THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
| 2,031 MLB PLAYERS | 14,466 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,031 MLB PLAYERS | 14,466 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Create Account
Sign in Create Account
Summer Collegiate  | Story | 8/23/2017

Tom Sox top summer team

Bryan Cooney
Photo: Humphrey Liu

2017 PG/Rawlings Summer Collegiate Player of the Year: James Outman

Traditionally, college summer leagues are very tight-knit with the communities the teams reside in. Providing locals a chance to see some of the top college baseball players in their backyard can offer a glimpse of the next wave of potential big leaguers.

The Charlottesville Tom Sox of the Valley League had a first-year manager with hometown roots. Dating back to his days as a high school standout at Monticello High School, and playing a key role in two College World Series trips for his hometown Virginia Cavaliers, 30-year old Corey Hunt seemed like the perfect fit to steer the ship.

Now the head coach at his former high school, Hunt led the Tom Sox to a 32-10 regular season mark, and Charlottesville marched through the Valley League postseason, defeating Strasburg 2-1 in the third and deciding game of the league championship series for the organization’s first Valley League crown.

That honor went a long way into Perfect Game’s decision to name the Tom Sox the Summer Collegiate Team of the Year in just their third year of existence on the summer baseball landscape.

“The chemistry the kids had from the start along with the tight ship that our manager Corey Hunt conducted went a long, long way,” Tom Sox general manager Mike Paduano said. “This is a huge honor for our organization and everyone played a part in it from the temporary players we had that turned into full-time guys all the way up ladder. It was the best summer we could have imagined.”

Hunt’s extensive ties to Charlottesville played a large part in the approach he took with managing college players for the first time. Embracing what the team did on and off the field, and the impacts it had on the community, was something Hunt really wanted to impart on his players.

“Kids sometimes don’t realize the type of impact they can have in the local community when playing summer baseball,” Hunt said. “Being from the area, I have seen how much it can mean.

“When little kids got to watch our team, I tried hard to get them to pay the right way. I went in with the philosophy of letting the guys play and not get in their way too much, and from day one I saw that we were just one team that played for each other. That’s what pleased me the most with this group.”

The balancing act for any players competing in summer leagues is for the organizations to get as many opportunities to play as possible, something Hunt did a great job of providing for his club.

“It’s hard to balance the expectations one player may have of himself along with the emotions of maybe not getting the playing time they would like,” Hunt added. “You want to make sure the guys get the reps they need out there, and I think we did a good job on that front, particularly with our pitching staff.”

On the mound is where the Tom Sox excelled the most, and incorporating a pitching system that suited the toughest questions of managing arms off of a long season in a summer league paid huge dividends for all parties.

“Our Vice President Jeff Burton came up with the idea of what he called ‘The Pitching Caring System,’ which would utilize two starting pitchers and one reliever to work through the entire game,” Paduano explained. “We would have a bridge guy in case one of the starters didn’t have his best on a given night.

“It worked out really well obviously. We want to build relationships with the colleges that send their kids to us, knowing that we are going to take care of their arms and be treated right.”

Hunt had not worked with a system for pitchers like that before, and was more than pleased with the end result.

“I really enjoyed how the system panned out,” Hunt said. “Our pitching coach Sam Bashioum did an outstanding job managing the staff; we wouldn’t have had the success on the mound if it wasn’t for him. Our guys could really go out and focus on their jobs, from the starters to the relievers and work on what they needed to.”

The Charlottesville team ERA checked in at 2.96, a full run better than the next closest team. The Tom Sox posted five shutouts and the entire pitching staff allowed just seven home runs in 42 games.

One righthander put up eye-popping numbers from the Charlottesville bullpen in University of Richmond junior Layne Looney. The Dallas, Texas native struck out 41 batters in 24 1/3 innings for the summer and allowed a mere eight hits. In Looney’s first two outings, he allowed six runs, but the final 10 outings saw him toss 19 scoreless innings to end the season.

“Layne doesn’t leave much in the bag when he’s out there on the mound,” Hunt said. “He’s a shorter guy at 5-foot-10, but has an extremely live arm. He really made a difference in the bullpen role with his three-pitch mix and controlled the running game with his tempo.”

The catalyst for the Tom Sox for the duration of the summer was a player not from the Power 5 conferences in which many Charlottesville players came from. Division III College of Wooster’s Michael Wielansky was always an underlooked prospect even coming through the high school ranks, but has turned himself into an All-American caliber player at the Division III level and jumped right into the Valley League and kept on hitting.

“Mike showed up with the right mindset from the onset, and we just plugged him into the lineup and let him go,” Hunt said of his star player. “He did what he was supposed to do. The game rewarded his hard work that he puts in, and he is deserving of all of the accolades he gets.”

Wielansky hit a blistering .432 in 37 regular season games, with 18 doubles, four triples and four home runs, and he also drove in 34 runs. In seven postseason games, Wielansky went 13-for-32 (.406 average), and scored the game-winning run in the deciding game in the championship series against Strasburg. Wielansky earned the Valley League MVP for his efforts.

Vinnie Pasqualino, coming off of a strong freshman campaign at Old Dominion in which he batted .321 with 17 doubles and 38 RBI, picked up where he left off in the spring by batting .336 in 31 games. The Moseley, Va. native went 10-for-29 (.345) in the seven postseason games for Charlottesville.

The versatility of another standout from the D-III ranks would impact the Tom Sox on the mound and at the plate in Randolph-Macon College’s Rick Spiers. The Chesterfield, Va. native batted .333 in 30 games, but was outstanding as a righthanded pitcher as he registered a 0.74 ERA in 36 2/3 innings for the summer. Similar to Wielansky and Pasqualino, Spiers took his game to another level in the postseason, going 2-0 on the mound while closing out the championship game by firing 2 2/3 scoreless frames in the Tom Sox’ 2-1 victory against Strasburg.

“Rick’s one of those sleeper, fantasy draft type of guys you love to have,” Hunt said. “He was incredibly versatile for us. We had a two-game stretch in which he tossed five or six innings on the mound and threw him out to play shortstop the next game and picked up a few hits. He’s got the poise you want in a player and was a clutch performer all summer.”

Given the organization’s situation being an up-and-coming team, Paduano has seen what bringing higher quality players did to not only his Tom Sox, but the Valley League as a whole in 2017.

“I think the goal for the Valley League is to get to that next level to become the best league outside of the Cape Cod League for colleges to send their players to,” Paduano said. “The general managers in the league have upped their recruiting efforts to bring kids from the bigger conferences in. For our club, the first two years were tough sledding.

“Winning helps a ton to bring people out to the ballpark. We want to make this a long-term effort to make the city of Charlottesville a baseball town.”

With a hometown man at the helm in Hunt and a breakthrough season under their belts, the Tom Sox may have the perfect mix to become a mainstay among the college summer ranks for years to come.

2017 PG/Rawlings Summer Collegiate Team of the Year Finalists:

• Bethesda Big Train (Cal Ripken)
• Corvallis Knights (West Coast)
• Top Speed Baseball (Golden State)


Previous PG/Rawlings Summer Collegiate Teams of the Year:

2006: Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (Cape Cod)
2007: Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (Cape Cod)
2008: Santa Barbara Foresters (California)
2009: Forest City Owls (Coastal Plain)
2010: Eau Claire Express (Northwoods)
2011: Bethesda Big Train (Cal Ripken)
2012: Newport Gulls (New England)
2013: Brazos Valley Bombers (Texas)
2014: Lakeshore Chinooks (Northwoods)
2015: Edenton Steamers (Coastal Plain)
2016: Yarmouth-Dennis (Cape Cod)
Give us your feedback
Summer Collegiate | Story | 9/26/2023

Cape Cod: Best of the Rest
Vincent Cervino
Article Image
Cape Cod Top 100 Prospect List | Cape Cod Top 2025 Prospects * indicates draft eligible sophomore ^ indicates incoming transfer Name Pos. Team School Hometown State Andrew Sundean C Hyannis UCF Lakeland FL Bradke Lohry^ IF Hyannis Tennessee Trinity FL Cam Schuelke^ RHP Hyannis Mississippi State Dorr MI Carter Lovasz RHP Hyannis William & Mary Midlothian VA Colby Shelton*^ IF Falmouth Florida Lithia FL Colin Tuft^ OF Orleans Tulane Vienna VA Daniel Corona^ IF Cotuit Missouri Brooklyn NY Derek Clark^ LHP Orleans West Virginia Petersburg MI Duce Gourson IF Falmouth UCLA San Diego CA Eddie Micheletti OF Orleans George Washington Wilmington DE Enzo Apodada^ OF YD Baylor Scottsdale CA Evan Truitt RHP Orleans Charleston Southern Berlin MD Finnegan Wall RHP YD UC Irvine Hesperia CA Garrett Coe RHP Falmouth Uconn Lakeside CT Ian Petrutz OF Bourne Maryland Mantua NJ Jakob Christian^ 1B YD...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/27/2023

Midwest Invitational Scout Notes

Tyler Kotila
Article Image
Creighton Tuzzio (2024, Clarinda, Iowa) took the ball in the semi-final game and was able to get on the bump and carve for his team. Tuzzio is a taller 6-foot-6, 210-pound frame with plenty to like in the operation. The right-handed pitcher has a slower and more controlled operation as he works through the delivery. He lifts the leg up around the belt and then works through a three-quarters release with good whip through it. The fastball worked up to 86 mph on the fastball and held in the low- to mid-80s. He creates some angle on it with the taller & projectable frame. It runs arm-side and can be a problem for right-handed hitters. He also showed a low-70s curveball with a bigger 11/5 tilt to it and good depth to miss some bats. The Iowa Western commit threw 5.0 innings, allowing just 1 run, with 4 walks and 6 strikeouts to his credit.   There’s no surprise here, but...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/26/2023

WWBA World Championship Pool Preview

Perfect Game Staff
Article Image
Pool A Team Top Pos. Player RK Class Top Pitcher RK Class Location Boston Red Sox Scout Connor Lane 500 2024 Tague Davis 59 2024 Boston, MA Cangelosi Sparks Tyler Bell  122 2024 Brady Chambers 500 2024 Lockport, IL Dirtbags National 2024 Dalton Wentz 74 2024 Riley Leatherman 251 2024 Sedalia, NC Florida Burn Colton Schwarz 214 2025 Presley Woodson 500 2025 Sarasota, FL Projected Pool Winner: Dirtbags National 2024 With one of the deepest and most physical lineups in the nation, the Dirtbags National 2024 club have been putting up runs in bunches. No hitter is hotter than Austin Irby, as the ECU commit is While sluggers Dalton Wentz, Will Craddock and Palmer Hornick won’t be in attendance, Lee Sowers, Will Brooks, Jon Young Jr. and spark plug Carter Richardson lead an offense that averages over 7 runs per game. They can cover ground on...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/26/2023

Coastal Soph. Fall Invite Scout Notes

Todd Coffey
Article Image
Michael Flores (2026, NC) looking great through 4 innings pitched with 11 k’s. Great command and completely missing barrels. #2023WWBACoastalSophmoreFallInvatational pic.twitter.com/Oqd3WD0E05 — PG Coastal Scouting (@PG_Coastal) September 24, 2023 Michael Flores (2026, Mooresville, NC) put on an electric performance to watch for the SBA Futures 2026 in their matchup versus the Carolina Reds. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound, RHP did his job for his team today to keep them in the game. Flores throws with a high leg lift and creates some good motions towards the plate with his whippy action. Flores has a great feel for the zone and pounded strikes at a 66% rate. Flores generated swing and miss after swing and miss and it was clear he was in control out there on the mound. He sat in the 70-mph range to 79-mph range with his fastball with the ability to pinpoint it wherever he pleased....
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/26/2023

Fall Frenzy Scout Notes

Jason Phillips
Article Image
James Sherry (’26, Aiken, S.C.)- the 6-foot-1, 155-pound right-handed pitcher tossed a complete game for Xtreme Xposure Baseball-Bennett in an 8-1 win over 2 Way Athletics 16U. A primary outfielder, Sherry finished with 15 strikeouts and just one walk while controlling the zone at a 65% strike rate. Appearing in only his second PG tournament, Sherry turned in another great pitching performance after being selected to the All-Tournament Team at the 2023 16U PG Southeast Labor Day Classic. Aidan Petrocco (‘24 GA)- singles here into LF to load the bases for @643DPAthletics Primary MIF 2-for-4 w/ run scored on the day. #FallFrenzy @PG_Uncommitted pic.twitter.com/Ly7zEuRwyg — Perfect Game Georgia (@PG_Georgia) September 24, 2023 Aidan Petrocco (’24, Johns Creek, Ga.)- the 5-foot-9, 160-pound right-handed hitter for 643 DP Cougars 18U led the 18U Southeast Fall Frenzy...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/27/2023

Sophomore WWBA Scout Notes: Day 3-5

Kyler Peterson
Article Image
A high speed look at this 2B from Keon Johnson... #WWBAWorlds @PG_Georgia https://t.co/Ejl8GirIgk pic.twitter.com/ate7ro35cp — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) September 24, 2023 Keon Johnson (2026, Macon, Ga.) started off the morning loud, going down to get a pitch down and smoking a double that split the opposite field gap at a 92 mph exit velocity. The shortstop has one of the best hit tools in the class and has tremendous feel for the barrel. The swing is quiet and simple, staying loose through the zone. The ball jumps and the parts really work. At short, Johnson looked silky with good actions, range, and plenty of arm strength across. The game comes easy for the Georgia native, and still just 15, the all-around game is very well-refined for the age.  Jaxson Wood (2026, Hoover, Ala.) finished batting .500 over the tournament, including three extra-base hits. The primary...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/25/2023

Deep South Fall Invitational Scout Notes

Alex Dorso
Article Image
Patrick Kovacs (2026 Knoxville TN) was dominant in his outing in game two of pool play for Exposure National. The southpaw tossed three scoreless innings allowing two hits while striking out eight. He showed plus command of the fastball dotting it to both sides of the plate while working off the corners at times. Patrick sat 75-78 topping at 79 multiple times throughout. He mixed in a tight breaking ball with two plane movement that he had no problem mixing in any count keeping the opposing hitters off balanced in the box. Coming from a mid 3/4s slot there was some deception within the operation making it tough to pick the fastball up out of the hand. The frame has plenty of athleticism within with plenty of more room for additional strength as he continues to mature. Kovacs should be a fun follow as he continues to progress through high school. Ryan Riojas (‘26 TN) drives this...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/24/2023

Sophomore WWBA Scout Notes: Day 3

Troy Sutherland
Article Image
Sophomore WWBA Scout Notes: Days 1-2 Extended look at Gunnar Garrison... 7 IP, 1 H, OER, 13 K, 1 BB (70% K) #WWBAWorlds @PG_FourCorners https://t.co/V89oASpD8r pic.twitter.com/tsP1mWCoNz — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) September 21, 2023 Colorado right-hander Gunnar Garrison (2026, Eaton, Colo.) was magnificent in his start for Slammers Anderson 2026’s. The big and physical 6-foot-4, 210-pound arm threw a complete game, seven inning, one-hit shutout, striking out 13 and walking one. The fastball had downhill life to it, sitting in the 85-88 range for the entirety of the game. Garrison held the velocity and reached back for his fastest bullet of the game, at 89, in the seventh inning. Finishing the outing with 70% strikes, he filled up the zone and went right at hitters. He also induced swing-and-miss on a curveball, featuring late...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/22/2023

Northeast Qualifier Scout Notes

John McAdams
Article Image
Jack Harley (2024, Mendham, NJ) put together a dominant performance at the plate in the WWBA NEQ, leading his team to a coveted Jupiter bid while also earning MVP-honors. The 6-foot-1 left-handed hitter showcased his advanced bat-to-ball skills on several occasions. He batted .643 with two doubles, a home run and six stolen bases. Harley utilizes a repeatable, synced-up stroke with clean separation into launch. He has a great feel for the barrel and creates good strength at impact to all parts of the diamond. The future Hokie recorded a hit in all six of his games and proved to be a reliable bat at the top-of-the-order for Clubhouse 2024 EvoShield. Harley’s build offers a good balance of strength and athleticism, making him a well-rounded prospect with intriguing upside moving forward.  .#VandyBoys commit Aiden O’Connell (‘24, NH) is back on the bump in the #NEQ...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 9/23/2023

Sophomore WWBA Scout Notes: Days 1-2

Vincent Cervino
Article Image
Nathan Caldwell (2026, Columbia, S.C.) looked the part in the batter’s box as the Team Elite three-hole hitter had one of the hardest hit balls of the day. There’s really impressive bat speed and the ability to create violence and rotational acceleration through contact. He missiled a single during the game and there looks like there’s going to be pretty significant impact potential long term. He’s a strong kid with good indicators and offensive tools to like. Drew Borkowski (2026, Huntley, Ill.) showed plenty to like in the arm as he got the start in game one on the day for GRB. At 6-foot-1, 170-pounds he’s got a lanky frame with long limbs and plenty of room for physical projection. It’s a quick arm with solid arm speed throughout and he opened up sitting 85-87 mph with the fastball. The fastball showed good sinking life and he used it to get a lot...
Read More
College | Story | 9/22/2023

Cape Cod Top 2025 Prospect List

Vincent Cervino
Article Image
Earlier this week we debuted our Cape Cod Top 100 Prospect List and mixed amongst the 100 names were some 2025 graduates who will be eligible for the upcoming 2024 MLB Draft. Below, each of the 50 names are eligible in 2025 and those listed with an "^" are continuing their careers at a new school this fall.  Name Pos. Team School Hometown State Adonys Guzman^ C Bourne Arizona Valley Cottage NY Aidan Jimenez RHP Chatham Oregon State Elk Grove CA Anthony Martinez 1B YD UC Irvine Fairfield CA Ben Jacobs LHP Bourne UCLA Huntington Beach CA Bradley Hodges LHP Hyannis Virginia Fleming Island FL Brady Neal C YD LSU Tallahassee FL Brody Donay^ C/1B Hyannis Florida Lakeland FL Caden Bodine C Bourne Coastal Carolina Haddon Heights NJ Cam Leiter^ RHP Orleans Florida State Island Heights FL Cannon Peebles^ C Cotuit Tennessee Mechanicsville VA Drew Faurot^ SS Orleans Florida State Tallahassee FL...
Read More
Loading more articles...
About Perfect Game :: Contact us :: Terms of Use :: Privacy Policy :: Testimonials :: Job Opportunities
Copyright 1994-2026 by Perfect Game. All rights reserved. No portion of this information may be reprinted or reproduced without the written consent of Perfect Game.