IMG Baseball Starting Out on Top
IMG Baseball seems to be following the footsteps of IMG Football to begin the year. On January 29th, the team, led by coach Kason Gabbard, was named the number 1 team in the country in the Perfect Game High School Preseason Rankings and is looking to make a bang early. On February 10th and 11th, the team traveled to Vero Beach with its 14 Division I commits to take on the number 3 team in the country, Calvary Christian Academy, and the number 18 team in the country, American Heritage Plantation, in preseason matchups.
IMG opened many eyes even wider in the preseason event by beating Calvary 6-2 and American Heritage 11-1. IMG’s impressive roster is led by four Perfect Game All Americans: LHP Mason Albright (Virginia Tech), LHP/OF Drew Gray (Arkansas), 3B Tommy White (North Carolina State), OF James Wood (Mississippi State). All four of these players have a chance to be high picks in the 2021 MLB Draft later this year in July. Other seniors scattered within the roster are C Sam Hunt (Vanderbilt), SS/2B Drake Varnado (Arkansas), INF Joey Slattery (Florida Atlantic), OF Max Galvin (Miami Dade), and uncommitted stars RHP Ben Fiedler and LHP Evan Clark. Much like the National Championship Football team, the underclassmen are impressive as well, as IMG boasts the number one junior in the country, OF Elijah Green (Miami).
Following Green in the 2022 class are LHP Jackson Ferris (Ole Miss), RHP Davion Hickson (Florida State), 1B Blaydon Plain (Florida), and uncommitted OF Nate Selmont. Furthermore, rounding out the roster are two sophomores in the likes of C Brady Neal (LSU) and SS Stone Russell (Florida).
When asked about the teams’ star heavy roster Gabbard said, “Our team is obviously built around high-quality players and that’s what we want. This year we have a bunch of different guys with tons of different personalities and they’re having fun; that’s what it’s all about.” After their preseason trip in Vero Beach, IMG will play 3 home games before leaving for Texas to play against 3 Texas powerhouses over 3 days in the major league stadium Globe Life Field. Once they march back home, they will head off to the biggest tournament of the year, the PG High School Showdown, which they won in 2019 and were a semifinalist at in 2020.
IMG also plans to play Calvary Christian Academy (No. 3), Tampa Jesuit (No. 8), and Doral Academy (No. 22). When asked about their challenging schedule, Gabbard remarked, “We try to make it competitive every year. A lot of teams reach out to play us and we try and play different ones every year.” IMG Academy is set to embark on a 25-game journey that will hopefully lead them to a National Championship at years end. Since they aren’t allowed to compete for a state title Gabbard said, “When we pick our initial team, that’s in our opening speech… it’s where our expectations are.” With lofty goals in mind and a star-studded team to back it up, time can only tell the fate of this season.