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Eastern Wisconsin Open: Quick Hits

August 17, 2021
By Wisconsin Staff

On Monday, Aug. 16, the PBR Wisconsin scouting staff traveled to Wildwood Park in Sheboygan, Wis., to host the annual Eastern Wisconsin Open event. This open showcase hosted helped introduce us to some need-to-know players in the state that we’d not yet seen before, as well as provided us with updated looks at players who’ve earned our attention in the past.

Today, we’ll highlight several standouts and performances from Monday’s showcase in Sheboygan. You’ll see more content roll out throughout the week, such as our traditional stats story as well as leaderboards taken from TrackMan and Blast Motion data, as our partners’ state-of-the-art technologies helped our staff identify even more players to know headed into the fall and beyond.

For now, let’s take a look at the standouts from Monday’s event at Wildwood Park.

QUICK HITS

+ After a strong spring season that helped lead Jefferson to the WIAA Division 2 state championship game, MIF Luis Serrano (2022) showed out as arguably the top performer of the day in his PBR debut. A 5-foot-6, 160-pound athlete with compact strength, Serrano’s defensive work was the separator. His soft hands can stick up the middle long-term with light feet and a controlled pace throughout his defensive workout. Serrano also led the event with an 85 mph high across the infield with direct accuracy to his target. He took a quality round of BP as well, elevating the baseball to his pull-side with direct rotational strength. Serrano showcased some barrel accuracy, which is substantiated by his WIAA spring statistics, after hitting .352 for the Eagles as the team’s two-hole hitter.

+ Another big winner from yesterday’s event, also showing well in his PBR debut: RHP/OF Jack Ryan (Janesville Craig, 2022). A projectable 6-foot-1, 175-pound athlete, Ryan showed a loose arm that carried through the plate at depth in the outfield, topping at an event-high 89 mph to home. Ryan showed well at the plate as well, driving the ball to all fields with clear repeatability. Perhaps his highest upside comes when he toes the rubber. His fastball basically sat 83-84 mph, featuring 17-plus inches of average horizontal movement, and a tight breaking ball that spun at 2,600-plus rpm on average. Look for Ryan to make an impact on our end-of-summer Class of 2022 Rankings update in the coming weeks.

+ Listed at a physical 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, RHP Trent Oiler (Brookfield East, 2025) made his mark from the mound at this showcase. The incoming freshman has previously turned heads for his premium speed for a player his size and age, as he ran a 7.13 in the 60-yard dash back in April. Monday, Oiler took the mound only, and used his long levers well enough to project like a highly interesting prospect to monitor in Wisconsin’s 2025 class. Oiler reached an 80.7 mph high with his fastball, a heavy-type pitch that generates hard arm-side action, and he has an above-average feel for his breaking ball, too. His size, athleticism, and raw stuff are the ingredients for a high-follow ‘25 to know ahead of time in the Milwaukee area.

+ MIF Nicholas Herzog (Sheboygan North, 2022) made the most of his defensive set. The infield provided enough “hop” challenges, and he brought all the skills to deal with them. His feet worked with timely precision, and he refused to be caught with a mid-hop. His instincts for eye level and his knack for a quick exchange gave him a shortstop’s look. In the box, he showed fundamentally sound offensive actions, consistently working back up the middle with a smooth right-handed stroke. 

+ MIF Brett Sommer (Hortonville, 2023) is a twitchy, high-waisted 5-foot-11, 160-pound athlete that popped as a follow name in his class. Sommer started his day off by barreling up multiple balls to all fields in BP, showing hand quickness and strength. He took a clean infield round with nimble feet and his eyes played into the glove during his fielding technique, leading to a quick, accurate funnel to release. 

+ C/3B Jake Olszewski (Germantown, 2023) stood out as a promising defender behind the dish. He made good use of his quick feet and clean direction on throws carrying through the bag. His blocking was representative of a more mobile receiver with a nice deadening quality on deflections. Olszewki posted an event best 2.07 pop utilizing a very short hand path. He flashed line drive feel from the left side in BP, although his glove carries as his best asset right now. 

+ C/RHP Samuel Mommer (St. Thomas More, 2024) brought a strong look to the showcase as one of the younger prospects in attendance. A sturdy 5-foot-11, 180-pound athlete, Mommer made quality contact to all fields from a balance move to the zone. He flashed power upside,  largely in part to present hand/bat strength, and he could slot in as a middle-of-the-order type threat as he gets older. Defensively, Mommer fit right in with the older backstops, working with ease and accuracy to the bag. He toed the rubber later on in his workout and put together an efficient pen, showing feel for three pitches. Mommer consistently found the strike zone with his fastball, sitting at 77-79 mph throughout, landed his breaking ball for strikes, and threw a tumbling changeup at arm speed that lived exclusively down in the zone. 

+ CIF Tyler Meyer (Wauwatosa East, 2023) stands at a lanky 6-foot-4, 185-pound frame with even more room to grow. His long, loose levers translated to present pop at the plate, attacking the baseball on a vertical angle with leverage to the middle of the field. There’s certainly potential for Meyer to blossom into a power threat as he continues to physically mature. 

+ A key cog to Denmark’s D-2 state championship lineup, OF Hayden Konkol (Denmark, 2022) is a 6-foot-4, 180-pound dual-sport athlete that popped at Monday’s showcase. Konkol paced the event in average hand speed (25.4 mph) and consistently produced hard line drives that carried all over the field with more audible impact than his peers. He roamed the outfield grass with a certain confidence to him and covered plenty of ground with his lanky, athletic strides. Still uncommitted, Konkol is rising as a follow name in the state’s incoming senior class. 

+ OF/RHP Ethan Ovsak (Denmark, 2023) offered athleticism all around the diamond. He posted a 6.88 on an uneven track, a grounded swing with present strength, and an interesting side arm slot on the mound. His current carrying tool appears to be his offensive game, as he sprayed the ball across the field with present bat strength to pair. His feet will produce more stolen bases and outfield range than the run time may suggest – despite him running an event-best time in the 60. Towards the end of the day, he jumped on the mound and worked from a side-arm slot, producing heavy sink on his fastball and natural fade to his changeup. 

+ From Eau Claire Memorial, left-handed hitting OF Luke Erickson (2022) continues to show well each time we see him, whether it be in a showcase setting or gameplay. A multi-sport athlete, Erickson is built at a proportionally strong 6-foot-1, 175-pounds with present athleticism. He set the tone early in BP, elevating multiple baseballs deep into his pull-side gap – his best one leaving his barrel at 94 mph and traveling 357 feet, per TrackMan.

+ RHP Austin Grube (Chilton, 2023) has some interesting metrics to mention peripherally from the mound. He reached an 80.9 mph high with his fastball, though it featured noteworthy spin rates (2,241 rpm on average) that helped it really carry through the strike zone. Grube’s curveball also spins sharply at nearly 2,400 rpm on average. His 6-foot, 175-pound stature combine for some additional projection, too.

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