From the son of a former big leaguer to top draft prospects, here are 10 college baseball players from Wisconsin to watch

The NCAA baseball season kicked off over the weekend around the country and even though there's only one team in Wisconsin at the Division-I level, there are more than 100 players from the state playing overall.

Here are 10 of the biggest names to keep an eye on this year, from notable performers to some top draft prospects.

Owen Washburn, OF, Texas Tech

Washburn, the son of former MLB pitcher Jarrod Washburn, made a name for himself as a standout at Webster High School. As a senior in 2021 he hit .741 with seven homers and had a 0.00 ERA with 84 strikeouts to just one walk in 34 innings.

But this isn’t a list based on high school production. Washburn immediately slotted in as a starter for one of the nation’s best programs as a freshman last year and batted .277/.369/.433 with seven homers in 59 games.

Owen is teammates at Texas Tech with his older brother, Jack, a pitcher who is out for the year with a shoulder injury after helping Ole Miss win the national championship last summer.

Josh Leslie, IF, McNeese State

Leslie began his college career at Mesa Community College after graduating from Westosha Central and earned his way to Division-I, where he earned All-Southland Conference honors last year with McNeese State.

Evan Albrecht, IF, Purdue

A fifth-year senior out of West Bend West, Albrecht is one of the better pure hitters in the country. He led Purdue with a .365 average last year, the highest by a Boilermaker since 2009, while playing every inning across the team’s final 46 games. Albrecht was named a second-team all-region honoree after posting a .922 OPS.

Teammate Paul Toetz, who has a .798 OPS last year, hit cleanup for Purdue in the season opener in a lineup also featuring Albrecht.

George Klassen, RHP, Minnesota

A 2019 graduate of Port Washington, Klassen is a flamethrowing righthander who can work up to 100 mph on the mound with relative ease. Klassen has had his struggles in game settings (14.09 ERA in 11 games last year for the Gophers) but he is regarded as a top-100 prospect in this year’s MLB draft because of his immense arm talent.

Kyle Huckstorf, OF, Iowa

Huckstorf, a Waterford graduate, made headlines last year when he tied a Big Ten single-game record with 12 runs batted in after homering three times in a two-inning span. He started 51 games in center for Iowa and had a .284 average and .391 on-base percentage.

Ben Hampton, P, West Virginia

Hampton was the opening day starter for the Mountaineers after leading the team in innings a year ago. The southpaw out of West De Pere had an impressive showing in the Cape Cod League, the nation’s premier collegiate summer league, as he had a 2.32 ERA and led the entire league in strikeouts.

Dayne Leonard, C, West Virginia

There’s no shortage of talent from Wisconsin in West Virginia. Leonard, a River Valley grad, was named the No. 20 catcher in the country by D1Baseball this winter after he hit .331 with a .877 OPS in his first year with the Mountaineers in 2022.

Luke Nowak, OF, East Carolina

Nowak was used predominantly as a pinch runner in his first year at East Carolina, which made sense considering his blazing track speed he displayed at Menomonee Falls. But now Nowak is expected to take on a greater role with the No. 14 Pirates, including starting the season opener at designated hitter.

A bevy of local players at Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Panthers’ roster is plastered with homegrown players.

Six batters in the opening day lineup – Sussex Hamilton’s Ty Olejnik, Fall Creek’s Marcus Cline,  Waterford’s Aaron Chapman, Xavier’s Nate DeYoung, DeForest’s Justin Hausser and West Bend West’s Jack Thelen – were from Wisconsin. Also from the state were six of eight total pitchers to toe the rubber during the Panthers’ two season-opening wins, including both winning pitchers, Riley Frey (Oshkosh West) and Luke Hansel (Union Grove).

In all, the Panthers have 26 in-state players.

Christian Oppor, LHP, Gulf Coast Community College

Oppor, playing at junior college Gulf Coast, is the only name on this list not playing at the NCAA Division-I level. The freshman lefty is considered to be arguably the top JuCo arm in this year’s draft. Oppor sits in the mid-90s with his fastball and could work his way into Day 1 consideration for the MLB draft. He has 20 strikeouts in 12 innings to start the season at Gulf Coast.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Owen Washburn 1 of 10 college baseball players from Wisconsin to watch