On Campus: How Have NHSI Participants Fared?

The sixth edition of the National High School Invitational is taking place this week at USA Baseball’s National Training Complex in Cary, N.C. While 12 players who appeared in the tournament have gone on to become first-round picks out of high school and several others are having success in pro ball, the event also has many alumni making significant contributions at the college level.

As this year’s tournament reaches the final rounds, we look at what some players from the last four years of the NHSI have done since reaching college.

2013
Sean Bouchard, 1b, UCLA (Cathedral Catholic High, San Diego)

Bouchard came to NHSI as a junior at Cathedral Catholic, where he was teammates with Brady Aiken. The Dons went 1-3 in the tournament, but Bouchard had a solid tournament at the plate. He went 3-for-7, scored three runs and drove in two.
Bouchard went on to UCLA, where he has emerged as a strong draft prospect as a junior. He has anchored the heart of the Bruins’ lineup for the last two years and is hitting .341/.396/.634 with a team-high five home runs and 21 RBIs.

2014
Jeff Passantino, rhp, Lipscomb (Bishop Verot High, Fort Myers, Fla.)

Passantino started on the mound in Bishop Verot’s opening game of the tournament. He took the loss as Mountain Point High (Phoenix), led by Cole Tucker, won, 4-0. Passantino struck out eight, walked two and gave up five hits in six innings. He had an impressive weekend at the plate as well, going 8-for-11 with three walks. Passantino moved into Lipscomb’s rotation as a freshman, and has been one of the Bisons’ best pitchers throughout his career. He broke out last summer in the Cape Cod League, where he started the All-Star Game and was named most outstanding pitcher. Passantino, listed at 5-foot-9, 225 pounds, has continued to excel this spring. He is 1-0, 2.11 and has struck out 49 batters and walked four in 38.1 innings.

2015
Sam Cohen, c, UC Santa Barbara (JSerra High, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)

JSerra came to NHSI in 2015 with an impressive roster, highlighted by then sophomore Royce Lewis, who could be a top-five pick this year. Cohen went 2-for-10 with a double and a walk as the Lions went 3-1 in the tournament. Cohen etched his name into college baseball history last June with his walk-off grand slam off Zach Burdi to upset Louisville and send UCSB to its first-ever College World Series. Cohen is hitting .222/.271/.370 with two home runs this season. He and the Gauchos begin Big West play this weekend.

2016
J.C. Flowers, of/rhp, Florida State (Trinity Christian, Jacksonville)

Flowers had an impressive weekend at the plate in last year’s tournament. He went 11-for-17 with four walks, helping Trinity Christian go 2-2. Flowers has continued to hit this season as a freshman at Florida State. He is batting .325/.441/.482 with two home runs and four stolen bases. The center fielder ranks second on the No. 12 Seminoles in batting and third in on-base percentage.

News and Notes

Atlantic Coast Conference: No. 19 Virginia will have a new-look rotation this weekend when it hosts No. 2 Louisville. Freshman righthander Noah Murdock replaces junior lefthander Daniel Lynch as Friday starter. Lynch has struggled in ACC play this season, losing two of his three starts. Overall, he is 4-2, 6.75. Murdock, ranked No. 143 on the BA 500 last season, is 1-1, 8.22, but is coming off a solid performance in relief of Lynch last Friday against Duke. He held the Blue Devils to one run on four hits and a walk in 3.2 innings after they scored 10 runs in 2.1 innings against Lynch. Righthander Evan Sperling and lefthander Adam Haseley remain on Saturday and Sunday. . . The ACC moved its conference tournament from Durham to Louisville this season as a result of North Carolina’s controversial House Bill 2, which also led to the NCAA moving the Division II College World Series and other events out of the state. North Carolina’s state legislature on Thursday passed a bill to repeal HB2. The new, compromised bill is complicated and it remains to be seen how the ACC and NCAA will respond. After the new bill was passed, ACC commissioner John Swofford released a statement: “The recently passed legislation allows the opportunity to reopen the discussion with the ACC Council of Presidents regarding neutral site conference championships being held in the state of North Carolina. This discussion will take place in the near future, and following any decisions by the ACC Council of Presidents, announcements will be forthcoming.” Similarly, NCAA president Mark Emmert similarly told reporters at the Final Four that the NCAA Board of Governors will review the new bill before making a decision about returning events to North Carolina. Regardless of the ultimate decision, it will not affect any school’s ability to host regionals or super regionals, which the NCAA classifies differently than events that have predetermined sites, such as the College World Series.

Big 12 Conference: Kansas State freshman Cameron Thompson leads the Big 12 in batting with a .374/.424/.505 line. His nine stolen bases rank second in the conference. The Wildcats will need a big series out of their leadoff hitter and center fielder this weekend, as they host Texas Christian. Kansas State has won its last two home series against TCU in Manhattan, Kan., and will look to extend that streak.

Big Ten Conference: Indiana third baseman Luke Miller has bounced back from a slow start to the season that included missing most of opening weekend due to injury and saw him hitting .200 after the first three weeks. The sophomore is now the Hoosiers’ leading hitter and enters this weekend’s series against Nebraska hitting .341/.402/.561 with four home runs. Coach Chris Lemonis said Miller has slowed the game down in the last few weeks. “He’s letting the game come to him,” Lemonis said. “He’s getting big hits, two-out hits. He’s just playing well.” . . . Maryland’s recruiting class this year included two junior college transfers—DH Will Watson and righthander Ryan Hill. Both have quickly become key pieces for the Terrapins. Watson, who transferred from LSU-Eunice JC, is hitting .310/.419/.437 with eight stolen bases. Hill, a transfer from Grayson (Texas) JC, is 2-0, 3.57 with 26 strikeouts and eight walks in 17.2 innings. “We’ve gotten a ton of production from those two guys,” coach John Szefc said. “We’re very fortunate to have the production from those two juco guys. I think some of the credit goes to programs they came from in Eunice and Grayson.”

Pacific-12 Conference: Going into this weekend’s series against Oregon State. Stanford coach Mark Marquess is one win shy of becoming the fourth coach in Division I history to reach 1,600 career victories. With one more win, Marquess will join Augie Garrido, Mike Martin and Gene Stephenson in the 1,600 win club. Like Martin (Florida State) and Stephenson (Wichita State), Marquess has won all of his games at one school. . . No. 1 Oregon State defeated St. Mary’s, 4-3, on Tuesday in a game that provided a matchup between the Madrigal twins, Nick (Oregon State) and Ty (St. Mary’s). Nick got the better of his brother, who came out of the bullpen for the Gaels. Nick singled off Ty in the eighth inning and the next inning, with Ty out of the game, delivered the go-ahead runs on a two-run single. Nick Madrigal is hitting .407/.480/.593 with eight stolen bases. He has walked 12 times and struck out just twice in 22 games.

Nick Madrigal vs. Ty Madrigal. Nick wins the sibling matchup with a single past 3rd here in t8. #gobeavs pic.twitter.com/7uUwGhOaWy

— Oregon St. Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) March 29, 2017

Southeastern Conference: After struggling defensively at shortstop last season, Kentucky junior Riley Mahan to second base this season. He has settled into the new role for the Wildcats and is hitting .301/.345/.505 with six stolen bases. Coach Nick Mingione said beyond Mahan’s play, he has also taken on a larger leadership role as No. 16 Kentucky has heated up in the last month. “Here’s a guy in his junior year that I think is one of the best hitters in the SEC now taking on a leadership role that quite frankly hadn’t been as strong as it’s been the last couple weeks,” Mingione said. “Not only has he settled in, he’s taken a step forward.”

Other conferences: UC Santa Barbara righthander Joe Record is sidelined with an elbow injury. The redshirt junior received a platelet-rich plasma injection and will try to rehab the injury instead of having surgery. That leaves open the possibility that he could return late in the season depending on how well he responds to the treatment. Record made three appearances this season, going 0-1, 5.79 in 9.1 innings. . . Creighton sports information director Rob Anderson noted this week that there have been eight home runs hit at TD Ameritrade Park this March. In the stadium’s first five seasons, there were a total of seven home runs hit in March. Many would welcome a similar trend in June.