Area Code Alumni Spotlight: Week 13 NCAA Standouts and More
A closer look at Area Code alumni who are making an impact across all levels of baseball.
A look back at Week 13 of the college baseball season, highlighting the best plays, top performers, and highlights heading into the final stretch.
NCAA Top Performers
The best Area Code Alumni from Week 13 of college baseball
Cam Appenzeller, LHP, Tennessee
Area Code Team: 2024 White Sox
One of the top high school prospects to reach campus last summer, Appenzeller has looked the part in his first season at Tennessee, pitching to a 4.12 ERA with 49 strikeouts to 10 walks over 43.2 innings. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound left-hander works from a low slot, sitting 90-92 mph and touching 94 with run. He pairs it with a low-80s slider with sweep that consistently generates empty swings, rounds out the mix with a true sinker and a fading changeup, and shows advanced control and projection consistent with a starter’s frame.
Teddy Tokheim, OF/DH, Stanford
Area Code Team: 2023 Athletics & 2024 Royals
Seven hits in 12 at-bats across 13 plate appearances, three home runs, seven RBIs, one walk, zero strikeouts, and an .811 wOBA. Tokheim did not strike out once all weekend. For a freshman already slashing .353/.423/.699 on the season, this weekend was confirmation that what he is doing is not a fluke.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound right-handed hitter produces frequent loud contact with advanced feel for the barrel, plus strength and bat speed, handling velocity and spin while driving the ball in the air to the pull side.
He is one of the best freshman bats in the country and the numbers, week after week, keep backing it up.
Alex Sosa, OF/INF, Miami
Area Code Team: 2021 Nationals
Nine hits in 13 at-bats across 15 plate appearances, three home runs, nine RBIs, two walks, one strikeout, and a .878 wOBA. That is as locked in as a hitter gets over a weekend series.
Sosa hit .692 (9-for-13) in Miami’s three-game series against Louisville, notching three home runs, two doubles, nine RBI and six runs scored. He posted a 1.385 slugging percentage and .733 on-base percentage, and hit two home runs in a four-hit effort with five RBI to help Miami secure the series finale. The ACC named him its Player of the Week.
Sosa is a junior catcher out of Viera, Florida who transferred from NC State, where he showed he could run a pitching staff and provide pop behind the plate. He has now impressed at two different ACC schools, doing more of the same at Miami in 2026. This was not his first statement weekend either. On opening weekend, he went 6-for-13 with three home runs to earn Baseball America’s Week 1 National Team of the Week honors. He has been doing this since February and this week was a reminder of what he’s capable of.
Dean West, OF, UCLA
Area Code Team: 2022 AC Select West
Trailing 6-1 through four innings against Oregon, UCLA mounted a comeback, erupting for eight unanswered runs punctuated by West’s eighth-inning go-ahead grand slam to secure a 9-6 series-clinching win. West turned in a four-hit day that included the go-ahead slam and also robbed what would have been a grand slam in the fourth, impacting the game on both sides of the ball. He finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored.
John Paone, RHP, Virginia
Area Code Team: 2023 & 2024 Yankees
Seven innings, two hits, one earned run, one walk, nine strikeouts. It was the longest outing by a Cavalier pitcher this season, and his nine strikeouts were the most by a Virginia freshman pitcher since Tomas Valincius fanned 10 against Rice in February 2025.
Paone is a 6-foot-3, 210-pound right-hander out of Lawrence Academy in Massachusetts who turned down the draft to come to Charlottesville. His fastball has been clocked in the mid-90s, pairing it with an 80-mph slider and a changeup that sits 84-85.
Clayton Namken, INF, Texas State
Area Code Team: 2023 & 2024 Yankees
Six hits in 12 at-bats, three doubles, two home runs, seven RBIs, three walks and a .748 wOBA. Namken was one of the driving forces behind a Texas State program that set a new single-season home run record over the weekend. Five of his six hits went for extra bases.
Namken is a freshman catcher out of New Braunfels, Texas who has been part of one of the more entertaining offensive stories in college baseball this season. Texas State has made a habit of going deep in bunches. In March, the Bobcats became the only team in the nation to hit eight or more home runs twice in a single game in the same season, and back-to-back-to-back home runs happened twice in five days with the same three players, Ethan Farris, Namken, and Chase Mora, in the same order.
Namken is a freshman in the middle of that group and this weekend added to what has been a breakout season in San Marcos.
Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA
Area Code Team: 2021 & 2022 Reds
Cholowsky is in the final stretch of his college career and didn’t disappoint, going 6-for-16 with three home runs, four RBIs and seven runs scored over the weekend. A candidate to be selected first overall in this year’s draft, he moved into fifth all-time in career home runs at UCLA in the process.
Just two college shortstops have ever been selected No. 1 overall in the 61-year history of the draft: Brown’s Bill Almon, taken by the Padres in 1974, and Vanderbilt’s Dansby Swanson, taken by the Diamondbacks in 2015. Cholowsky would join them if the White Sox select him with the top pick.
Ethin Bingaman, 1B, Auburn
Area Code Team: 2024 Brewers
A member of the loaded 2025 Corona High School roster in California, Bingaman has transitioned from a two-way prep to a bat-first profile at first base for the Tigers. He has hit .324/.426/.556 with nine home runs and has earned back-to-back SEC Freshman of the Week Awards. He combines a swing built to handle velocity and spin with above-average contact rates and low chase, backed by mid-90s average exit velocity.
Jack Bauer, LHP, Mississippi State
Area Code Team: 2023 White Sox
A top-50 prospect in the 2025 draft class who honored his commitment to Mississippi State, Bauer has worked out of the bullpen as a freshman, posting a 4.50 ERA with 25 strikeouts to 10 walks over 16 innings. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound left-hander sits 96-98 mph and touches 102 with run. He pairs it with a sweeping, high-spin slider and a fading changeup. His arm talent points to sky-high upside.
Rett Johnson, OF, NC State
Area Code Team: 2024 AC Select East
An undersized, 5-foot-9 left-handed outfielder whose plate skills and baseball instincts stand out among the freshman class. Hitting .407 with a .515 OBP with 10 doubles, 14 stolen bases and a 12/33 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He leverages his size to control a tight strike zone, is a plus runner who projects to center field, and profiles as a high-end table-setting bat.
Angel Laya, OF, Oregon
Area Code Team: 2023 & 2024 Brewers
Laya is a physical left-handed hitter who arrived on campus at 190 pounds and opened the season around 205, continuing to grow into a projectable, power-oriented frame. Hitting .299/.405/.575 with 13 home runs, and six doubles.He projects as a productive power-over-hit corner outfielder with a good arm.
Anthony Pack, OF, Texas
Area Code Team: 2023 & 2024 Brewers
Pack is hitting .348/.468/.534 with five home runs, 15 doubles, 17 stolen bases in 18 attempts and more walks (33) than strikeouts (26). He shows strong feel for the barrel with above-average exit velocities and is firmly in the SEC Freshman of the Year race.
Nico Partida, INF, Texas A&M
Area Code Team: 2023 & 2024 Rangers
Partida is current at the top of Baseball America’s 2028 college draft rankings and has been a steady offensive presence for the Aggies, hitting .317/.415/.585 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs across 44 games. He pairs that production with a controlled, selective approach and real impact in the bat when he connects.
Thank you
Another week in the books. The regular season is winding down, conference races are tightening, postseason bids are being earned and lost, and the draft picture gets clearer by the weekend. Area Code alumni are in the middle of all of it.
We’ll be back next week with more. Thank you for reading and for supporting Area Code Baseball.