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Uncommitted Spotlight: '26 OF Colton Booterbaugh

September 24, 2025
Steven Hardesty
Associate Director SoCal

   

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VENTURA, CALIF. - The Uncommitted Spotlight Series continues 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 intriguing 2026 player who is featured inside the Top 250 of our 2026 California rankings. We are looking at SoCal '26 OF Colton Booterbaugh from Highland High School in Palmdale, Calif.. Booterbaugh posted a loud JR. season at Highland High School in the high desert of California which earned him an invite to the Future Games Tryout: Central California. On a hot summer day the RH hitting Booterbaugh put together a strong showing during the workout portion and live at bats portion of the day. His showing was impressive enough to earn himself a spot on Team West Coast at the 2025 Senior Future Games where he collected multiple hits and multiple RBIs facing off against top uncommitted SR. talent from around the US and Canada. He will also participate in the upcoming West Coast Games to be held in Southern California over the weekend of Oct. 3rd to 5th at Loyola Marymount University and Mira Costa High School.

During his JR. season at Highland Booterbaugh found a home in the middle of a talented Bulldogs lineup that won the Golden Valley League. He manned CF for me during a live look in the CIF-SS high school season looking solidly comfortable at the spot with the profile to handle LF easily and the present arm strength with room for more in the future to hold down RF. He played in 25 of the Bulldogs 28 games (missed small time with a hamstring issue) while taking 84 trips to the plate and 70 official at bats. For the year Booterbaugh posted a slash line of .386/.452/.614 in his offensive opportunities. Colton posted a total of 27 hits with 10 going for extra bases (five doubles, four triples, and homer) while driving in 16 runs with 28 runs scored. He drew 10 walks while stealing three bases to add production to the Bulldogs offensive output. 

The RH hitting Booterbaugh uses a simple controlled operation in the box with consistent feel for being on time both at launch and with his barrel to contact. He focuses on a middle of the field high contact approach with leverage in his bat path to wear out the gaps with hard contact including sneaky strength to his pull side. The hips rotate effectively witgh quality present torque and a peak rotational acceleration of 14.4 Gs while using his presently quick hands up to 21.2 MPH peak hand speed. The more compact and direct bat path for Booterbaugh plays to his high contact profile with sound present bat speed at 68.7 MPH in the swing. His offensive profile is geared to his presently strong feel to hit with on base percentage, average and doubles power from line to line evidenced by a 75% hard hit rate, 83% sweet spot rate and 67% line drive rate (92% fly ball/line drive combined rate) at the FGT: Central California event to go with a 58% line drive/fly ball rate at the Senior Future Games. His barrel awareness is impressive with a 94.5 MPH max exit velocity and 90.7 MPH avg. exit velocity. Booterbaugh flashes a 347' and 329' max distances to his pull side gap with carry.

Booterbaugh has an athletic present build with some wiry strength to it while still projecting room to fill in his broad shouldered upper body and lower half. He measured in at 5'11 172.8 lbs at the Senior Future Games looking comfortably able to add another 15-20 lbs. on his frame. He is a solid athlete who runs 7.2 60 times at present, but has shown quicker with his hamstring at full health. His arm is accurate with low carry and feel to one hop throws to bases showing present 86 MPH OF velocity.

The offensive performance, sound athletic ability, projection to his frame, defensive versatility and more for Booterbaugh all combine to make a well-rounded impactful profile for college programs in the 2026 recruiting class.

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

Scouting Report

6/07/25

Colton Booterbaugh, Highland, 2026
Positional Profile: OF/RHP Rhythmic outfielder with present bat speed.
Body: 5-11, 169-pounds. Lean, wiry frame with room to grow.
Hit: RHH. Normal, balanced stance. Knees bent. Hands held high at ear level behind helmet. Back elbow pointed towards catcher. Low, inward leg kick stride. Hands cast outward with bat pointed up. Loads with hands and legs. Upward swing path with whip-like barrel.
Power: 94 max exit velocity, averaged 90.7 mph. 347' max distance.
Arm: RH. OF-86 mph. High 3/4 slot. Full windup on arm path. Whip-like arm action with loose finish.
Defense: Calculated steps towards ball. Calm presence as a fielder. Flashes glove late. Fluid crow hop.
ATH: 7.21 runner in the 60. 1.50 and 3.85 in the 10 and 30 yard splits.

3/12/25

Booterbaugh slots in the middle of the order and demonstrated a strong offensive profile in my first extended live look at him. A RHH who was playing CF for Highland he is a sound defender who moves well around the OF with range to both gaps, comfort going back on the ball or coming in on the ball with solid athleticism that should stick there long term. But, it was what Booterbaugh did at the dish in this look that really caught my eye. His swing has strong present bat speed with quickness in his hands and feel to deliver the barrel on time and on plane for hard contact consistently while using his lower half effectively. He flashed some impact in his first at bat drilling a deep line drive to the CF for an L-8 which if he eventually learns to stay in his legs longer could turn into a drive over the CF head or potentially the fence. Then his second at bat he jumped on a FB over the plate for a single right back up the middle and finished his day lofting a fly ball to RCF for a SAC FLY. Booterbaugh is aggressive, hunting hittable pitches early and often without getting beyond 5 pitches in an at bat over the three trips to the plate. A strong first impression for the uncommitted ‘26 and leaves me intrigued to see more of him in the future.


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