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By Dylan Hefflinger and PBR Staff
Ohio Editor in Chief/NW Scout

Top 12 Stories for The Year 2014

PBR Ohio started up on May 3rd, 2011 as seen here. From that day, Chris Valentine has had a goal to promote high school baseball in Ohio at the highest level possible. Chris has been able to do this thanks to the help of parents, coaches, and the talented players throughout the state of Ohio.

Chris has also built a staff that has the drive to make Ohio one of, if not the top viewed website for Prep Baseball Report as well as put on some of the best showcases in the nation to help promote the high school talent that resides in the Buckeye State.

Dylan Hefflinger, PBR Ohio Editor in Chief/NW Scout, along with JD Heilmann, PBR Ohio Director Scouting take a look back at the year in review and put together a list of the top stories for 2014.

To start off the countdown, we chose a piece that touches JD, the Midland Baseball Organization, and the city of Cincinnati at heart, as one of the most well respected men in all of baseball passed away this year. To follow that up we looked at "The Recruiting Trail" which updates where all the prospects across the state have been visiting, who they are getting attention from, and who they have committed to.

Next up we look at the "Cam Varga Experience".

Each day we will reveal the next story on the list. A hint for the next story is the word "Wolf".

A rundown of the stories: Note: We will be conducting a Twitter contest to vote on the top 12 stories for 2014 once the 12 stories have been posted.

• A Tribute to Papa Joe Hayden
• The Ohio Recruiting Trail

The Cam Varga Experience

It isn't every day that one of the top prospects in the nation moves from Florida to Ohio, but that was the case with Cameron Varga.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound prospect, who committed to Florida before the start of his freshman year, instantly became the top class of 2014 prospect in the PBR coverage area. Varga chose the Gators over the likes of Florida State and the University of Miami. To read more into why the Varga's moved to Ohio, please take a look at this interview from 2012 by clicking here.

However, Varga decommitted  from Florida and reopened his recruitment. So what did that mean when it comes to colleges? Well, just a couple months after his decommitment, Varga named a top four, which included North Carolina, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. To read more about his decommitment, click here.

Three months after Varga reopening his recruitment, the talented right-handed pitcher chose the University of North Carolina over a plethora of high profile universities. To read more about the right-hander's commitment please click here.

Now that the choice of where Varga was going to head to college was behind him, it was time for Cameron to prepare for the junior season in the spring as well as the all important summer travel session. The reason this was important was because the righty, who was already throwing in the low-90s, was to be looked at by numerous professional scouts.

After a successful junior season, where Varga posted a 0.22 ERA while striking out 148 batters in 64 innings of work on the mound, Cameron earned the number one ranking in Ohio (seen here) as well as the number one overall ranking for Prep Baseball Report in the 2014 class, as seen here.

Now it was time for Varga to show his talents on the biggest stage in the summer. However in late June Cameron, who was at the Perfect Game National Showcase, was shut down because of a stomach virus that turned into a cyst in his abdomen. After returning 28 days later, the righty sat 93-96 mph for Midland but was shut down again because of arm soreness that later became biceps tendinitis. This can all be read in greater detail here.

Varga returned for his senior season stronger than ever and was poised to lead the Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy Eagles to state.

Varga's senior year was one for the record books as the 6-foot-3 righty dominated all comers. In 58 innings on the bump, Cameron did not allow an earned run while posting a 10-0 record and striking out 141 batters. You could say he was in a class of his own as Nathan Rode writes in this article.

One of Cameron's goals was to lead the Eagles to state, and he did that while saving one of his best performances for the state semi-finals as seen here. Cameron threw a no-hitter while striking out 15 of the 21 batters he faced, while walking just one batter (with two outs in the first inning). It was Varga's fifth no-hitter of his senior year.

Cameron was later named the Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year, to nobody's surprise.

Next up, the MLB Draft.

Varga was the 33rd-ranked prospect according to MLB Prospects writer Mike Rosenbaum, ranked 59th by Baseball America and ranked as the 12th best high school pitcher by Baseballdraftreport.com.

That being said, there were rumors Varga could go as high as the middle of the first round but he slipped to the 60th pick (second round). It could be the steal of the draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Nathan Rode, National Supervisor, talks about the factors of why Varga could have slipped in the draft within this article.

All in all, Varga is a special talent, and one of the top prospects that PBR Ohio and Prep Baseball Report as a whole has had the pleasure of covering. All of us at Prep Baseball Report wish Cameron the best in his future endeavors.