MARION, Iowa – There were all kinds of interesting vibes emanating from the rosters of the dozens of teams that competed at this year’s Perfect Game Iowa Spring League, which on Sunday wrapped up its 26th season of play.
Of all the teams in this year’s PGISL lineup, the Iowa Select squad coached by long-time Eastern Iowa baseball fixture Tim Evans tended to draw a lot of attention from the large gatherings of scouts that convened over the course of the five-week campaign.
That interest was due largely to the presence of top 2021 PG All-American catcher Ian Moller (No. 12-ranked, LSU commit) and top 2022 outfielder Tommy Specht (No. 51, Kentucky), both out of Wahlert Catholic High School in Dubuque. But there was no shortage of other tempting menu items to consider when it came to studying the Select Evans roster.
Take, for example, a couple of intriguing 2021 top-500 D-I pitchers, one who throws from the left side, the other from the right. Both came equipped with similar builds and projections and both can call themselves high school classmates and teammates at Iowa high school baseball stalwart Cedar Rapids Prairie.
The similarities between Jackson Nove, a 6-foot-5, 198-pound left-hander who has signed with Kentucky and Caden Stoffer, a 6-foot-4, 175-pound righty who has done the same with hometown Iowa, border on uncanny. They’re not only Prairie HS classmates and teammates on the Hawks’ baseball team but they both call the small town of Fairfax – which sits just outside of Cedar Rapids’ far western city limits – their home.
What more could be asked for? In essence, and with apologies to the great easy-listening country band of yesteryear, the PGISL became a Pure Prairie League for these two talented prep pitchers.
Nove and Stoffer have been close friends since their elementary school years. That’s not uncommon as students who enter the College Community School District early in their academic careers and stay through high school graduation co-exist on the same sprawling campus and learn early how to commit themselves to the Prairie Hawk Orange and Black.
“I’ve known him since third or fourth grade,” Stoffer told PG from the Prospect Meadows Complex over the weekend when asked about Nove. “He played on my basketball team – that’s when I first met him – and I’ve known him since then. We played baseball and basketball together and we’ve been best friends ever since.”
The talented prep pitchers each made the most of their PGISL opportunities over the last five weekends but for completely different reasons brought about by completely different circumstances. Nove was certainly the most polished performer of the two during this cold month of April but only because Stoffer was throwing for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery last June.
Nove, by contrast, had pitched in an ultra-competitive setting as recently as early March, when he threw 2 2/3 innings of no-hit, six-strikeout ball pitching for the G-Form Artillery Upperclass at the PG High School Showdown-Academies tournament in Hoover, Ala.
These numbers are very unofficial due to some DiamondKast issues, but the record will show he threw another 8 1/3 shutout innings over four PGISL appearances this month, allowing just one hit while striking out 17 and walking none.
“This has been a really nice experience for me – coming out here and being able to play with friends, that’s something you don’t always get to do,” Nove told PG during a separate weekend conversation. “I know a lot of kids in the area, which is nice, and you get to play with the Marion (HS) kids, the Linn-Mar (HS) kids and even some Dubuque kids.
“This PG (Select) team has a lot of good talent, a lot of good prospects, so it’s nice to be around a lot of good competition in the Spring League, for sure.”
Needless to say, Evans exercised the utmost caution in bringing Stoffer back onto the field of play. He retired the only batter he faced during his first appearance on April 17 and came back to throw a complete inning on April 24 when he allowed three hits but also struck-out two without issuing a walk.
When he talked with PG just before that second outing, Stoffer spoke enthusiastically about being back on the field with a lot of other Cedar Rapids Metro area prospects he’s been around for several years now. That includes his Select Evans teammate Coy Sarsfield, a 2021 t-500 outfielder/middle infielder at Linn-Mar HS who also happens to be an Iowa signee.
But make no mistake, he is also very cognizant of the long road he’s been on and continues to traverse. Returning to action has taken a lot of patience and he’s told himself repeatedly that he just needs to trust the process.
You’ll be back sooner or later and better than ever, the voice in his head tells him repeatedly. You’ve just got to take it slow and make sure everything is good; make sure you’re healthy. Time is on your side, so there’s no need to rush anything and put yourself at unnecessary risk for further injury.
“I’ve felt good; I definitely feel like there’s probably a little more in there,” Stoffer said with a satisfied smile crossing his face. “I feel good and I feel like I’m on a good track to be back to 100 percent soon...I’m just trying to get back and I feel like these last two outings have been really good for me. I feel like they’re getting me ready, especially against this good competition we’ve been playing against; I’m excited.”
Nove watched Stoffer’s rehab first from afar but more recently has been able to become much more up-close-and-personal. And so, too, have a lot of Nove’s and Stoffer’s high school teammates: 18 other Prairie Hawks participated in the PGISL season that just concluded.
“We’ve been friends for a long time and it’s definitely something that’s been hard on him, not being able to pitch for over a year now,” Nove noted. “It’s nice now. We get to work out every day after school getting some toss in at Prairie. It’s a crappy thing that happened but it will make him better and he just gets to grow from it.”
During Prairie High School’s early years in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the city slickers at the high schools in Cedar Rapids and Marion were known to refer to Prairie as “Cowpie High” because of its rural location. That smart-aleck moniker – although locals of a certain age can claim it was uttered with absolutely no ill-will – certainly no longer applies.
PG’s Tim Evans, a former college and minor league player and a longtime college coach and instructor, graduated from Prairie in the late 1970s. One of his coaching stops included Kirkwood Community College, a JUCO where the main campus sits just a long fly ball from the Prairie campus.
More recent prominent Prairie grads include Scott Schebler (class of ’09) who was a 26th round draft pick of the Dodgers in 2010 and has played all or part of seven big league seasons, this year with the Angels. Levi Usher (class of '18) played in the 2017 PG All-American Classic and was drafted by the Angels out of high school but didn’t sign; he is now the starting center fielder for the No. 4-ranked Louisville Cardinals.
One of the few upsides that come along with the state of Iowa playing its prep season during the summer is that graduated seniors are still eligible to compete for their respective high schools. That can certainly be advantageous for players who are no longer age-eligible to play in early summer PG events.
With guys like Nove and Stoffer leading the way – along with Brandon Vlcko and Cal Sullivan, t-500 catchers from the classes of ’22 and ’23, respectively – Prairie is looking to be very competitive during the 2021 season; the Hawks won a Class 4A (big school) state championship as recently as 2016.
As he spoke with PG here in late April, Nove said it’s his intent to play with the Prairie Hawks this season, with the caveat that the coaches at Kentucky might want him to be involved with various summer programs in Lexington.
“As of right now the plan is to hopefully get some of the (high school) season in,” Nove said. “If not, enroll in some summer classes (at Kentucky) and get some of that stuff in.”
With the help and encouragement of a couple of his youth coaches, Nove was able to attend a camp at Kentucky and fell in love with the head coach Nick Mingione’s Wildcat program; he has already built a solid relationship with pitching coach Dan Roszel. Everything about the environment in Lexington seemed to scream “perfect fit” and he was eager to jump on board.
As for the 2021 MLB Draft, Nove is very non-committal: “I think it’s always in the back of your mind,” he said. “You never know what kind of situation will pop-up or what teams might want to reach out and test the water. I think I’ll always keep the door open; the more opportunities the better.”
Stoffer’s summer plans are pretty set in stone, at least as he continues his rehab. He’ll take the field for the Prairie Hawks as often as he’s able while enjoying the camaraderie that only a final high school season can provide.
“I’m just looking to pitch for them and hopefully see what we can do,” he said. “That’ll be interesting; it’ll be fun.”
Stoffer will also be more than willing to listen to any suggestions provided by Hawkeyes head coach Rick Heller and his staff in nearby Iowa City. He committed to Iowa because it’s a very competitive program in the nationally-acclaimed Big Ten Conference that’s close to home that provides a very familiar, very comfortable setting at which to continue his academic and athletic pursuits.
“They were very welcoming and made it clear they wanted me to play there,” Stoffer said. “I saw that and I recognized it and it was already comfortable; I was like, yeah, this is where I want to be...They’ve been very supportive of me.”
With their PG Iowa Spring League experiences behind them, this pair of Prairie Hawks have deemed themselves more than ready and able to take the next step in their baseball careers. At least 57 players rostered in this year’s PGISL were already committed to D-I programs, and Nove and Stoffer can count their names among that total; it’s something to be proud of.
For his part, even with a final high school season still a possibility, Nove feels like braving the chilly temperatures and cold wind that seemed to be a part of the PGISL for nearly each one of its five weekends was well worth the rewards the effort reaped.
“It’s almost like getting you ready for the summer season but the spring season is just as important as the summer season; there’s always a chance to learn,” he said. “You’re facing different hitters almost every week...and there’s a lot of good pitchers out here. Just a lot of great opportunity to learn, a lot of great opportunity to get better.”