Top 10 Breakdown

1) Mountain Ridge ~ 2-0 (beat Jordan 17-0 and Cyprus 13-6. Viewmont and Fremont, both on the road this week. 

2) Snow Canyon ~ 5-2 ~ reeled off 5 straight wins to start the season in dominant fashion in winning the Kona Ice Klassic. Then went 1-2 in the Boras Classic in Arizona. Start league play with a home and home vs Hurricane this week. 

3) Dixie ~ 8-2 ~ started the season going 3-1 in the Dixie Sunshine Tourney, before splitting two Region 9 tilts with one of the surprise teams in the state early in Desert Hills. Returned to tourney action and went 4-0 to capture the Dixie Invitational with blowout wins over Roy, Mountain Crest, Park City and Viewmont by a total score of 52-6!

4) Riverton ~ 2-1 ~ started the season off with a surprise loss to Layton 6-4, then bounced back to knock off #5 American Fork 8-3 and narrowly defeating Farmington 9-8. Now getting into the meat of the season with home and away tilts vs Cyprus and on the road at Jordan this coming week

5) Maple Mountain ~ 6-2 ~ has opened the season with big blowout wins in 5 of their 6 victories and led by LHP-Chase Johnston and the huge bat of 1B-Cy Chrisman. The lone losses have come to Dixie 4-3 and to Desert Hills 9-6. Continue weekly play at Herriman on Tuesday for their lone game of the week. 

6) American Fork ~ 0-1 ~ The defending 6A state champs drop a spot after losing their opening game vs #4 Riverton by a score of 8-3, but expect a big bounce back week in the Red Rock Classic in St. George with tough foes in #3 host Dixie, defending 5A state champion Timpanogos, along with Coronado and Desert Oasis out of Las Vegas. 

7) Crimson Cliffs ~ 8-3 ~ The two-time defending 4A State Champs jump all the way from #13 with a big start to their season, as they’ve posted big wins throughout, while hitting .371 as a team. The offense has been led by CF-Tyler West with an astounding 21 SB’s in 11 games, while 2022 4A Player of the Year, LF-Trey Evans is off to a .387 start with 7 extra base hits and 15 RBI’s. 

8) Desert Hills ~ 7-3 ~ one of the more surprising teams to start the season as they jump massively from #23 all the way to #8 with 4 of their 7 wins coming vs 5A teams and two of those wins vs top 25 teams. Early the Thunder have been led by the biggest breakout bat in the state OF-Haigen Reed, who’s hitting .500 with 5 HR’s and 19 RBI’s. Sleeper top prospect type 2026 SS-Harmon Skeen has started hot at .542 with 6 extra base hits. 

9) Brighton ~ 1-1 ~ With firepower at the plate with 3B-Riley Brown and RHP’s Case Beames and Miles Layton heading the rotation, along with UVU commit Josh Mawhinney, the Bengals have a top 10 type rotation to get into the meat of their season and have a chance to win each and every day. 

10) Pleasant Grove ~ 1-0 ~ The Vikings jump all the way from #20 to #10 on the heels of exciting news in BYU bound catcher Tua Wolfgramm, who was expected to miss time behind the plate with a shoulder injury, but has made it all the way back and caught opening day. With LHP-Hudson Banks, RHP’s Mason Henry and Van Haynie holding down the 3 weekly rotation spots in throwing to Wolfgramm, this changed the dynamics of this team tremendously!

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SCOUTING DIRECTOR (BIO)

Scholzen comes to Prep Baseball after serving 9 years as the "Four Corners" Scouting Supervisor with the Milwaukee Brewers (2011-2020). Prior to his run with the Brewers, Scholzen worked for the Los Angeles Angels for 11 years (1999-2010), serving in the same capacity as the "Four Corners" Scouting Supervisor (UT, WY, So-ID, Las Vegas, AZ, CO, NM and El Paso). Scholzen received a 2002 World Series ring for his contributions as a scout with the Angels. 

With the Angels, Scholzen created an Angels Scout Team, in which he coached the following MLB players: Kris Bryant, Kevin Gausman, Greg Bird, Tyler Wagner, Aaron Blair, Joey Rickard, Donn Roach, Johnny Field, Taylor Cole, Andy Burns and Paul Sewald to name a few.

During his run with the the Angels, Scholzen also served as the hitting coach for the Angels rookie ball affiliate in the Pioneer League, the Orem Owlz, helping guide the Owlz to the 2005 and 2007 Pioneer League titles, which earned Jeff two more championship rings.

In Scholzen's 20 year scouting career, he was credited with the signing of 6 MLB players starting with: Brandon Wood, SS, Angels 2003, 1st Rd ~ Efren Navarro, 1B, Angels 2007, 50th Rd ~ Donn Roach, RHP, Angels 2010, 3rd Rd ~ Tyler Wagner, RHP, Brewers 2012, 4th Rd ~ Payton Henry, C, Brewers 2016, 6th Rd ~ Ryan Aguilar, 1B/OF - Brewers 2017, 31st Rd ~ Scholzen also had an additional 3 players added to various clubs 40 man MLB rosters over the years. Currently 2019 (14th Rd) draft pick, RHP-Paxton Schultz from Utah Valley U, is currently in AAA with the Toronto Blue Jays, and former 40 man Brewes rostered RHP (Utah Tech) just recently returned from Korea and signed with the NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks and will most likely start the year in AAA and once stretched out after an injury plagued 2023, File will move up to AAA!

Prior to becoming a professional scout, Scholzen served as the head coach at Southern Utah University between 1993-1997. At the time, Scholzen was the youngest Division I head coach in the country, when he was first hired at 24 years old. The Southern Utah baseball program was dropped after the 2012 season. While coaching at Southern Utah, Scholzen served as the hitting coach for the Alaska Goldpanners in 1995, as they won the Alaska League Championship. Scholzen also recruited and coached World Series RHP-Ryan Jensen of the San Francisco Giants, who would earn a top 5 finish for NL Rookie of the Year in 2022. Scholzen and Jensen had the unique opportunity, to be on opposing sides of the ledger, when Scholzen's Angels and Jensen's Giants squared off in the 2002 MLB Fall Classic.

Scholzen also had the pleasure of coaching Jensen's roommate and back up catcher, Kyle Turner who has worked in professional/major league baseball for 24 years. Kyle currently is in his 14th season with the big league Kansas City Royals and serves as the clubs Head Athletic Trainer. Turner was instramental, while a young player for Scholzen at Southern Utah, in introducing Scholzen to his first wife, the late Heidi Dalton Scholzen, who passed away in December of 2014. A native of Utah, Scholzen played at Hurricane HS and was twice named 1st team All-State and an AAU HM All-American, before moving on to Utah Valley CC and Eastern Oregon University, earning All-Conference honors on three separate occasions. Scholzen played in the Angels’ organization in 1991.

Scholzen was married to his late wife Heidi for 20 years and their union produced four children - McKyla 27, Miranda 24, McKenzie 22 and the couples only son, Grant Scholzen 19, who is a freshman 2B at D1 WCC school, the U of the Pacific (Pacific Tigers) on scholarship. After Heidi's passing in 2014, Scholzen married Cami Macias Scholzen, a widow herself and the same age as Heidi and the couple now have been married 8 years. Between both families, Jeff has 3 grandchildren and 5 step grandchildren (8 total) and the Scholzen's reside in Hurricane, UT in the bottom left SW corner of the state near the most iconic and scenic national parks in the country.