Looking Ahead to 2019

January 4, 2019
By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer

It’s time to look ahead to this year, 2019, one that is sure to be a big and busy one for Prep Baseball Report, both locally and nationally. There’s plenty of new tournaments and showcases to share with you in addition to the things we're excited to cover outside of our own events this year, like the WIAA high school season.

With that, let’s get to some of the events to mark in your calendars this year.

PBR at The Rock Championships

One of the most exciting announcements our PBR Wisconsin staff shared with the public is the return we’ll be making to The Rock Sports Complex in Franklin, Wis. We’ve partnered with The Rock to put on four tournaments throughout the summer, spanning the 2024 through 2020 classes. All four tournaments will welcome teams by invitation only. To request an invite, visit this page and click the ‘register’ tab next to the corresponding tournament. Here’s a breakdown of the summer’s PBR tournaments to be held at The Rock:

May 30 to June 2: 13U/14U (2024 and 2023 classes)
June 20 to June 23: 15U (2022)
July 18 to July 21: 16U (2021)
July 25 to July 28: 17U (2020)

2019 High School Preview

Decided by our staff to be one of the top stories of 2018, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) determined that the 2018 summer season would be the last, thus ending a 54-year-old tradition of summer high school baseball. The decision had long been looming, but was finalized in 2018. Historic summer powerhouses like Oak Creek, Franklin, Pius XI will make their first-ever appearances in spring ball in a few months, while Muskego, the final summer champion in the state’s history, will attempt to replicate all the success they enjoyed last summer this spring.

As far as the teams returning to summer ball, take a look at the final edition of the Wisconsin Power 25 Rankings here, from June 18. Here are a few teams to take note of:

Waunakee: The reigning Division-1 champs graduated a handful of starting talent from a year ago, like Jarrett Fueger and Derek Lee, but some of the program’s best players, including the ones who put together standout performances in last year’s title game, will return. Senior Nate Stevens, the best player on last year’s championship team, starred in the title game and will return as the team’s backstop and pack the middle of the lineup with his left-handed punch. Juniors Taiten Manriquez, Will Ross, and Nick Smith are all back to help the Warriors defend their title, too.
Stevens Point: The Panthers finished the spring season as the No. 9-ranked team in the state, ending their year 21-3. They journeyed from unranked in the preseason all the way to a top-10 finish in 2018 and they should be even more interesting this coming spring. We saw more than a handful of talented pitchers who should combine to make Stevens Point one of the more formidable staffs in the state. Senior J.D. Schultz, in addition to juniors Austin Beyer, Jamie Praefke, and Kaleb Schulist, are all slated to contribute big innings for the SPASH school in 2019.
Webster: Living beyond the D-1 class is arguably the most dominant team of 2018, the Webster Tigers. Led by a pair of D-I-bound pitchers, the state’s No. 2-ranked prospect Jack Washburn (Oregon State) and the No. 6-ranked Hunter Rosenbaum (West Virginia), Webster put together one of the most imposing stretches of baseball in the state, regardless of division, last spring. Washburn, Rosenbaum as well as fellow seniors Trevor Gustafson and Bradley Sigfrids, will return this spring in an effort to retain their D-3 championship.
Kimberly: Returning to the D-1 class, we’ll take a closer look at the Papermakers. The prestigious program went 17-8 last season and earned a trip to state despite being a lineup void of any senior talent. The Lechnir twins, Drew and Zach, two of the 2019 class’ best prospects helped lead Kimberly to the state berth where they fell to an equally young Green Bay Preble team in the quarterfinals. Still, with all of that valuable experienced earned, the Lechnirs, John Nett, Beau Schumacher, Connor Chitko, and Jordan Purdy will do their best to make sure this phenomenal Papermakers senior class ends their prep careers with hardware.

2019 Showcase Schedule

Showcase	State	Date	Location
Unsigned Senior Showcase	WI/IL	1/13	The MAX - McCook, IL
Kenosha Preseason I.D.	WI	1/26	Fielder's Choice Training Facility - Kenosha, WI
Super 60 Pro Showcase	NATIONAL	2/3	The MAX - McCook, IL
West Milwaukee Preseason I.D.	WI	2/17	STiKS Academy - Waukesha, WI
Fox Cities Preseason I.D.	WI	2/24	Players Choice of the Fox Cities - Appleton, WI
South Milwaukee Preseason I.D.	WI	3/3	Hitters Baseball Academy - Caledonia, WI
PBR Winter Open (Rochester)	WI/MN	3/9	RCTC Dome - Rochester, MN
PBR Winter Open (Twin Cities)	WI/MN	3/9	West St. Paul Athletic Center - St. Paul, MN
Madison Preseason I.D.	WI	3/10	GRB Academy - Windsor, WI
Future Prospects Showcase - Madison	WI	4/07	GRB Academy - Windsor, WI

2022 Rankings

The state’s Class of 2022 Rankings have yet to be released but that doesn’t mean that the talent within this class is going unnoticed. Already, three of the state’s best freshmen have announced their commitments to play at the next level, two of whom have announced their verbal commitment to Louisville: Whitefish Bay’s Michael Lippe and Janesville Craig’s Gavin Kilen. The third committed prospect in the class just announced his decision this week: middle infielder Tristan Ellis, from Greendale, who looks like he’ll be headed to Purdue in four years.

With that said, there’s still a plethora of talent taking their time in the recruiting process, especially considering they’ve yet to step in the batter’s box or toe the mound for the first time in their prep careers. Arrowhead’s James Duncan, Pewaukee’s Logan Dobberstein, and Waunakee’s Luke Ross are just a few other names to eye when it comes to this class and prospects with bright futures.

More PBR Tournaments

Lastly, in November, we announced a partnership with the “best-in-class operational tournament and facility company” Bullpen Tournaments. Then, just about a month ago now, our staff announced a long-term partnership with the country’s go-to baseball facility: LakePoint in Emerson, Ga.

So how will this affect the travel baseball scene in Wisconsin? It's still early in the process, but it’s clear that there will be an influx of PBR-affiliated tournaments in the region for the area’s travel teams to choose from. After dipping our toes in the pool over the past year or two with the Limited Series tourneys, we’re diving in head-first.

As for the LakePoint event schedule, there are already six high-profile tournaments slated for 2019, including the invite-only National Program Invitational. It remains to be seen how many Wisconsin-based programs will be headed to Emerson in 2019, but given the amount of talent within this state, it’s fair to expect a handful of local representation.

Click here to view the PBR Tournaments page and a list of all of the events slated for 2019.