⚾️ Perfect Game Ranks Kansas’ JUCO Recruiting Class No. 1 in the Nation

LAWRENCE, Kan. — For the first time in program history, Kansas Baseball has received the No. 1-ranked junior college recruiting class by Perfect Game.

"The No. 1 ranking is a great accomplishment and shows the outstanding efforts of our entire staff. Jon Coyne is an incredibly gifted recruiter and did an amazing job coordinating all aspects of the class. The University of Kansas is an incredible institution, and we have quickly seen the desire that recruits have to be a Jayhawk. We are going to continue recruiting the best people and student-athletes to build our program into a group that competes at the highest level."

Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald

Last month, Kansas signed 13 recruits to its 2023 recruiting class, including eight junior college prospects. Those prospects include Devin Bennett (McLennan Community College), Cayden Collins (Scottsdale Community College), Cooper Combs (Johnson County Community College), Ben Hartl (Heartland Community College), Evan Shaw (Cochise College), Patrick Steitz (Central Arizona College), Izack Tiger (Butler Community College).

Below is Perfect Game’s overview of Kansas’ 2023 JUCO recruiting class:

“Kansas leads the way by a fair margin in this exercise, which is no surprise given the known styles of new head coach Dan Fitzgerald and new recruiting coordinator Jon Coyne. Both have extensive experience both coaching in and recruiting from the junior college level, and clearly have executed a plan for hitting the level hard right away. There’s some star power here, with Kansas winning recruiting battles for some of these players against programs of much higher recent success, which can be taken as nothing but a positive sign for the path of the program moving forward.” – Brian Sakowski, National Crosschecker

A closer look at some of the recruits:

“McLennan’s Devin Bennett and Butler’s Izack Tiger are two of the better right-handed JUCO pitching prospects in the country, and are potential draft picks in 2023. Bennett has mid-90s heat with a sharp-tilting slider and performed really well as a freshman against tough competition, while Tiger really impressed this fall with higher-spin stuff, intriguing projection and a lot of strikes. Patrick Steitz has a huge frame at 6-foot-8, 210 pounds and mixes three good pitches to great success with starter upside. Cayden Collins is a changeup artist who gets consistent whiffs on the pitch and has low-90s velocity, fellow Arizonan Evan Shaw is the one lefty of the group and has good size with some deception to him, working in the upper-80s with a full mix and a tough look for hitters. Cooper Combs is a physical right-handed bat with good performance history who should hit right away, and catcher Ben Hartl has similar offensive tools with catch-and-throw tools behind the plate. Chase Diggins from Odessa is a native Australian who can really rake and has a chance to play short. There’s good offensive pieces here, but this class of arms especially has some serious upside for the Jayhawks.” – Sakowski

Kansas also received the No. 1 ranked JUCO recruiting class from The JBB.

The Jayhawks will open up the 2023 season in February. The spring schedule will be released in the coming weeks. Season tickets are on sale now to the public and fans can purchase season tickets by contacting the Kansas ticket office at 785-864-3141, or by visiting the ticketing page here.

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