The second day of The 2023 Utter Family Dealerships Pudge Rodriguez World Classic, powered by Scott Birmingham - Baird Private Wealth Management, delivered some awesome surprises on the mound, drama in multiple brackets and the early favorite for top game of the event. Day two takeaways: 

1) I began my day with a trip over to nearby Anna High School to get a look at Carson Brumbaugh and OK Fuel versus Trosky Texas Scout Team 2025 - Ina/Tanguma. Brumbaugh, a product of Sante Fe High School in Oklahoma, made two stellar plays defensively at shortstop. He charged one slow chopper towards him and easily made the play before fielding another slower, higher chopper that took him well past the second base bag and resulted in him quickly shovel-tossing over to first base to complete the play. He made both plays look easy.

With the bat, Brumbaugh easily made quality contact; so easily that the next step for him offensively will be being more selective to get pitches he can drive instead of hitting the first strike. He has advanced bat-to-ball ability and routinely gets the barrel to pitches in different parts of the zone. After seeing him during the Five Tool Festival, another look confirmed he’s an elite 2025 prospect nationally. 

Right-hander Declan Murphy (Carl Albert; Oklahoma) was up to 86 MPH on the mound for OK Fuel, Mason Pickering (Hilldale; Oklahoma) again impressed with his swings and Boston Knowles (Purcell; Oklahoma) showed some impressive juice with the bat from the right side and really bounced around the diamond well with speed and athletic actions. For Trosky, Ryan Cox, who caught my eye during our recent SHSU event as an undersized ballplayer, made an outstanding catch in left field. 

2) Something I love about the Pudge Rodriguez World Classic is really, really good players who aren’t, for lack of a better word, ‘famous’ names immediately grabbing your attention and establishing themselves as a dude to follow. A lot of these players either played junior varsity, didn’t have big roles on their varsity or are for some reason just a bit under-the-radar even though they shouldn't be. As much as we try to know as many teams, high schools and players as possible, Texas is a massive state and we’re not going to pretend to know everyone. 

Yesterday, Nick Foster did that on the mound. Today, three more right-handed pitchers did it: Preston Sullivan of Kyle Chapman 16U White, Connor Davenport of Midland Redskins 16U and Davis Perkins of NTXBC Dirtbags 2025 - Navy. And they immediately attracted the college coaches in attendance, who watched a couple of pitches before excited fingers flipped through the scout book to find the name. For Kyle Chapman 16U White, Sullivan (Episcopal) was arguably the best pitching prospect I saw. 

A well-built 6-1, 185 pounds, Sullivan fired fastballs routinely in the strike zone with a hint of sink and angle up to 89 MPH and carried his velocity the entire way through his lengthy start, which included a couple of long innings in the dugout while his team hit and on the mound against a very pesky Dallas Tigers - Hernandez lineup. Sullivan threw a true overhand curveball at 71-73 MPH with RPM around 2100-2200 that featured good, consistent shape visually and could be thrown for a strike in fastball counts. But the true weapon was the best slider I’ve seen thus far, which was up to 80 MPH and north of 2300 RPM. Sullivan, who struck out eight batters, routinely used the pitch as a backfoot, swing-and-miss offering against left-handers and utilized it sometimes in fastball counts against right-handers or buried it to the glove side. This is one of those instances when the box score – he was charged with seven earned runs – doesn’t at all depict the actual outing and stuff. 

Dallas Tigers – Hernandez, as it typically does, took extra bases, capitalized on mental and defensive errors, and forced the opposing defense to make some plays, which was a struggle for Kyle Chapman 16U – White. Case Hogg (Midway) has really impressed with his low-whiff ability in the batter’s box, tracks pitches well and is hitting a perfect 4-for-4 so far in two games. I’ve really been impressed with the way Brady Ladusau (Rockwall-Heath) moves around the diamond as a bigger athlete and his bat has shown some thunder. Kentucky commitment Jake Fults (Jesuit College Prep) made an outstanding snag defensively at shortstop when he sprinted into shallow left field and tracked down a soft fly ball near the foul line. 

3) As for Perkins, the Southlake Carroll prospect faced a loaded Hawaii 2G Elite lineup and gave up one run on four hits across 5.0 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. A high-waisted athlete with projection who utilized a short takeaway and arm action, Perkins threw a fastball (85-86 MPH, 1900-2100 RPM), true curveball (73 MPH, 2300 RPM), swing-and-miss slider (76-77 MPH, 2500 RPM) and changeup (78 MPH, 1318 RPM) all for strikes and each pitch generated a whiff. 

In particular, he really executed his slider well and got a lot of Hawaii bats to swing over the top of it as it disappeared in two-strike counts. There’s a lot to like about his long-term projection but also the current strike-throwing and four-pitch arsenal is advanced; don’t be surprised when he becomes a major dude on the mound for Southlake Carroll in the future.

Unfortunately for Perkins, he was opposed by lefty Alaka'i Kiakona (Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus; Hawaii), who is one of the best competitors and pitchers we’ve seen thus far. His stuff – fastball up to 86 MPH, 73 MPH curveball and 71 MPH changeup – won’t blow you away, but he carries himself with immense confidence and competitiveness with a changeup that will baffle right-handers. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and had impressive arm speed, which helped his changeup play up. 

In center field, Allin Yap tracked down balls naturally and exceptionally well, gliding around easily and looking like an impact defender; high school and summer Tanner Fujino (Maryknoll School) played shortstop with good bend, athleticism, hands and had a clutch knock before closing out the win in extra innings on the mound; Kainoa Kaneshiro (Kamehameha Schools) smashed a double and created some of the loudest contact of the day. 

4) Connor Davenport (Keller) stepped onto the mound and began firing bullets in the type of way you could hear from another field at the Z Plex and instantly attracted a crowd. Listed at 6-3, 200 pounds with the frame of stud tight end or linebacker, the 2026 – yes, 2026 – prospect touched 90 MPH with a fastball that routinely beat hitters in the zone. Spinning a curveball (69 MPH) is a work in progress, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the future if he went to more of a slider because of his arm action. Davenport also showed what looked like a slower two-seamer or hard changeup at 83-84 MPH. He didn’t use high effort to get to the velocity, showing good chest positioning at foot plant. He threw 3.0 scoreless innings and struck out three with two walks and one hit.

Hogan Nelson (Liberty Christian School) made an excellent diving catch in center field and had a clutch run-scoring hit late in the game. The ball comes off his barrel well. Left-handed hitter Alex Stumm used a smooth left-handed swing to pull an extra-base hit. 

5) It’s rare for a summer game to live up to the hype, but our second day of the Pudge World Classic ended with the best game of the event thus far. Colorado Slammers Austin and Stix 2025 Scout played a very high level, competitive, energetic and tense game that captivated a large audience, which included college coaches from DBU, Rice, Houston Christian, Baylor, Columbia and Army. In the end, Slammers Austin held on to win, 3-1. 

It was a treat to watch 2025 right-handed pitcher Vedant Sharma (Fossil Ridge). He pitched with excellent competitiveness and temperament; he didn’t shy away from a big matchup against a loud dugout and made quality pitches in tough situations. Listed at 6-2, 190 pounds, Sharma threw his fastball 86-89 MPH, spun a 66-70 MPH curveball (2000-2200 RPM) for strikes in fastball counts and his changeup (73-76 MPH) with late tumble out of a fastball arm action was really tough on left-handed hitters. 

Sharma presents a unique look for high school hitters this age – before he releases the baseball, his back foot has pushed off the rubber and is at least a foot off the rubber towards home plate while he gets some extension out of his 6-2 frame and delivery. As he continues to add strength in his lower half to support his delivery, his ability to repeat and throw hard should improve. I’m sure at times hitters thought Sharma was on top of them because of his size and delivery.

Slammers Austin hitters Ethan Sanchez (Legacy) and Owen Morgan (Monarch) again swung the bat well and made some really loud contact, which didn’t always find the turf, especially against Stix Scout 2025’s athleticism in the outfield. In particular, Sanchez has looked like one of the event’s top left-handed hitters with bat speed, a good swing and very competitive at-bats. For Stix 2025 Scout, big Body Kahle (Mansfield Knights – Homeschool) touched 90 MPH with a heavy hitter in a short-burst relief look. He’ll be counted on to start later in the event if his team is going to make a run from the bottom of the bracket. 

Dustin McComas
Senior Editor