USA Baseball's National High School Invitational is loaded with prospects. Watch the video below to learn a little more about the lighter side of Max Fried, Luke Sims, Joey Gallo, Courtney Hawkins, Ty Moore and Matt Olson. . .

Courtney Hawkins has been one of the stars of the National High School Invitational. The outfielder/pitcher for Corpus Christi, Texas' Carroll High hit a home run while also dominating on the mound on Thursday. Ranked as the No. 38 draft prospect in our February Draft Top 100 rankings, Hawkins has pro potential either in the field or on the mound.

But that's not all Hawkins can do. On Friday morning, he showed off his athleticism with an easy backflip, as you can see here.

The second day of the USA Baseball's National High School Invitational had numerous highlights, but Carroll High (Corpus Christi, Texas) outfielder/righthander Courtney Hawkins stole the show.

In the team's first game against Gulliver Prep from Pinecrest, Fla., Hawkins was a one-man wrecking crew. He started the game on the mound where he threw 5 1/3 shutout innings, giving up four hits, walking two and striking out nine for the win. His fastball sat in the 90-92 mph range, topping out at 94, but it wasn't his only weapon.

"He's got a split and a slider," Carroll head coach Lee Yeager said. "He struck their four-hole guy out on a pretty good slider. They've got a good bunch of hitters so he did a pretty good job of keeping them off balance and giving us a chance."

The Tigers' only run of the game came from a Hawkins home run. The pitch was a little outside and Hawkins didn't even get all of it, but he's strong enough for it to still leave the yard nearly 400 feet to left-center. The home run was one of Hawkins' two hits during four at-bats on the day.

"I kind of got around it a little bit," Hawkins said. "It was a lefty and he had good movement, so the whole plan was to go the other way with it and he ended up running it into my bat. I got a good swing on it." [...] Continue Reading »

The first marquee mound matchup of USA Baseball's National High School Invitational certainly did not disappoint.

Nearly 100 scouts crowded behind the backstop to watch Brookwood High (Snellville, Ga.) righthander Luke Sims take on Highlands Ranch (Colo.) High and their ace righthander, Ryan Burr.

Sims dominated, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He wound up giving up one weak hit—a little dribbler past the mound—over six innings of work for the win. The Clemson signee walked three and struck out 11.

"Sims obviously is a very good pitcher," Highlands Ranch head coach John Cackowski said. "We got better by facing him today."

Sims sat in the 90-92 mph range with his lively fastball. He touched a handful of 93s and 94s, held his velocity deep into the game and threw his fastball for strikes to both sides of the plate, never afraid to own the inner half.
[...] Continue Reading »