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VENTURA, CALIF. - The Uncommitted Spotlight Series returns as we wind down from a packed fall of Prep Baseball California events, scout 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 a talented 2026 player who is featured inside the Top 275 of our 2026 California rankings. We are looking at the SoCal based '26 OF Riley Ortega from Pacifica High School in Oxnard, Calif.. Ortega debuted on the Prep Baseball California event platform this summer with a standout performance over three days at the 2025 California State Games. This performance backed up what has now been two years of outstanding live looks during the CIF High School schedule for myself.

Ortega has been a full-time starter at Pacifica High School for three years taking over as a Fr. in 2023 and being a key piece of their lineup, outfield defense for the three years. His performance on the field helped guide the program to a CIF-SS D5 Semifinal run in 2024 and won the CIF-Southern Region D4 title in 2024. Over three years Ortega has embodied the tablesetter role for the Tritons offense with 89 games played in three seasons he has taken 346 plate appearances with 288 official at bats with a career slash line of .285/.355/.302 heading into his SR. season. Riley has 82 career hits with five doubles while stealing 23 bases to spark plug the offense with an even career BB/K ration of 43 - 43. He has scored 63 runs in three seasons with 20+ scored in each year while driving in another 32 runs of his own.

The RH hitting Whyte employs a simple and short toe tap stride with his front foot and maintains body control in the load keeping his head quiet. He works down into his lower half during the turn with his upper body tilting back slightly at contact to help generate leverage from his direct/compact hand and bat path. His simple operation in the load allows him to make sound swing decisions and the RHH uses his hips to rotate and generates intriguing present torque posting 18.3 Gs of rotational acceleration. His swing path is leveraged through the zone geared mainly for middle of the field contact with strong present metrics in both his quick hands up to 21.7 MPH peak hand speed with a direct path and sound turn producing bat speed at 68.3 MPH. His simple operation in the box combined with his sound approach/timing produces loud batted ball data via Trackman including a max EV up to 94.6 MPH during State Games batting practice with an average EV at 89.7 MPH and sprayed line drives around the field with a max distance of 262' with a 44% hard hit rate.

Ortega has started to add strength to his athletic frame which has him checking in at 5'11 175 lbs. with room to add another 10-15 lbs. in the future as he keeps maturing. He is a solid overall athlete with the foot speed (6.89 60 yard dash - 1.57 10 yard split - 3.76 30 yard split - 19.7 MPH max run speed) and instincts/first step to be an impact profile defender at a premium spot in CF with an accurate 78 MPH arm which lives on one hop to the INF bases and home plate.

The overall profile for Ortega is sound across the board with impact potential defense, top of the order offensive profile with athletic ability and track record of playing at a high level. Those factors all add up toa player whose present profile is a strong one to know for college programs on the hunt in 2026 for pieces to help their program win and is also one that has continued upside to it as he keeps developing and improving.

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

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