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| 2,446 MLB PLAYERS | 15,806 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,446 MLB PLAYERS | 15,806 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Tournaments  | Story | 6/6/2021

Monarchs Aim At BCS Qualifier Title

Photo: Jackson Geiger (Perfect Game)
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Since the Gulf Coast Monarchs 14U team began to cultivate their roster, they have always had one goal in mind: to win. As their players have grown up, they have been proficient at achieving that goal.
 
The Monarchs have assembled a 19-6-2 record overall through 2021 on their way to becoming the 12th-ranked 14U team nationally and the third-ranked team in the Florida and Puerto Rico region. 
 
While the team has piled up wins, they’ve also piled up talent. The Monarch roster features four players who rank in the top-200 of their classes and five others who carry Perfect Game ranked designations. While the Monarchs continue to look to feature the best talent Florida has to offer, coach Rob Rardin says the Monarchs have remained tight-knit since the team was established.
 
“We have set up a core group of guys that have been together since they were eight years old,” Rardin said. “There’s always people asking to play with us, so we try to pick up some talent here and there, but ultimately we love our guys and confidently go into tournaments with them.”
 
Among that talent are three top-150 ranked players in 2025; Braden Rosenthal, Jackson Geiger, and RJ Machado. 2024 standout Johnny King also suits up for the Monarchs and ranks just outside the top-150 in his class.
 
Rardin says that as the Fort Myers-based club has gained recognition, they’ve searched to face the best competition in the region and nationally to rise further up the rankings and grow their players.
 
“We’ve got a tough schedule going forward,” Rardin said. “We always try to play in the toughest tournaments, but we feel confident that we can beat anybody out there.”
 
To kick off their competitive schedule, the Monarchs went undefeated in their first two contests of the 2021 PG 14U BCS National Championship Qualifier. In their first matchup, pitchers Grayson Carpenter and Owen Rardin dominated GTZ Baseball, tossing a combined seven shutout innings. Owen shined in his appearance, allowing no baserunners through three innings of relief and fanning five GTZ bats. 
 
While Carpenter and Rardin needed little run support, Matthew Blanesa opened the scoring for the Monarchs in the bottom of the second, getting home on a wild pitch. The Monarchs then burst out for three more runs in the third behind a Geiger triple, King RBI single, and a two-RBI single by Cole Ingle, allowing Carpenter and Rardin to coast to a 4-0 victory. While Rob would have liked to see more offensive production, he was satisfied with his team’s performance on the mound.
 
“Grayson grinded it out,” Rardin said. “He went out there, gave up no runs and did his job. Then Owen went out there, threw strikes and we made plays. I’m proud of them as usual.”
 
In their second bout, the Monarch bats caught up to their prolific arms. After a King sacrifice fly scored one run against the PR Legends 14U Black in the top of the first Friday night, play was postponed to Saturday afternoon due to thunderstorms. Nevertheless, the Monarchs picked up where they left off, exploding for six runs in the bottom of the second behind a series of extra-base hits by Rosenthal, King and Machado, along with a two-RBI single from Geiger.
 
The bats stayed hot in the third as the Monarchs put up three more runs behind an RBI single from Konnor Vanhagen and a two-RBI single from Rosenthal. The Monarchs proceeded to tack on three more in the fourth, as Vanhagen added a two-RBI single to his day, completing the scoring for the Monarchs and giving them a 14-0 lead. 
 
Despite the offensive outburst, pitcher Matthew Delaney didn’t need much help. The right-hander from Albuquerque, N.M. tossed three perfect innings for the Monarchs, striking out four in the process. After Geiger allowed just one walk in a closing effort, the duo combined for a four-inning no-hitter, finishing off the Legends in a 14-0 mercy rule. After a slow start to the day, Rardin was pleased with how his offense performed in their second contest.
 
“Our lineup is stacked from top to bottom,” Rardin said. “If the top of the lineup is not hitting, the bottom of the lineup is going to clean it up. We have confidence in all our guys to get it done.”
 
Heading into bracket play with a +18 run differential, the Monarchs plan to stay undefeated in the BCS National Championship Qualifier. Despite their overall success, the Monarchs look to do something they haven’t yet accomplished in Perfect Game events this season: a tournament win. After finishing second in both the 2020 PG 14U Fall World Series and 2020 PG 14U Christmas Bash, Rardin said they’re determined to finish the job this time around.
 
“Our goal every tournament is to win it,” Rardin said. “We always plan on playing the maximum number of games, whatever they may be, and set up our roster that way. So tomorrow, we feel set up to win it.”

Tournaments | Story | 5/19/2026

Best of the Best Event Preview

Jheremy Brown
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In simplistic terms, the Best of The Best tournament is an absolute gauntlet as seemingly every game brings a playoff game atmosphere. Coaches must strategically map out their pitching to ensure they can get through Pool Play while also making sure they have arms to make a deep playoff run. Each and every age group is loaded with the best teams, composed of some of the best players that travel baseball has to offer. The 9u & 10u age groups will respectively have 9 out of the Top 10 Teams within the latest PG National Team Rankings participating in the event. At 9U, LTP-Reign will look to hold on to their #1 ranking but will have plenty of competition with the likes of ZT National Prospects and HTX-Wildcatters 9U looking to take over that #1 spot. In the 10u age group, Elevate National will look to fend off plenty of talent with #2 ranked Kaos National, East Cobb Astros and ZT...
College | Rankings | 5/20/2026

DII/DIII/NAIA Rankings Update: May 20

Nick Herfordt
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There is a reason the preseason pick to win it all rarely does. College baseball's postseason is a gauntlet — double elimination, best-of-three’s, then a full World Series format — and the team that looks unbeatable in February has to prove it again in May against opponents who have had just as long to get ready. Plenty of programs have entered the tournament as the obvious favorite and gone home early. It happens every year. Nobody should be shocked when it does. Top-ranked teams flaming out in regional weekends happens so many times it has become its own genre of schadenfreude Which makes this particular moment worth noting. The Perfect Game preseason picks to win the NAIA, NCAA Division II, and NCAA Division III national titles — Tennessee Wesleyan, UT Tyler, and the University of Lynchburg — are all still alive heading into the final rounds. All three...
College | Story | 5/21/2026

Coppy's Corner: May 21 POY Deep Dive

John Coppolella
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Each week I huddle with Vinnie Cervino and Craig Cozart  to discuss Top-25 rankings and Players of the Week. In Coppy’s Corner, I dive deeper into these Players of the Week, providing analysis from 20+ years working in baseball front offices at the highest level.   Co-Player of the Week: Carson Tinney – University of Texas  As a Notre Dame alumnus, it pained me to see Tinney transfer from the Golden Dome to the University of Texas after an All-American sophomore season for the Irish. He’s picked up in Austin right where he left off in South Bend and is currently hitting .321 AVG, 20 HR, .475 OBP / .695 SLG / 1.170 OPS on the 2026 season. It’s plus right-handed power and a plus arm; with the numbers I have found indicating that Tinney has erased more than half of attempted base stealers over the past two seasons of college baseball. Tinney threw...
College | Story | 5/19/2026

College Players of the Week: May 19

Vincent Cervino
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May 19th Perfect Game/Co-Players of the Week:  Carson Tinney, C, Texas  The Texas Longhorns just finished off another stellar regular season and are heading to Hoover for the SEC Conference Tournament as the No. 2 Seed this week.  To secure their 2nd place finish, they had to sweep Missouri at home last weekend and did so in large part to the power bat of Carson Tinney.  The 6-4/240 catcher from Castle Pines, CO transferred to Austin after two sensational seasons at Notre Dame and has thrived in his draft year.  In the 3-game set, Tinney collected 7 hits in 13 at-bats, scoring 5 runs, with a double, 3 home runs and he drove in 10 runs all told.  With some of the most prodigious power in the college game this year, Tinney is now slashing .321/.695/.473 with 10 doubles an incredible 20 home runs and 54 RBIs while playing in the most spacious ballpark in the...
College | Rankings | 5/18/2026

College Top 25: May 18

Vincent Cervino
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The regular season is behind us, and it is now tournament time and wow, is there a lot to still be decided.  We are a week away from the Field of 64 being announced and hosting opportunities, at-large bids, as well as automatic bids are there for the taking.  The UCLA Bruins (48-6) continue their stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in the land, finishing the regular season without losing a series all year.  ACC powers, UNC (43-10) and Georgia Tech (45-9) remain at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively and SEC regular season champs, the Georgia Bulldogs (43-12) stick at No. 4.  After that there was a small amount of shuffling within the Top 10 with No. 5 Texas (40-12), No. 6 West Virginia (37-13) and No. 7 FSU (38-16) moving ahead of now No. 8 Auburn (36-18) after they were the only team in this group to drop their weekend series.   No. 14 Florida (37-18) and No. 15...
High School | General | 5/18/2026

High School Notebook: May 18

Jordan Gates
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‘27 RHP Grant Slater (@BoydCoBaseball) gets his 1st start of the year (3rd appearance) as he works his way back. FB opened 89-92 w/ ride & was still up to 91 in the 5th (run rule), while touching 93 in the 3rd. CT worked in the mid 8s & breaking ball in mid 7s (sweep). Big summer… pic.twitter.com/w9EXl6Jmrx — Perfect Game Ohio Valley (@PG_OhioValley) May 8, 2026 Grant Slater, 2027, RHP, Boyd Co (KY) Slater made his full start of the year back on May 7th. He had appeared in a few games in relief roles prior as he has come back from a few injury bugs. The Alabama commit went five strong innings, in a complete game fashion (run rule), only allowed a couple hits, one walk, and struck out 13 batters. Slater is beginning to ramp up at the right time with postseason right around the corner. Slater’s fastball peaked at 93 mph a few times, held velocity in the...
High School | General | 5/14/2026

CPBL Showcase Scout Notes

Troy Sutherland
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Logan Cummins (‘26 ON) Silky op with big arm speed and projection. Shaky FB command early, 91-93 T94. CH is present plus, weapon vs both LH & RH hitters at 83-84. Good arm side depth to it. SL has some length to the mostly lateral action @ 77. #KState commit.#CPBLShowcaseWknd pic.twitter.com/7TdJ2neOv6 — Perfect Game International (@pg_int1) May 8, 2026 Logan Cummins (‘26 ON) Very intriguing athletic upside here, came out early a bit juiced up leading to inconsistent fastball command but settled in and started dotting. Ran the fastball up to 94 with running life. Changeup is ahead of the rest of the arsenal  in terms of quality, and has a parachuting arm side dive that gets frequent swings over the top. Slider is tight with varying length at its best it does have an extra gear to garner a late count whiff. Should fit nicely at Kansas State if he decides to...
College | Story | 5/14/2026

Coppy's Corner: May 14 POY Deep Dive

John Coppolella
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Each week I huddle with Vinnie Cervino and Craig Cozart  to discuss Top-25 rankings and Players of the Week. In Coppy’s Corner, I dive deeper into these Players of the Week, providing analysis from 20+ years working in baseball front offices at the highest level.   Player of the Week: Drew Burress – Georgia Tech  I love everything that Craig Cozart writes, and his piece on Burress is as good as it gets (link). Craig does a masterful job of showing us how Burress has (not arguably) the best career college performance of any current player. The body of work is consistent and impressive, and Burress has one of the highest floors in the 2026 MLB Draft with above average or better tools across the board.  I’m not going to do a deep dive on Burress’ numbers because there is no point: they are really good, everywhere. I would rather talk about...
College | Rankings | 5/13/2026

DII/DIII/NAIA Rankings Update: May 13

Nick Herfordt
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The college baseball postseason has arrived for NCAA Division II, Division III, and the NAIA, bringing with it the most intense stretch of the season. Conference tournaments have wrapped up, national brackets are taking shape, and teams across the country are shifting from regular season positioning to survival mode, where one bad inning can abruptly end a year’s worth of work. The NAIA Opening Round is already underway, and some programs could begin packing for the national finals as early as tomorrow. Across all three divisions, the postseason field is loaded with experienced clubs, dominant pitching staffs, and lineups capable of changing a game with one swing. Now, the focus turns from building résumés to advancing through regional play and chasing national championships. These antepenultimate rankings provide a final snapshot of where the divisions stand entering...
High School | Rankings | 5/13/2026

High School Top 50 Update: May 13

Tyler Russo
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Another week has passed by in the high school baseball season and with that, we have another edition of the National High School Top 50 to bring to you. Playoffs are rolling in southern states and we have reached the final 4 in some of them already. Each week we have new teams break in and this week is no different with three new faces inside the top-50.   The top remains almost identical to a week ago with the top-10 remaining the exact same with Venice (FL) leading the way as the No. 1 team in the nation. North Paulding (GA) swept Buford in an Elite 8 matchup in Georgia and move up a pair of spots to No. 12 in the country. Another big mover is St. Laurence (IL) who jumps nine spots to No. 13 and boast a 30-1 record on the year. Waxahachie (TX) continues to move up and are up nine spots this week to No. 32.   The three new teams inside the National Top 50 are Etowah...
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