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2022 Area Code Games: Sunday's Five Best

August 8, 2022
Nathan Rode
Director, Multimedia & Scouting

SAN DIEGO -- The 2022 Area Code Games are underway, in their second year at San Diego’s Fowler Park and Cunningham Field. Many of the nation’s top 2023 prospects are in attendance, split up on eight regional teams: Athletics (NorCal), Brewers (SoCal), Nationals (Southeast), Rangers (Texas), Reds (Four Corners), Royals (Pacific Northwest), White Sox (Midwest) and Yankees (Northeast). As usual, we’ll have plenty of in-depth coverage after the event, but here are some highlights from Sunday’s action…

Questad Love

Royals RHP Noble Meyer (Jesuit HS, OR), an Oregon recruit, is establishing himself as one of the elite arms in the 2023 class, and showed electric stuff Sunday morning, but it was RHP Dylan Questad (Waterford HS, WI) who stole the show, striking out six over three perfect innings. The Arkansas recruit induced weak contact early with a heavy fastball that sat 94-96 mph, then started racking up swings and misses. The curveball was inconsistent, coming up out of his hand and showing early break at times, but it did flash above average. He also mixed in a running changeup at 83-84.

Nationals Power

The Nationals were the last BP group Saturday night and it was an emphatic finish, as they put on an impressive power display. One scout told me he counted 20 home runs just in the first group. Balls were flying out of every part of the yard. So it should be no surprise that the first home run of the event came from a Nationals player. OF Ashton Larson (St. Thomas Aquinas HS, KS) launched a fly ball down the right field line that went off the pole for a grand slam. That was after he squared up a flyout to center. He is committed to Louisiana State.

Caraway Homers

During the Brewers’ BP, SS Trent Caraway (JSerra HS, CA) stood out with a whippy barrel that created loud contact. That translated immediately to game play when the Oregon State recruit smoked a two-run home run to left field in his first at-bat. He later barreled a fastball down in the zone for a groundball single through the right side.

Borba Barrels

CIF Casey Borba (Orange Lutheran HS, CA) has a case as one of the top pure hitters in California. The Texas recruit is balanced from the right side, routinely on time and can drive the ball to all parts of the yard. Had the Reds not lined up perfectly on defense, he would’ve had a double in the right-center gap. He got his knock later though, jumping on a hanging breaking ball for a double down the left field line.

Roch Solid Defense

The 2023 class is ripe with shortstops and Roch Cholowsky (Hamilton HS, AZ) is squarely in the first tier conversation. The UCLA recruit made two nifty plays, first getting a funny hop off the pitcher’s mound and throwing on the run, then showing excellent body control to field a ball up the middle, redirect to second and make a throw while avoiding a sliding runner to complete a double play.

Honorable Mention

Though he only struck out one batter in three innings of work, Meyer possesses swing-and-miss stuff, starting with a fastball that ranged from 93-96 Sunday, spinning up to 2500. The slider was plus at times, showing sharp, late bite in the low 80s, and he mixed in an average changeup at 86-87.

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