By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

Back in August, as scouts filtered out and college recruiters filtered in, attention in Long Beach, CA, shifted from the senior class to the next line of prospects. The underclass segment of the Area Code Games was underway and it didn’t take long for a Texas product to stand out. Though he was already committed, SS Bobby Witt Jr. (Colleyville Heritage HS, TX) commanded attention. The Oklahoma recruit went 4-for-4 in the first game and finished 8-for-19.

“My first at-bat, I felt a little nervous, but I got the first hit out of the way and the hits just kept rolling,” he said. “I was seeing the ball good.”

The latest update to the 2019 Overall Rankings included Texas, one of the newest states to Prep Baseball Report’s state-specific coverage, and Witt took hold of the No. 1 spot. He has lean strength in a 6-foot, 165-pound frame and runs well, getting down the line in 4.2 seconds from the right side. At the plate, he consistently squares balls up and has good bat speed. Defensively, Witt shows good range and a strong arm, which translates to the mound where he can pitch in the high 80s—but that’s basically just a side gig for him.

“I just close sometimes with school baseball and my summer team, D-Bat,” Witt said. “I’ll start every once in a while, but I like hitting and being in the field the best.”

Hitting may not run in the family, but baseball sure does. With junior attached to the name Bobby Witt, it should be a dead giveaway to even casual baseball fans, but the sophomore sensation is the son of, Bobby Witt, former major leaguer and current agent. Witt Sr. was the third overall pick out of Oklahoma in 1985 and played 16 seasons in the big leagues, mostly with Texas, where the family currently resides. Having a resource such his father is not something Witt Jr. takes for granted.

“It’s very special to me and cool to have that role model in your household,” he said. “Just teaching you and telling you the ropes he had to do and all the ups and downs of making it there. All the things he had to do to make it to the professional level.”

Between the Area Code Underclass Games and playing for the Cleveland Indians Scout Team in Jupiter, Witt is squarely on scouts’ radars, and he will continue to be seen this spring with addition of RHP Alex Scherff to Colleyville Heritage. The Panthers don’t return a lot of experience, but have Scherff, the No. 24 prospect in the 2017 class, some young talent waiting in the wings and they dropped down a classification. They also cut their teeth on a playoff run last year, facing other strong programs like Southlake Carroll and Coppell, which had three Division I arms in its rotation.

“We faced like seven Division I arms in a six-week span,” Witt Jr. said. “We faced (LHP John) Kodros and (RHP Ray) Gaither back-to-back.”

Witt Jr. has three years of high school baseball left and has already made his mark, but big things are surely to come still.

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