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VENTURA, CALIF. - The Uncommitted Spotlight Series returns after a jam packed summer of Prep Baseball California events, summer travel baseball, and other opportunities to evaluate players we will be recognizing some of the top remaining uncommitted players around the state. We will be looking at players from the 2026 class and 2027 classes across the upcoming weeks/months. 

We invite you to get to know them through the eyes of our Prep Baseball California staff of scouts both through our in person looks at players and/or the data-backed numbers collected at our events with our partnered companies. TrackMan, Blast Motion, and VALD Performance provide comparable data to project and evaluate players. All of these systems come together to give a clear picture at what colleges will get when a players steps onto their campus.

Today, we put the spotlight on an impressive 2026 player who posted both solid spring and summer performances. We are looking at SoCal '26 C Luca Marucci from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Calif..  Marucci made his first appearance on the Prep Baseball California platform during the preseason with a strong showing at the OC Preseason ID and then again in the summer with an outstanding showing at the FGT: Malibu event.

Marucci has posted well on his offensive metrics across both events. A RH hitter Marucci works from a balanced set up with a medium leg kick and small hand load he gets to launch consistently early or on time with body control. It's a simple operation that builds into a solid overall swing which shows quickness in his hands with a 21.8 MPH peak hand speed  while generating high quality bat speeds of 71.3 MPH with impressive explosiveness in his turn to generate 22.1 Gs of rotational acceleration. Marucci's approach is geared towards solid contact and plays well with his astute feel for being on the barrel at contact. He has peaked at 93.7 MPH on his exit velocity playing to the middle to pull side of the field with doubles power through the gaps and the impact/loft in his path to drive a ball out to the pullside (340' max distance) while averaging a solid 82 MPH on his exit velocity. His more in-depth data provided by Trackman from his batting practice sessions at both the FGT: Malibu and State Games shows the strength of his present offensive profile. Miller has produced a 55% sweet spot rate with consistency putting the baseball in the air (63-72% fly ball/line drive rates during his batting practice sessions).

Playing in the ultra competitive Mission Leauge Marucci put together a solid JR. campaign as the primary backstop for the Cubs. Hitting against high level arms across the spring season Marucci slashed .276/.388/.471 in 29 games with 103 plate appearances and 87 official at bats. Diving deeper the RH hitter had 24 hits (third on the team), four doubles, two triples (tied for first), three homers (tied for first), drove in 15 runs (second), scored 14 runs (tied for second), walked 12 times against 16 strikeouts and his OBP/SLG were both third amongst full time players on the squad. For the spring he fielded .990 behind the plate in a total of 198 chances. HIs overall season success helped him earn a spot on the All-Mission League 2nd team squad. 

Luca is strongly built at 6' 193.5 lbs. presently and has the room on his frame to add some future strength gains as he continues to mature. His athletic profile is an intriguing one especially as a catcher having posted 60 times as low as 6.86 over his two events with first step quickness and drive (1.61 10 yard split with 19.9 MPH max run speeds). His arm has shown solid behind the plate with a 74 MPH catcher velocity and pop times in the 2.0-2.1 range with solid accuracy to the bag. His athleticism, quality arm and demonstrated feel behind the plate give him a strong long term defensive profile behind the plate.

With a solid JR. campaign, high quality overall metrics, sound performances this summer and room to continue getting better with maturity Marucci is a quality name to be keeping tabs on for the 2026 recruiting classes of college programs eyeing backstops who can be strong defenders with ability to add offensive impact.

College coaches and fans be sure to click on Marucci's profile to see full video and information.

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