SS

Maddux Russell 2023 P

Brady Meacham 2023 P

Who is your X Factor to your success

  • Health of our arms in Brady and Maddux

Player lost to graduation and College Baseball

  • None

Coaches Summary and Outlook

We look forward to the upcoming season! We return all starters but one, we have experience. Our pitching staff should be a bright spot for our team if we get and keep everyone healthy! Atlee Zipf does a wonderful job preparing our pitchers and we could be really deep.  We have got to swing the bats with more power and less strikeouts.  We have some young and upcoming players that could find themselves in the lineup if they stay hungry.  I for-see this as the deepest team we've had in my time at Union from top to bottom Senior thru Freshmen.  If we can make routine be routine and not worry about personal stats getting in the way of team success, we will make some noise in the the 3A ranks.

  • Matt Labrum (Head Coach)

RELATED NEWS

 

JEFF SCHOLZEN (BIO)

Scholzen was brought on as the Utah Scouting Director for Prep Baseball Report 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 a similar capacity as the Four Corners Scouting Supervisor. In all, Scholzen served as a full-time scout for 20 years. Scholzen also received a 2002 World Series ring for his contributions as a scout. 

With the Angels, Scholzen created an Angels Scout Team, in which he coached the likes of current and former major league players: Kris Bryant, Kevin Gausman, Greg Bird, Tyler Wagner, Aaron Blair, Joey Rickard, Donn Roach, Johnny Field, Taylor Cole and Paul Sewald to name a few. During his run with the the Angels, Scholzen served as the hitting coach for the Angels rookie ball affiliate with the Pioneer League Orem Owlz, helping guide the Owlz to the 2005 and 2007 Pioneer League titles.

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 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. 

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 from 1991-1992.