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Your Trenton Thunder, presented by NJM Insurance Group, have been keeping close tabs on our alumni from the 2024 season. Some of the best talent across Division 1 College Baseball this season showed flashes in the Thunder Blue and Gold last summer and are hitting their stride at their respective schools.
After two summers in the Draft League with the Thunder (’23 & ’24) infielder Ryland Zaborowski has made himself right at home at the University of Georgia since transferring from Miami of Ohio. The graduate student was named to the Rawlings Golden Spikes midseason watch list on MLB.com. The award is presented each year to the most outstanding player in College Baseball. As of May 5th, Zaborowski holds a slash line of .340/.752/.466 with 16 home runs and 58 RBI ranking in the top 50 in both categories across D-1 baseball. Zaborowski has taken home multiple SEC Player of the Week honors and has his third consecutive season with 10 or more homeruns.
Brendan Lawson, the highly touted Canadian prep prospect, showed great vision and discipline at the plate drawing more walks than strikeouts in 2024. The Gators’ freshman has seen his fair share of success in Gainesville hitting .333 with 9 home runs and 54 RBI as of May 5th. With his OPS at 1.013 he has continued to display great plate discipline in his freshman season with just 8 more strikeouts than walks in 171 at-bats. Lawson recently contributed a 5-RBI performance in Florida’s season high 22-3 victory over South Carolina. The multi-time SEC Freshman of the Week Award winner is second on the team with 18 multi-hit games while also ranking second on the squad with 12 multi-RBI performances. Lawson leads the Gators in RBI (54) and walks (30) and has a team leading six doubles in conference play.
After a phenomenal summer in Trenton a year ago, Rintaro Sasaki quickly found himself on a number of pre-season watch lists at Stanford, including Baseball America Preseason National Freshman of the Year, D1Baseball Preseason ACC Freshman of the Year, Baseball America Preseason ACC Freshman of the Year, and was ranked number 1 in Baseball America’s Preseason Top 25. The Japanese phenom had a two-home run and four-RBI game against Duke to begin conference play. In hist first three collegiate games the Cardinal power hitter plated 8 runs for Stanford in a series sweep over Cal State Fullerton. Heading into the final week of regular season play, Sasaki ranked fourth on the team in RBIs with 34 and fourth in home runs with 6. Similar to when he was in Trenton, Rintaro has started in every game to date this season for Stanford.
Jake Bennett, the power hitting backstop, has been a huge uplift for the Dallas Baptist offense in his first season with the club. Through 30 games Bennett made 23 starts and hit .274 with 12 home runs, ranking him third overall on the team, and tied for second in slugging percentage at .724. Bennett was also fourth on the team in OPS at 1.147 and fourth in RBI with 34. Jake’s longest homerun of the season traveled 481 feet at 116 miles per hour against Sam Houston on April 18th.
Tanner Chun, the Hawaiian native, has been having himself a solid freshman campaign in New Orleans. As of May 5th, Chun has played in 48 games for the Tulane Green Wave, making 40 starts on the year. Currently leading the team in home runs with 8 and fourth on the team in RBI with 32, Chun also holds an impressive .928 OPS in his rookie season. His .532 slugging percentage ranks him third overall for the Green Wave. Tanner is also second on the team in stolen bases, going 6-7 on the year.
David Marshall Jr has pieced together another solid offensive campaign in his senior season. Coming off of a scorching hot series against VCU where he saw himself tie the St. Bonaventure single game hit record with 6 on May 2nd, hitting .330/.486/.388 through 43 games, the versatile infielder has upped his batting average and slugging percentage by a combined 69 points. Marshall was tied for second on the team in home runs with 6 and is second overall on the club with 59 hits.•
