McHenry County Hurricanes Travel Baseball Association

On February 20, 8 members of the U16 McHenry County Hurricanes partcipated in the Prep Baseball Report Open Identification Showcase.  Cody Freund ranked #1 and Tommy Kiriakopolous ranked #3 out of the 23 Class of 2014 players from around the Midwest that participated.  Joe Rizzuto ranked #6 out of the 51 Class of 2013 participants.

The other 5 U16 Hurricane players that participated (Shane Gustafson, Adam Kalish, Payton Lykins, Robert Nagel and Corte Trebacz) were all mentioned in the Best of the Rest and performed well.

The evaluations on the 3 ranked players are shown below:

1. Cody Freund, C, McHenry West HS, Class of 2014
Freund showed extremely well from behind the plate, posting the best pop time of 1.91. He followed up that time with pop times of 1.95 and 1.97 with throws that were dead on the bag and clocked at 78 mph.  The 5-foot-10, 140-pound left-handed hitter will continue to get better as he physically develops.  Offensively, Freund showcased a level, line-drive left-handed swing. He hits with an open setup and demonstrated some barrel whip through the zone.

 3. Tommy Kiriakopoulos, 1B/RHP, Huntley HS, Class of 2014
Kiriakopoulos is a 6-foot, 180-pound two-way player who impressed at the plate with his ability to square up the baseball.  Kiriakopoulos showed fluidity and rhythm in his swing as he laced line drives to all fields with his level bat path.  He displayed good gap-to-gap power and created whip through the zone.  On the mound, Kiriakopoulos throws from an over the top slot with a loose backside arm action.  His repertoire includes four pitches, including a fastball that sat at 77-79 mph.  His off-speed pitches included a slider, in the 65-68 range, and a 60-62 mph curveball, both with similar action. He also has a changeup that checked in at 57-59 mph.

6. Joe Rizzuto, 2B/OF, Jacobs HS, Class of 2013
Rizzuto is a 5-foot-9, 135-pound multi-positional player who showed good athleticism in all aspects of the game.  Rizzuto has a solid left-handed swing.  He showed some rhythm at the plate with his easy, level swing as he sprayed line drives to all fields.  Defensively, Rizzuto exhibited quick footwork and soft hands.  He displayed the ability to play through the ball at all positions and exhibited an accurate arm (78 mph from OF and 70 mph from across the diamond).  Additionally, Rizzuto ran a 4.37 home to first.