Well, it's been a week since the Prep Baseball Report Future Games took place at the first-class Lakepoint Sports Complex in Emerson, GA.  The top uncommitted prospects in the 2023 and 2024 graduating classes had the opportunity to compete in a showcase style workout and three games, in front of over 300 college coaches.  Familiar faces in the baseball circuit continued to show their skills, while new names made their mark and increased their stock.  Louisiana finished the event 2-1, with wins against Missouri and Arkansas, as well as a 10-7 loss against a super talented Texas club.  Below, we take a look at the performances of the catchers and outfielders from the Future Games.

 

CATCHERS

-2023 C Jake LaRocca (St. Louis HS): The physical backstop from St. Louis HS definitely made the most of his opportunity at the 2021 Future Games.  During the workout, on Wednesday 07/28/21, LaRocca had one of the better all-around performances for Louisiana.  He turned in a personal best positional velocity from the crouch at 80 mph and recorded pop times of 1.89-2.08.  His BP round was also impressive, as he showed present gap to gap power with a max exit velocity of 94 mph.  Fast-forward to gameplay and it felt like LaRocca hit every ball on the nose.  The calls have already started coming in for the 2023 catcher, after a stellar week, and shouldn't be uncommitted for very long.

-2023 C Zach Schoenborn (Parkway HS):  Schoenborn has a physical and imposing 6'1" 195 lbs. frame that excites college recruiters.  He posted a personal best pop time of 1.83-2.02 during the workout portion of the event.  The most exciting part of the Parkway product's game has to be his bat and power potential from the left side.  He experienced some "bad luck" during the Future Games, hitting a couple of balls hard right at people, but still managed to have a productive week, that included a 2 hit game against Arkansas.  

 

OUTFIELDERS

-2023 OF Reese Dean (Central Private HS):  Relatively unknown coming into the Future Games; Dean showed out on the workout day of the Future Games.  He kicked things off by running a 6.80 laser timed 60 yard dash, showing the speed to stick in CF.  His increase in physicality was the most notable improvement in his game, however, as he recorded personal bests in positional velocity from the OF at 92 mph and a max exit velocity of 91 mph. 

-2023 OF Griffin Cooley (Kinder HS):  The L/L OF from Class 2A Kinder HS was our "pick to click" coming into the Future Games and he sure did put together a great week for himself.  Cooley started his Future Games off by recording personal bests in positional velocity from the OF at 87 mph and a max exit velocity of 99 mph, which is a +4 mph jump from our Top Prospect Games in June.  Gameplay is where Cooley really shined during the week.  He finished 2-3 against Missouri, in Game 1, with a backside double and a pull side homerun and then, collected another hit against Texas on the final day of the event.  For his performance against Missouri, Cooley was named the Dick's Sporting Goods Player of the Game.  Needless to say, the Kinder standout is now on numerous colleges radars, as we head into the fall. 

-2023 OF Barrett Newman (Parkway HS):  Newman was another physical LHH for Louisiana, standing in at 6'1" 194 lbs.  On Wednesday's workout, he recorded a personal best in the 60 yard dash at 6.96 and tied a personal best in positional velocity in the OF at 85 mph.  He also showed versatility in the outfield during gameplay, as he played all three outfield positions, and was given opportunities to make plays at each spot and did so.  Offensively, Newman didn't have his best week at the plate, but still managed to make hard contact, specifically against Arkansas in Game 2, where he drove a call to deep RCF, but it was unfortunately caught at the warning track.

-2023 OF Cade Patterson (Ruston HS):  Tall, wiry, and athletic 6'2" 180 lbs. frame with plenty of room to add strength; Patterson was one of the more projectable position players from this year's Louisiana group.  Posted a 7.20 in the 60 and a positional velocity of 85 mph from the OF, both of which, should improve as he continues to add physicality to his frame.  He showed a simple and repeatable LHH stroke during Wednesday's BP session with a max exit velocity of 92 mph.  During gameplay, he took competitive at-bats and showed a good understanding of the strike zone.