With shortstop Garin Cecchini out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, Hommy Rosado might not have it easy from here on out, but he's certainly made it look that way so far. The Barbe High (Lake Charles, La.) catcher is absolutely killing the ball through 15 games.

In 51 at-bats he has 22 hits, 15 of which are home runs. That gives him a .431/.516/1.353 line to go with 26 runs scored, two doubles and 36 RBIs.

"Hommy bats second and Garin was leading off," head coach Glenn Cecchini said. "It was like pick your poison. They would pitch to Hommy and he'd make them pay.

"He's a real neat kid. He's real  humble and never brags. You can't say enough good about him."

Rosado is committed to Louisiana State-Eunice, but has really made a name for himself lately among the pro scouts. He had a good sophomore season in 2008, but was hurt for much of 2009.

"Hommy's a good hitter," an American League area scout said. "Just seeing some of the other kids in your (Top 100) list, there's some good athletes in there but Hommy's a good baseball player. He can swing the bat and he has some power. He's probably one that you may consider squeezing in there at some point if he keeps putting up those kind of numbers. High school home runs—I mean, you're all over the place with those. I've seen a bunch of kids hit 20 in high school that couldn't hit in college, but I've seen him swing the bat well in the summer circuit, too. That's what he does well. He's not a great athlete, but he's a good hitter."

For those that like record-breaking performances, the Barbe record for home runs in a season is 17, set by Austin Nagle in 1999. That's when it was legal to use minus-5 bats—meaning the difference between the bat's length and weight was five units. For Rosado to get onto the national scene, he'll need eight more to tie for 10th all-time. The single season record is 30, set by Wade Miller in 2000.

CONTRIBUTING: Conor Glassey