Happy Friday! We don’t have any Top Tier Las Vegas teams in action this weekend, but we will have a handful of players participating in Prep Baseball’s Rising Stars ID at Green Valley High School.
This event is for 2030-31 grads and will be the first showcase-style event for most of the players in that age group. More importantly, it will serve as a means for the Prep Baseball crew to identify talent for this summer’s Junior Future Games at LakePoint in Emerson, Georgia.
Players will participate in a combine-style showcase on Saturday at Green Valley High School, which will include a 60-yard dash, hitting, pitching, and defensive work, all recorded on video and tracked with technology such as VALD and TrackMan. That data and video will be used by Prep Baseball’s staff to help them make selections for the invitation-only Las Vegas Rising Stars Games in late May, where the top performers in live game action will be invited to represent Nevada at the Junior Future Games.
Top Tier will be represented in Las Vegas by Brady Kotake, Jedd Gallagher-Spencer, Angelo Silvera, Jonathan Rolands, and Amit Sharma Jr. at Saturday’s identification event.
The Two Hole: Antonio Whitney, Maddox Sedlacek Turn In Big Performances on Thursday
A pair of Top Tier Las Vegas players had big afternoons on Thursday on the high school scene. Antonio Whitney (2027) was 3-5 with a double and two runs scored for Pahrump Valley in a loss to The Meadows. Another three-hit game for Whitney has his season slash line up to .528/.603/.736 with a 1.339 OPS through 68 plate appearances.
Whitney has 8 extra-base hits, 13 RBI, 24 runs, and is 17 of 19 in stolen base attempts, all while striking out only four times. Evaluators will point to the 3A schedule, but Pahrump has done a good job of layering its schedule with 5A schools, including its opponent this weekend, Desert Oasis. Regardless of class, hitting .528 through nearly 70 plate appearances is an absurdly good display of an advanced hit tool for Whitney, one that he pairs with an even better field tool.
As we discussed in his Player Spotlight recently, Whitney is playing the best baseball of his career to this point. Whitney hit .244 during his freshman season, and .368 last season with a lighter schedule at Pahrump as far as 5A competition goes. He’s up nearly 200 points on his batting average this season, with a few weeks left in the regular season.
Another small-school product, Maddox Sedlacek (2027), followed up his two-home run performance earlier this week by reaching base eight times in a doubleheader against Tonopah on Thursday. Sedlacek racked up six hits—two doubles—and two walks while driving in 6 runs for White Pine.
Sedlacek has 11 hits in 12 at-bats, two home runs, two doubles, and 15 RBI for White Pine, just this week. Sedlacek also struck out eight in three scoreless innings on the mound on Thursday.
Both of these small-school juniors are gearing up for what should be an eventful summer for their futures.
Around the Horn
- Circling back to the Pahrump Valley game, CJ Nelson (2028) went 2-4 with an RBI, and Anthony Montanez (2028) went 1-3 with a walk and an RBI for the Trojans.
- Nelson and Montanez are both hitting .367 this season, tied for second at Pahrump behind Whitney.
- Dylan Foote (2028) went 1-3 with a walk and a run scored for Spring Valley in a 7-5 win against Doral Red Rock on Thursday.
- Jackson Pahang (2029) was 1-3 with a double for Spanish Springs JV in an 11-6 loss to Galena.
- Spring Valley (Dylan Foote, 2028; Zachary Andres, 2028) travel to Pahrump Valley this afternoon to take on Whitney, Nelson, Montanez and the Trojans at 3:30 p.m.
- Centennial JV (Jack Carpenter, 2028; Luke Fleeman, 2028; Ethan Gonzales, 2029) will take on Bishop Gorman at 6:00 p.m. this evening at Gorman.
Leave a Reply