Prep Baseball Report

Become a Member

More +

PBR at The Rock 16U: Quick Hits, Day 3

July 18, 2021
Wisconsin Staff

Welcome to Quick Hits, a compilation of daily highlights captured at our PBR at The Rock tournaments. This weekend, we’re hosting our first tournament of the summer: the PBR at The Rock 16U Championships. Continue reading below to view our biggest takeaways from Day 1 action, championship Sunday.

You can follow along with our coverage live by following us at @PBRWisconsin on Twitter.

+ Our day started off with some fireworks on Pirates Field, as Top Tier Americans 16U swatted five home runs total en route to a 13-0 victory. These five prospects all homered for Tier: INF Sohrab Rezaei (University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, 2023), OF Lucas Smith (Nazareth Academy, 2023), OF Denham Kozy (Munster, 2023; IN), C Johnny Wendling (St. Laurence, 2023), and C/3B Mack Whitcomb (Baylor School, 2023; TN). C AJ Malzone (St. Rita, 2023) has hit all weekend, finishing the game with three hits and a double. On the mound for Top Tier, 3B/RHP Zachary Kwasny (Lincoln-Way East, 2023) worked an efficient four innings, failing to allow a run and striking out seven. 

+ Canes Illinois 16U defeated Indiana Playmakers Saturday morning, 10-1. RHPs Jarron Thompson (Waubonsie Valley, IL, 2023) and Liam Mitchell (Oswego East, IL, 2023) pitched a combined one-hitter and gave up zero earned runs. Thompson, emerged as a high-follow 2023 with his outing. Thompson’s arm works extremely loose, quick and clean and the ball jumps out of his hand. Thompson struck out six batters in two innings, featuring a 85-87 mph fastball that touched 88 mph. His curveball sat 71-72 mph, flashed ability to land it for strikes, as he had a feel for both pitches and generated lots of swings and misses with both. Mitchell struck out five batters in three innings, featuring a 79-82 mph fastball and a 68 mph curveball.

+ RHP Jared Rodriguez (South Elgin, IL; 2023) for Athletes HQ threw a complete game in their 5-2 win against the Naperville Renegades. Rodriguez’s fastball sat consistently 80-82 mph topping 83 mph throughout the entire game. Threw a 10-4 breaking ball that was 69-71 mph with the ability to throw it for a strike during any count. Rodriguez finished the game only allowing two earned runs, one walk, and nine strikeouts. At the plate for Athletes HQ, both Sam Rohlfing (Harvest Christian, IL; 2023) and JP Reiger (Conant, IL; 2023) had multi-hit performances allowing them to come back late after being down 2-0. Rohlfing also had three out of the five Athlete HQ’s RBIs. 

+ Illinois Lightning defeated Indiana Playmakers, 6-5. Michael Farina (Stevenson, IL, 2023) led the way on offense, driving in three, including a walk-off two-rundouble in the bottom of the 7th. RHP Brett Gaynor (Stevenson, IL, 2023) twirled six strong innings for the Lightning, allowing an earned run on only four hits, striking out eight. 

+ Illinois Premier knocked off PBA Gold 11-1 in four innings. Ryan Le (Lake Forest, IL; 2023) delivered the game-ending knock with a two-run double to left-field. Premier put up nine runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a commanding 9-1 lead at the time. Tyler Koscinski (Lincoln-Way West, IL; 2023) tied the game with a hard-hit double to right-center to start the offensive onslaught in the third. Dylan Cecala (Minooka Community, IL; 2023) had a notable offensive day at the plate with a triple and sharply hit RBI single in the third inning. 

+ Top Tier Americans defeated Minnesota Starters Black 10-7. Top Tier jumped out to a commanding 7-1 lead in the top of the second inning thanks to RBIs from Tommy Townsend (Sycamore, IL; 2023), William Ho (Hinsdale Central, IL; 2023) and Sohrab Rezaei ( University of Chicago Laboratory School, IL; 2023). The Starters would go on to scratch back and tie the game at seven runs a piece in the bottom of the third inning thanks to a 3 RBI triple that just missed leaving the yard off the bat of Lonnie Lassman (Eden Prairie, MN; 2023).  Jaden Correa (De La Salle, IL; 2023) would re-take the lead for the Americans with a solo blast to left-field which made the score 8-7 at the time. 

+ Canes Illinois defeated Velocity Baseball, 11-8. After a solid outing in relief earlier today, Liam Mitchell (Oswego East, IL, 2023) flashed some power at the plate with a two-run homer to deep center field. Jake Zitella (St. Charles East, IL, 2023) continued to stay on the barrel like he has all weekend, driving one deep into the left-center gap for an RBI double, finishing the game with two total knocks. Johnny Spallasso (Kaneland, IL, 2023) and Anthony Gallegos (Naperville Central, IL, 2023) each went 2-for-3, rounding out a solid top of the lineup for Canes Illinois. 

+ 5 Star and Great Lakes Baseball Academy tied 5-5 at the end of seven innings. Josh Adamczewski (Lake Central, IN; 2023) homered in the bottom of the first inning to give 5 Star a 2-0 lead at the time. In the top of the sixth inning, Mason McCurdy (Stillwater, MN; 2023) doubled to the center-field wall to bring home a run and cut into the 5 Star lead to make it 5-3. Reagan Reeder (Anoka, MN; 2023) then proceeded to come up and rip a triple to score McCurdy and make it 5-4 at the time. Andrew Rakow (Champlin Park, MN; 2023) followed up the triple with a double down the left-field line to score Reeder and tie the game at five a piece. 

+ Cangelosi Sparks North Black won the morning game against GRB MKE Yellow by a score of 5-1. Noah Ceceres (Reavis, 2023) had a big two RBI single back in the fifth to help extend the team’s lead. The left-handed hitting catcher works with a simple approach and compact swing as he went 1-for-2 with a walk and two RBIs.

+ MVP Elite Baseball walked off Elite Baseball in their Saturday afternoon game. Christian Seminaro (Mundelein, 2023), Chris Iannuzzi (Stevenson, 2023) and Ben Lehman (Lake Zurich, 2023) all had two hits in route to 6-5 victory. Lehman led the offense with two RBIs and Carter Laureys (Mundelein, 2023) got the win in relief, throwing 1 ⅔ perfect innings. 

+ Force Ohio needed to win their final game of the weekend on Saturday night to make it into our bracket play, and they did. Six different Force Ohio bats tallied extra-base hits in their 13-3 win, led by OF Gianni Spetic (NDCL, 2023), who tripled and drove in four runs total. OF Edward Taylor (Solon, 2023) also tripled in the win. Nine different Force Ohio bats tallied a hit, too. 

PLAYOFFS 

+ GRB Rays Yellow beat NEO Elite Black in the first game of the tournament's playoffs. RHP Kegan Shlichting (Oshkosh North, 2023) started on the mound for the Rays and pitched a gem. The righty pitched a complete game shutout against a solid NEO Elite lineup. On the offensive side of things for GRB, INF Jaiden Jung (DeForest, 2023) led the way on offense for GRB, driving in two runs on a double down the right field line. 

+ Cangelosi Sparks Black defeated Top Tier Americans 5-3 to advance to the next round of the playoffs. The big swing of the game came off the bat of Noah Caceres (Reavis, IL; 2023); Caceres smoked a 3 RBI triple to give the Sparks a 4-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Top Tier would go on to score two runs in the bottom of the seventh to come within two but that is all the runs they would be able to push across. 

+ Down by a run heading into the top of the fifth inning, Five Star Great Lakes Chiefs scored two on a single by MIF Jesse Contreras (St. Laurence, 2023; IL) to take the lead. They added an insurance run in the top of the seventh and RHP Charlie Born put the finishing touches on a complete game, closing things out. 

+ Brew State Baseball Academy stayed hot on Saturday, winning a crucial game in the 3:30 slot to punch their ticket into the playoffs and capturing a victory in the quarterfinal round, too. Brew State handed the ball to RHP Zach Wolfram (Menomonee Falls, 2023) and the staff ace dominated, striking out 12 while allowing just one hit across 12 strong innings. OF Nick Argersinger (Westosha Central, 2023) struck out two in the seventh to close things out, securing a win for Brew State. INF Keli Grennier (Menomonee Falls, 2023) led Brew State offensively with three hits, including a double, and he scored twice out of the leadoff spot, too. 

+ Despite their loss, LHP Tore Indomenico (St. Ignatius, IL; 2023) came out of the pen for the Americans and impressed with a live arm and feel for multiple pitches. The left-hander used an 85-88 mph fastball to attack the zone and produce weak contact. Indomenico also featured a sharp 10/4 breaking ball in the 76-80 mph range that he used both in the strike zone and to put hitters away. 


RELATED CONTENT