Blake Paugh has stood out among his talented teammates on the Chaparral baseball team and AZ T-Rex Baseball team. Paugh, entering his senior year for the Firebirds, is a first baseman, outfielder and pitcher. His T-Rex Baseball squad just won the Perfect Game 17-And-Under World Series, and in pool play, Paugh delivered a triple that would be the difference in one of their games.
That pop is something his teammates have come to know.
“He probably has the most power I’ve ever seen in high school,” Jacob Gonzalez, Paugh’s Chaparral and T-Rex teammate, said. “In batting practice, he hits it further than all of us by 20 or 30 feet. It’s crazy.”
Paugh is one of the many members of T-Rex who has already committed to a Division-I power. In Paugh’s case, he plans to head to Tucson to play for Jay Johnson at the University of Arizona. Watching the Wildcats make their run in the College World Series excites the Firebird to get a crack at Omaha himself.
“They weren’t picked to do very well in the season,” Paugh said. “Just finishing runner-up in the College World Series just shows you how good of a coaching staff they are.”
With Paugh, Gonzalez and pitcher Casey Candiotti returning for their senior year at Chaparral, they are hoping to use their experience to make a playoff run of their own in 2017.
“We’re always the top schools for everyone, we always have a target on our back,” Paugh said. “We just kind of have to understand our role as a team and come out there and play hard every day.”
