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Updated Class of 2025 Player Rankings (August) 

Thanks to a great spring and summer season, we had the opportunity to see numerous prospects and are updating each of our class rankings based off what we have seen.

Many names came off the board to some of the top programs around the nation, many new names came to the forefront of the recruiting scene, and many prospects improved their game.

That being said, we have had the pleasure of seeing a number of solid players this past year. Prospects are popping up left and right, making velocity jumps, improving 60-yard dash times and showing more power with the bat.

As the school year starts and with fall ball right around the corner, we will take a look at "Top Uncommitted Tools”, “The Newcomers", "The Sleepers", and some of the top uncommitted prospects by position.

To view the Class Rankings, click below:

• Class of 2024 | Class of 2025 | Class of 2026

To view the Prospect Reports, click below:

• Uncommitted Spotlights | Commitment Insider | Overall News

To view the entire Class of 2025 rankings, please click here.

Top Uncommitted Tools

Taylor Belza C / 3B / Saint Ignatius, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 4 / POS: 1 OverallRank: 169 / POS: 16 Hit Tool: Near the total package offensively. Lefty swinger with physicality, feel, and fluidity. Put together a 5-for-6 showing at the Future Games where had college coaches drooling over his offensive capabilities. Slam dunk Power 5 prospect who will pretty much have his choice on where he wants to end up at the collegiate level.

Brody Papay LHP / Avon, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 22 / POS: 6 Mound Upside: Out of all the uncommitted arms on the board his path to being an elite prospect is the shortest. 6-foot-5, southpaw that can already run it into the upper 80s with a highly graded, sweeping breaking ball. Aside from the obvious bullet points he also is a very fluid, efficient mover with an on time delivery and clean arm. What’s the importance of the movement profile? - any added strength should easily translate to more velo. Don’t be surprised if this is a 6-foot-5 / 6-foot-6 southpaw with low 90s juice and power sweeper before he graduates.

Austin Rose C / 1B / Newark, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 15 / POS: 2 Positional Upside: We use a term when scouting players called NCTs - Non Coachable Traits and Rose oozes NCTs in all aspects of his game. 6-foot-3, 200-pound backstop who looks the part coming off the bus and has tools to match. Athletic defender with an arm that has a chance to be plus and a bat that could be plug & play in the middle of a college lineup. The combination of physicality / 80+mph bat speed (Top 1 percentile of HS players) combine to generate 100+ EVs.

Carter Christenson SS / 2B / Archbishop Moeller, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 6 / POS: 1 OverallRank: 305 / POS: 68 5-Tool Athlete: Simply put, Christenson is electric. Not only are the tools explosive - he’s also a throwback / blue collar guy that as the kids would say today “Has that dog in him”. Here’s the state breakdown of top tools including every 2025 we’ve measured (hundreds) in the state: Total prospects at 100+ Exit Velocity: 9 Total prospects at 90+ Positional Velocity: 6 Total Prospects at 6.6 or lower 60-yard dash: 5 Total Prospect with all Three: 1 Not only do the numbers look cool on a profile, everything translates to in-game action where he can impact the game in all phases. Uber talented player who will get national recruiting attention.

Jacob McCartney 1B / RHP / Mentor, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 49 / POS: 1 Raw Power: Prospects who offer a higher level of a  strength/bat speed combination than McCartney are few and far between. A 6-foot-2, 250-pound beast in the box with strength for days, 25 mph hand speed, 85 mph bat speed, and routinely deposits balls off the barrel at 100+ w/a peak of 107 mph. Type of BP you could charge admission to watch.

Ian Cain 3B / RHP / Avon, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 21 / POS: 2 Gold Glover: The glove tool here is one of the highest graded tools in his class. The fluidity, confidence, and athletic freedom he plays with over at third base is unmatched in his class. He made several highlight reel plays that few would even attempt at the Future Games with the stands full of Division 1 coaches.

Cooper Gilkerson RHP / 3B / Hilliard Darby, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 11 / POS: 4 Top Fastball: It’s not hard to see 89 mph on a stat sheet and see the velocity is on the higher end per class, while also considering the athleticism / potential physically for more. However when you dig deeper the pitch itself has a ton of potential. Gilk has both quality ride (higher IDV) and heavy horizontal movement - which is rare to have both. This opens up a ton of possibilities for what he can do with the heater down the road.

Charlie Hoagland LHP / OF / Chaminade Julienne, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 18 / POS: 5 Top Breaking Ball: Hoagland’s ability to spin a breaking ball has been well chronicled over the past few years and continues to show up on the biggest of stages. In his start at the Future Games he had some of the top hitters in the country baffled by the offering. A pitch is good when it gets swing and miss…a pitch has a pitch to be special when hitters won’t even offer at it because they get frozen. That’s what 3000 spin and upper 20” of horizontal movement combined will do to hitters.

Grant Keffaber RHP / 3B / Lebanon, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 17 / POS: 7 Top Changeup: Few prospects in recent memory had as meteoric rise up recruiting boards like Keffaber did to close this summer. After securing his Future Games spot by standing out at Central Ohio Prospect Games he showed up and showed out on the nation’s biggest stage. The right ran it up to 90 mph while showing one of the better pitches on Team Ohio’s roster with his changeup. The fastball has sinker potential which allows his changeup to play almost perfectly off it. The pitch mirrors the heater out of the hand with the ability to kill the spin (down to 700 rpms) and ideal IDV difference from the fastball. The pitch wasn’t touched through his two innings of work.

Grant Jolly RHP / MIF / Wapakoneta, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 14 / POS: 6 Three-Pitch: Jolly remains in the top 20 where he has been since the initial rankings release a few years back while cementing himself as a zero doubt D1 arm with his performance at the PBR Future Games. Jolly was dominant in his outing, flashing three quality offerings he was able to land in the zone whenever he wanted. Each individual offering grades out well + avg but how they work off each other is what makes him so hard to hit. The entire arsenal comes out of the same tunnel with all three offering showing depth - meaning deep into pitch recognition he gives hitters a similar look regardless of pitch before the Fastball showing heavy ride (rising feel), Slider showing heavy sweep (horizontal movement), and Changeup having sharp sink/run. On the 4th of July you see one firework explode in several different directions…that’s pretty much what you’re looking at here.

Seth Green OF / RHP / William Henry Harrison, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 75 / POS: 10 Speedster: There’s straight line speed and there’s speed that translates to game … Green has both in bunches. Whether it’s getting down the line, making left turns after hitting a ball in the gap, or tracking a ball in the OF he looks different. One of those low effort runners who just glides around the field. We got him at a 6.6 flat towards the tail end of the summer and offensively it plays even faster considering he swings it from the left side. A guy who can put a ton of pressure on the defense.

The Newcomers

Owen Shinada RHP / 2B / Twinsburg, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 7 / POS: 2 Report: This is year 3 of us deeply analyzing this class, so for a player to break into the top 100 is rare. For a player to go from unranked to breaking into the Top 10 prior to being ranked is unheard of. Well…that’s exactly what recent Indiana commit Owen Shinada (Twinsburg) just accomplished this week. Few recruit the Midwest like Indiana and it didn’t take them to fall in love with Shinada and it’s not hard to see why. 6-foot-1, untapped frame, electric arm speed and quality movement profile in general. Arsenal is led by an upper 80s to low 90s heater (T92) with two quality breakers and a more than playable changeup. The combination of present ability while still having substantial projection make him one of the top prospects in the state.

Landen Doll LHP / 1B / Jackson, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 23 / POS: 7 Report: Another guy who went from under the radar to thrust straight into the national spotlight is LHP Landen Doll (Jackson HS). It was a week before the Future Games and we got a tip from a trusted source and one of our top area scouts Joe Corcelli on a southpaw named Landen Doll. Less than 48 hours later Doll made the trip from up North to Wright State University for our final summer event to show what he can do. It took less than 20 pitches to see we were looking at one of potentially one of the top arms in the state. 6-foot-3, clean / athletic, up to 85 mph and landed a slider whenever he wanted. A quick call to another extremely trusted source in Coach Gamble (Head Coach for Jackson HS) sealed the deal that he’d represent Team Ohio at the Future Games. At the event he K’d 5 in two innings of work with the stands full of D1 coaches.

Mason Petridis RHP / 3B / Austintown Fitch, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 28 / POS: 10 Report: One of the top “pop up” prospects of the summer in the 2025 class was Mason Petredis out of Austintown Fitch HS. The 6-foot-1 righty was as good as you can be in two innings of work. The ball jumped out of his hand with little to no effort in the upper 80s with obvious physical signs of more to come. Also showed a hard, sweeping SL that had present swing / miss and one of the better changeups we saw all summer. It was good enough for us to offer him a Future Games spot on the spot but unfortunately a forearm strain didn’t allow him to make the trip to Georgia but you will see him representing the North in our upcoming State Games.

Michael Samarin OF / RHP / Berea-Midpark, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 55 / POS: 6 Report: Michael Samarin is a position player name to get to know in this class. When Samarin (Berea-Midpark) showed up at Bill Davis Stadium for our Central Ohio Prospect Showcase we had little to nothing on him. That changed rather quickly as the 6-foot-3, 200-pound lefty stepped into the box and took a monster BP and turned in a multi hit day in game. Also moves extremely well for his size, swiping several bags in game as well. We are extremely excited to get another in depth look at him in October against some of the state’s top talent where he will be patrolling the outfield for the North at the State Games.

The Sleepers

Brady Bowen RHP / SS / Wooster, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 62 / POS: 19 Report: I’m not sure you can really be considered a “sleeper” when you’re your League’s pitcher of the year but Brady Bowen (Wooster HS) is in this category because we think there’s a whole lot more left and we have him graded much higher than numbers on his profile may indicate. Low to mid 80s now but athleticism, movement patterns, family pedigree all point towards more coming from the height/velo department and if there was a metric that measured pitchability/mound presence he’d be at or near the top of the class. Absolutely dices, lands the entire arsenal in the zone regularly and throws the heater with the confidence of a 90+mph arm. Also the secondary analytically is very impressive with a wipeout breaking ball that has legit sweeper potential and very highly graded CH. If I were a betting man I’d push all my chips in saying this will be an upper 80s, three-pitch arm who is a starter at the next level.

Trieg Matthews LHP / LHP / Bishop Fenwick, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 126 / POS: 18 Report: When it comes to what they are now vs what they could be down the road, LHP Trieg Matthews (Fenwick) is a guy we think could make some of the biggest leaps in this class. A 6-foot-3, 160-pound southpaw with endless projection on his frame, clean arm and an effortless delivery. FB hovers around 80mph now but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to see the radar gun looking much different as he adds strength / mobility to the lower half with maturity. Secondary is also well +avg across the board.

Cooper Ridley OF / 1B / Archbishop Moeller, OH / 2025 Rankings  StateRank: 71 / POS: 9 Report: A position player we expect to be a name college coaches know well over the next few years is OF Cooper Ridley. A 6-foot-1, smooth swinging lefty with substantial physical projection left. The efficiency / feel to hit is already there and as he adds strength expect power to become a bigger part of his game. Also patrols the outfield well / shows a clean low to mid 80s arm out there. Ridley was an impact bat who hit in the top to middle of the order for a Moeller JV team that could compete against most Varsity squads.

TOP UNCOMMITTED PROSPECTS BY POSITION

Below we look to name the top 5 prospects in specific categories based on primary position in profile for the 2025 class rankings. Beyond this group, there are numerous prospects that can help a collegiate program in some capacity.

• Top Right-Handed Arms: Cooper Gilkerson | Grant Jolly | Grant Keffaber | Braylon Schneider | Harper Lann
• Top Left-Handed Arms: Luke Pappano | Noah Kubasky | Charlie Hoagland | Brody Papay | Landen Doll
• Top Outfield Prospects: Cam Simmons | Brendon Rowe | Gavin Lawler | Michael Samarin | Miller Hutchison
• Top First Basemen Prospects: Jacob McCartney | Cameron Birch | Landon Hunter | Samuel Nielsen | Kai Close
• Top Second Basemen Prospects: Joshua Mommers | Nolan Ignacio | Isaac Goldschmidt
• Top Shortstop Prospects: Carter Christenson | Ryan Sudbrook | Nick Frontino | Daniel Briggs | Drew Tajblik (Video Below)
• Top Third Basemen Prospects: Ian Cain | Preston Zumwalt | Braylon Cordonnier | Grant Schag | Drew Golowin
• Top Catching Prospects: Taylor Belza | Austin Rose | Noah Ernst | Owen McKoon | Ezra Kurek

***** To view the entire rankings, please click here.

PBR OHIO CLASS OF 2025 TOP 10

Rank		Name	State	School	Class	Pos	Commitment
1		Zion Theophilus	OH	Moeller	2025	RHP	Louisiana State
2		Luke Pappano	OH	Archbishop Moeller	2025	LHP
3		Hunter Richardson	OH	Butler	2025	LHP	Kentucky
4		Taylor Belza	OH	Saint Ignatius	2025	C
5		Jordan Kievman	OH	Archbishop Hoban	2025	OF	Louisville
6		Carter Christenson	OH	Archbishop Moeller	2025	SS
7		Owen Shinada	OH	Twinsburg	2025	RHP	Indiana
8		Quincy Mazeke	OH	Glenoak	2025	OF	Cincinnati
9		Andrew Visconti	OH	Mason	2025	LHP	Louisville
10		Andrew Karhoff	OH	Archbishop Hoban	2025	RHP	Ohio State

***** To view the entire rankings, please click here.

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