As usual, the 2023 Utter Family Dealerships Pudge Rodriguez World Classic, powered by Scott Birmingham - Baird Private Wealth Management, delivered in a memorable and entertaining way. Top teams were tested early, and the eventual championship game matched up two teams who lost their second game of the double-elimination tournament. We saw a long list of interesting prospects, standout performances and top teams. 

Our notes following the event are broken down into a story for each National pool, and we’ll conclude with Pool D:

(A large portion of these notes are based on in-person evaluation and supplemented with our video coverage. If you missed our three stories during the event that featured standout players and teams, click HERE, HERE and HERE.) 

STIX 2025 SCOUT
After dropping its second game of the tournament against Slammers Austin in what proved to be the game of the tournament, Stix 2025 Scout bounced back and was able to get its revenge in the bracket final. It beat the talented team from Colorado 11-1 and 10-1 in back-to-back games to win the bracket and eventually reach the final against 2025 Texas Twelve Red Sox, where it came up just short. In an event loaded with catchers, Carter Rutenbar (Midlothian Heritage) was named Most Valuable Catcher of the tournament because of his impressive performance on both sides of the ball. 

A physical left-handed hitter who consistently created good swing paths that impacted the baseball, Rutenbar hit .409/.536/.864 with zero strikeouts and blasted a homer. Defensively, he had a 1.93-second in-game pop time to catch a runner stealing and handled his work behind the dish very well. We haven’t started ranking 2025 prospects, but I can’t imagine many catchers in Texas who are better prospects. Speaking of imagining better prospects, I can’t envision many 2026 prospects nationally better than Eli Willits. 

The younger brother of future Sooner and long-time standout Jaxon Willits, Eli, who is also already committed to Oklahoma where his father, a former Sooner standout, is the associate head coach, is another switch-hitter in the family with what look like a future plus hit tool. In all areas of the game, the younger Willits, who also attends Fort Cobb-Broxton in Oklahoma and is a multi-sport standout, is advanced. He made playing infield defense look easy with good actions, hands and range; he has impressive bat-to-ball skill and processes what he sees in the batter’s box very well; his baseball clock worked at a level of a player a few years older. 

Willits also had plus run times down the line and ended up hitting .421/.593/.579 in a loaded tournament filled with players a year older than him. The one notable difference between Jaxon and Eli: Eli projects more physically. Max Bushyhead (Mannford; Oklahoma) is another Oklahoma commitment and gave Stix 2025 Scout the best catching duo in the Pudge Rodriguez World Classic. Strong and skilled, Bushyhead hit .353/.593/.529 and looks like a good bet to stick at catcher and hit at the next level. 

I don’t mean this to be negative or overly critical: if you asked this team if it consistently performed at the level it thought it would, I think the collective answer would be, “no.” Because the talent, tools, athleticism and physicality were obvious but the team didn't consistently click on all cylinders, which is a compliment about its talent because it still nearly won the whole event. Watching this group move around the diamond and assessing its collective present and future tools was a treat. Brady Janusek has grown, gotten stronger and tracked the ball well in center field, especially at this size. But he hit .238/.407/.238 and didn’t show the raw power - just missed a couple pitches - and impact he has in his bat. Long-term, I still really like Janusek, an excellent athlete who excels at football and basketball, as a major D1 prospect. Bet on the tools. Kentucky commitment and left-handed hitter Braxton Van Cleave is another impressive, physical player who worked six walks compared to two strikeouts and was seemingly finding his groove at the plate, which included a loud homer, as the event ended. Cayden Mitchell wasn’t as consistent as he typically is offensively and defensively but showed bright flashes of being an elite third base prospect with a big arm. His talent is obvious.  

Hudson Knight dominated a game with four RBI, looked great physically and although he hit .211, he had seven walks. Another hitter with a patient approach was Zac Heefer, who worked very, very deep into counts, which resulted in eight strikeouts and seven walks. Visually, Heefner’s swing worked well and hitting runs in his family. On the mound, the talented trio of Brody Kahle (up to 90 MPH), Jaxon Rickert (nine strikeouts in 6.0 innings) and Marcos Paz (up to 90 MPH with an 81-83 MPH slider that flashed as plus) all had stretches of pure dominance, but also issued 13 walks in 18.1 innings. That trio has set the bar so high with past performances that still striking out a ton of batters but scattering the ball around was uncharacteristic. Devin Miller, a right-hander from Aledo, doesn’t possess the stuff that the three above do, but he was the team’s most effective pitcher. The tall, slender pitcher tossed 14.0 innings and gave up just two earned runs. 

SLAMMERS AUSTIN
Early in the tournament, this team from Colorado showed two of the best right-handed pitchers we’d see: Vedant Sharma (Fossil Ridge; Colorado) and Ethan Zufall (Broomfield; Colorado). Sharma pitched with excellent competitiveness and temperament against a loaded Stix 2025 Scout lineup; 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. As Sharma gets stronger in his lower half, his effectiveness should continue to increase and the combination of his length and delivery led to his fastball playing up a tick. 

Zufall is an imposing presence on the mound physically and backed it up with 11 strikeouts in 5.0 innings, a true representation of his dominance. His slider was the standout offering. It attacked hitters with true shape, often taking the look of a gyroslider/one with late, sharp break and not much tilt. Sharma’s high school teammate Brek Benedict didn’t have an overpowering fastball, but he could really, really pitch. The lefty tossed a complete game shutout with a strong three-pitch mix: fastball (80-83 MPH), curveball (72-74 MPH) and changeup (75-76 MPH). He had one of the best strike-throwing feels of any pitcher in the tournament and some added shoulder flexibility/rotation could do wonders for his fastball and profile. 

At the plate, Ethan Sanchez (Legacy; Colorado) immediately became one of my favorite left-handed hitters during my first watch and he proceeded to hit .400/.727/.400. He possessed arguably the best left-handed swing in the tournament, didn’t strike out and created some of the loudest contact of anyone on his team. Shortstop Owen Morgan was a major standout on both sides of the ball and looked like a major D1 prospect. If Sanchez didn’t have the best left-handed swing in the tournament, it might have been Morgan who did. He’s short and very quick to the baseball with impact bat speed and the type of verticality in his path that can create extra-base hits, like the loud three-run homer he launched. Morgan, a good athlete with an explosive bounce around the field, was much, much better than his .143/.294/.357 line suggests, and like Sanchez he didn’t strike out once. 

Outfielder Caden Williamson, who played center field, ran down the line in 4.03 seconds on a bunt from the right side and has an intriguing, projectable profile. Tripp Bemis showed a strong arm when he threw out a runner at home from left field and moved well. I liked the way Brendan Fritch, another Broomfield prospect, timed pitches and he picked off two runners from behind home plate. 

TEXAS OILERS 16U SHERARD
Evan Laun (Rockwall) had a very productive tournament as a right-handed hitter and he finished with a .571/.769/.714 slash line with one double, six walks and just one strikeout. He tracked the ball well, did some damage to the pull side and could develop into a physical catcher prospect to help Rockwall next season. In terms of putting the bat on the ball and keeping his hands and weight back while he confidently tracked pitches, Gavin Barker (Reedy) was about as good as it gets. Among the toughest outs in the tournament, Barker hit .500/.636/.750 with struck out just once despite being unafraid to put the bat in motion. 

Some hitters are able to generate more flight off the barrel than others and Sulphur Springs’ Kaden Mitchell is one of those guys. His loose hands work easily in the box, and he walloped a homer out to left field. Mitchell, who also pitches and didn’t give up a run across 3.2 innings, finished with a 1.445 OPS. Right-handed pitcher Cade Miller was up to 83 MPH and struck out seven batters in 4.2 innings. 

TEXAS ANGELS 2025 LIBSON 
Texas Angels 2025 Libson played deep into the bracket before losing a hard-fought battle against Stix 2025 Scout Friday before Saturday’s bracket final. I really liked what I saw from Jackson Hopper (Pieper). An all-around skilled shortstop who moved well in all areas and hit .500/.625/.500 with zero strikeouts in 17 plate appearances, Hopper made hitting line drives look easy. He hits with a contact-over-impact approach, but as he matures those liners will be doubles more often. 

Jeremy Gabrillo (Laredo Alexander) showed a big arm in center field, plus run times and an interesting left-handed swing. Boerne Champion catcher and left-handed hitter Sam Miller repeatedly made quality contact, showing good feel for the barrel. He finished with a 1.581 OPS and was bested on his team in that category by Cole Tavarez, who finished with a 1.900 OPS. In terms of tools and long-term outlook, Tavarez was probably the most interesting prospect. A New Braunfels prospect, Tavarez is a strong, physical athlete with a compact frame who had a twitchy bounce to his movements and showed some of the best bat speed of any right-handed hitter. It played in games, too. Tavarez smashed a homer to dead-center with a wood bat. 

On the mound, Boerne Champion right-handed Aidan Smith routinely pounded the zone across 6.0 shutout innings. He was up to 86 MPH with his fastball and although he had a long arm swing in the back, the action worked well out front. Tall, skinny, high-waisted right-handed pitcher Aidan Spurlock (Clyde) made a living from pounding the glove side with his lively fastball and gave up just two runs in 7.2 innings. 

MORE NOTES
- 2025 South Texas Twelve Navy’s Jake Barron (Tomball Memorial) again looked like an impact defender at shortstop with plenty of physical projection remaining. Big, physical right-handed hitter Andrew Paulson turned his notable strength into some loud knocks and although he didn’t have a strong tournament statistically, I remain convinced Sinton’s Kash Wood is going to become a force with the bat. 

- After leading Pearland to the state final and establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in Houston this past high school season, Marucci Elite Texas Rodriguez 2025’s Nico Partida, an Arizona State commitment, hit .545/.583/.818 with three doubles and zero strikeouts. The game and making quality contact came easy to him and I was impressed with how quickly his baseball clock worked on the diamond; he’s the type of player who is seemingly thinking a step ahead of the action. 

Second Baptist’s Carson Bratcher threw a ton of strikes and punched out seven across 6.0 innings thanks in large part to a quality curveball. Caleb Daniell, who attends Tomball, sat 83-85 MPH with a sinking fastball, killed the spin of a 74 MPH changeup (1100 RPM) and snapped off a curveball with some tilt (2300 RPM).

- No one played center field better than LBC National – Agis/Craft’s Walker Hill. If you missed our report on him, read it HERE. Teammate Caden Fox (La Vernia) is a loose athlete who impressively swung the bat from the right side. 

- Cole Leach (Hilldale; Oklahoma) certainly passed the eyeball test for USA Prime – Oklahoma Blue 16U. The physical catching prospect committed to Arkansas showed noteworthy hitting tools and a left-handed swing that should translate into impact. 

Dustin McComas
Senior Editor