Each week, the Prep Baseball Report Washington staff will highlight some of the top performers across the WIAA landscape in this ‘Diamond Notes’ article. Players mentioned below had impressive performances across the board in a given week.

You can find last week’s edition by clicking HERE. 

If interested in submitting a player to be mentioned in next week’s edition of ‘Diamond Notes’, shoot a direct message on Twitter to @PBR_Washington or via email to [email protected]

For now, here are the players that popped from the first week of WIAA action, spanning from March 21st to March 27th.

DIAMOND NOTES

+ Both RHP JR Ritchie (Bainbridge Island, 2022; UCLA) and RHP Jackson Cox (Turtle Lake, 2022; Oregon) continue to pitch at an extremely elite level, as is the expectation. Shooter Hunt, our Vice President of Scouting, highlighted the upper-tier duo in a recent article, and their individual performances last week, HERE.

+ One of the state’s top junior prospects, MIF Payton Knowles (Peninsula, 2023; Gonzaga) had quite the week at the plate. The Gonazaga commit tallied eight total hits without striking out once, driving in five runs in total. He impacted the game on the basepaths as well, swiping four bags without getting caught once.

+ RHP Kaelen Nesel (Tahoma, 2022) fired a flawless seven inning perfect game on Friday, March 25th against Decatur. The senior righty went 21 up, 21 down with 15 punchouts on 95 pitches with 61 strikes.

+ It’s been a strong start to his high school career for 6-foot-3, 190-pound freshman INF/C Kort Baker (Jefferson, 2025), who’s batting .800 across 13 plate appearances in four games for Jefferson. He racked up five hits in their two games this week, driving in two runs and doubling in the process.

+ In a strong showing on Saturday, RHP Cole Uyematsu (Redmond, 2022) went five innings without allowing an earned run. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound senior allowed just one hit and struck out nine in the process. On the season, Uyematsu has not allowed an earned run in 19 ⅓ innings, striking out 25 batters.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SHOWCASE	STATE	DATE	LOCATION
Pacific Northwest Rising Stars	WA	05/08	Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex - Ridgefield, WA
Ridgefield Summer Open	WA	05/22	Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex - Ridgefield, WA
Spokane Summer Open	WA	06/18	Whitworth University
Bend Summer Open (OR)	WA	06/20	Bend Senior High School
PBR Junior Future Games	NATIONAL	07/26	LakePoint

 

+ A mention in last week’s article, Dayne Castillo (Sammamish) helped propel the Sammamish offense to 48 runs total in their three wins. Castillo’s most productive games came in the latter two, where he went 4-for-5 with eight RBIs, five runs scored, and tripled as well.

+ Castillo’s teammate, Hunter Peterson (2022), had quite the offensive week as well. Peterson tallied seven hits in Sammamish’s three games, driving in three runs and scoring seven on his own. He doubled and struck out just once, too.

+ Gavin Yoder (Silas) finished last week with five hits in 11 at-bats, driving in seven batters and doubling twice. Yoder took the mound later in the week and struck out eight batters across five scoreless innings, too.

+ Senior Adam Freinik (Juanita, 2022) talled five hits, including a double, and drove in an equal number of runs for Juanita last week.

+ Junior Cole Judkins (Grandview, 2023) put together an all-around productive line across Grandview’s games last week, wracking up seven hits in total while driving in six runs. Judkins' value extended to the basepaths, as he walked three times and scored six runs of his own.

+ RHP Matthew Britton (North Creek, 2023) went seven innings on Monday in a complete game effort victory, allowing just one run in the process. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior punched out five batters and walked just one, scattering five hits across the entirety of his outing.

+ Cole Johnson (Port Angeles, 2024) had a big offensive game on March 26th to help lead Port Angeles to an 11-6 win over Sehome. The sophomore went 3-for-4 with three doubles and six RBI.

+ LHP Quinn Hubbs (Cheney, 2024) started the week off with 3.1 strong innings on Tuesday 3/22, allowing one run and punching out five. Hubbs jumped back on the rubber just three days later, firing a complete game shutout. He punched out 13 batters in that outing, scattering four hits without walking anyone.

+ Two players’ key performances propelled Bellevue to a productive stretch of games last week: OF/RHP Ben Nielsen (2023) and 3B/RHP Jackson Hyatt (2023). Nielsen went three innings in relief in Bellevue’s 14-8 victory over Juanita, not allowing an earned run and striking out four without issuing a walk. He helped himself at the plate as well, doubling and scoring twice, bringing his early season batting average up to the .400 mark with an OPS north of 1.000. Last Friday night against Lake Washington, Hyatt didn’t allow a run while working in relief, holding his opponents to just one hit while striking out five.

+ INF/OF Tyson Schertenleib (Brewster, 2023) had quite the offensive display last Saturday. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound uncommitted junior wracked up five hits in total, including four singles. His other hit was a home run, and he finished the day with four runs total while also walking once.

RELATED CONTENT