Prep Baseball Report

St. Louis Open: Quick Hits


By: Diego Solares
Area Scout, Illinois & Missouri

On Sunday, October 23, the PBR Missouri staff traveled to the SportsBarn in Wentzville to host the St. Louis Open, the final event on our 2022 calendar. This event featured 20+ uncommitted 2023-to-2026 graduates that participated in a pro-style workout in front of our staff, collecting unrivaled data with the help of our tech partners in the process.

To see a full up-to-date list of the players that attended this event, click HERE.

Now, at the event’s conclusion, our staff will put together several post-event content pieces related to this year’s St. Louis Open. We’ll start with this ‘Quick Hits’ piece, which will highlight a handful of players that showed well to our staff during yesterday’s workout. Learn more about those names, below.

QUICK HITS

+ RHP Nathan Smith (Southern Boone, 2023) showed out as arguably the top prospect in attendance Sunday morning. Making his PBR debut, the 6-foot-2, 174-pound Smith pumped his fastball from a high slot at 83-86 mph with downhill tilt and above-average arm speed. Smith also mixed in two breaking balls, a curveball and slider, with depth and similar velocity bands to each other, landing the former for strikes at a more consistent rate. A loose, live-armed athlete, Smith emerged as an uncommitted senior to follow in the state after this showing,

+ CIF Tyler Ellis (Christian Brothers College, 2024) generated some of the hardest contact we saw at yesterday’s event, both at peak and on average. Ellis utilized the inherent strength attached to a physical 6-foot-1, 215-pound frame to square up his hardest barrel at 94.5 mph, averaging 85.6 mph per batted ball. His top hand (23.1 mph) and bat (74.9 mph) speed marks also finished amongst the event’s leaders.

+ OF/RHP Peyton Kight (Jackson) looks the part of an upside prospect in Missouri’s 2025 class. Kight, who stands at a highly projectable 6-foot-4, 180-pounds, whipped balls off his barrel to the pull-side throughout BP from a loose right-handed swing. The ease in which he worked coupled with the extension Kight created through the zone suggests a relatively intriguing power profile should he continue to tack on strength over the years. Kight showed a similarly loose presence in the outfield, working through the baseball and confidently covering ground. A former quarterback, Kight left this event a winner in our scouts’ eyes.

+ Another arm to show well from this event was RHP Camden Lohman (Fort Zumwalt North, 2025). Lohman pitched in the low-80s with his fastball, topping at 84 mph, and showed foreseeable upside on a long-limbed 6-foot-2, 160-pound frame. He controlled those lanky levers well downhill and maintained momentum towards his target while working the zone with his fastball. Though still developing his secondaries, Lohman’s size and projectability have our scouts intrigued as we enter the off-season.

+ OF/LHP Brody Signorelli (Fort Zumwalt West, 2025) left a positive impression on our scouts after a strong performance at his first PBR event. An athletic 5-foot-11, 150-pound with room to fill out, Signorelli worked the pull-side from a quick, uphill left-handed swing. He moved around the outfield in a fluid manner, reaching back for an 83 mph high on his firmest bullet, too. A projectable athlete capable of tacking on quality strength with a productive winter, Signorelli is a follow name in Missouri’s sophomore class.

+ INF/RHP Matthew States (Father Tolton Catholic, 2025) is a name we’ve become increasingly familiar with throughout the season and he showed well in this weekend’s most recent look. States, who’s built at a strong, well-proportioned 6-foot-1, 190-pounds, worked the middle of the field in BP, keeping his barrel through the zone with length and recording a 92.1 mph max exit velocity. He hopped on the mound later in his workout and ran his fastball up to 82 mph while spinning a high-60s curveball with 14+ inches of horizontal movement on average. We’ll be eager to see the improvements he’s made after the off-season during our winter circuit.

+ MIF Gage Vanlandingham (Van Buren, 2025) peppered the middle of the field with line drives throughout his BP round, working on top of the baseball from a simple right-handed swing. Vanlandingham also took arguably the day’s cleanest round of infield defense, showcasing advanced up-the-middle actions for his age while bouncing around the infield turf with confidence.

Joining us from southern Illinois were two prospects from Columbia HS: INF Alex Schreckenberg (2023) and INF Cash Bailey (2025). A quick nugget on each:

+ Our first glance at Schreckenberg came deep into the 2A IHSA playoffs where he played a key role in leading the Eagles to a state berth. We saw him again at the Battle for The Arch in September as a member of team Illinois, and looked the part on Sunday at the SportsBarn to our Missouri crew. He’s built at 6-foot-2, 195-pounds with present strength and plenty of room for more. In this look, Schrekenberg generated hard contact to the opposite field with whippy hands and barrel length through the zone. Schreckenberg is a name-to-know uncommitted senior from the southern region of Illinois.

+ This was Bailey’s first time making an appearance at a PBR event and the 5-foot-9, 190-pound 2025 grad generated some of the highest metrics in batting practice yesterday. Bailey averaged 73.3 mph of bat speed and peaked at 79 mph, per Blast Motion, both of which are well advanced marks for his age. He recorded the furthest batted ball of the event (320 ft.), the highest average batted distance (234 ft.), the second highest max exit velocity (92.6 mph), and the second highest average exit velocity (85.2 mph), too. Bailey’s ability to generate that quality of contact from a short, quick right-handed swing is a testament to his inherent strength and he’s someone to note from southern Illinois as his sophomore campaign begins.

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