Illinois & Wisconsin D-I Recruiting Classes: MAC
December 14, 2020
This month, our Illinois and Wisconsin staffs have collaborated to break down the 2021 players and their post-high school destinations, now that they’re preparing for the final springs of their prep careers.
The signing period opened on Nov. 11, so we’re well into monitoring this senior class make formal commitments to their next-level homes. We began breaking down both states’ 2021 classes earlier in the week, assessing the 11 Division-I programs in Illinois and Wisconsin and the entirety of the players headed in their direction.
To view Part One and Part Two of that analysis, click on either of the previous hyperlinks.
We started the conference-by-conference breakdown on Thursday within the current home of many former Illinois and Wisconsin prep players: the Big Ten Conference.
Next up in our conference analysis for this 2021-22 recruiting class is the Mid-American Conference, better known as the MAC. Its proximity to both our states makes it a perennially popular landing spot among the talented recruits who can Illinois and Wisconsin home. Due to COVID, the number of MAC-bound recruits may be slightly lower than in previous years, but there’s still impact talent headed across the region.
MIAMI
+ The top prospect coming to the MAC is RHP Lazaro Marquez, the No. 20-ranked prospect in Illinois and a recent Miami-Ohio commit. He broke out in a big way on the mound at our Underclass Invitational event back in 2019. There, his lively fastball sat at 88-90 mph, touching 91, and he occasionally landed a sharp curveball for strikes. Marquez will join a Redhawks’ staff that’s produced some high-octane arms over the last few years and he looks primed to be next in line.
Joining Marquez in Oxford byway of Wisconsin is LHP Blake Read (Muskego). A former member of Team Wisconsin at the PBR Future Games, Read is a competitive southpaw that we’ve seen touch 86 mph with his fastball and he pairs it with a sharp hook that’s flashed swing-and-miss upside. He’ll be an interesting follow as his college career progresses.