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2025 All-American Game Preview: Illinois & Wisconsin

September 18, 2025
By: Drew Locascio & Peter Hamot

 

2025 PREP BASEBALL ALL-AMERICAN GAME

September in South Beach is the site of the nation’s top amateur baseball game again.

After a successful 2024 edition, the Prep Baseball All-American Game is set to return to Miami in 2025. The third annual event is headed back to loanDepot Park, home of the Miami Marlins, with the country’s top high school juniors and seniors facing off in the premier scouting showcases across amateur baseball. The game itself will take place on Saturday, Sept. 20, while the workout will be held the day prior, on Sept. 19.

Illinois is set to be represented by three of the top prospects in their respective classes. When looking at the 2026 roster, infielders Landon Thome (Nazareth) and Ethan Bass (Glenbrook North) headline the Illinois crop.

The 2027 roster will be represented by RHP Kaden Wasniewski (McHenry), the top 2027 in Illinois. Wasniewski is fresh off winning the MV-Pitcher award at this summer’s Future Games, where he sat comfortably in the mid-to-low 90s while showing off some of the best off-speed offerings in the entire event. Wasniewski dominated in his two-inning stint and should be a fun one to follow in his outing in Miami.

Thome has long been one of the top left-handed hitters in the Midwest, and as his tools and athleticism have ticked up, so has his prospect status. The Tennessee commit, and No. 1 prospect in Illinois’ 2026 class, has been a mainstay in the middle-of-the-order for Nazareth since his freshman year. Thome has an ultra-polished approach, high-level bat-to-ball skills, and takes consistent quality at-bats with minimal swing and miss. The 6-foot, 185-pound left-handed hitter took a big step throughout 2025 as he started hitting for more power than we had seen in the past. He earned First-Team All-State honors after hitting .442 with 13 doubles, six triples, and eight home runs this spring. Look for Thome to take polished, mature at-bats against some of the top arms in the country at this event.

Bass returns to Miami after representing the 2026s a year ago, and he continues to look like one of the top middle-infield prospects in the entire country. The tools are loud across the board, starting with a 6.87 in the 60 that plays up in-game on the dirt and on the basepaths. He has performed across multiple stops on the national stage, pairing bat-speed with loud results in-game and blossoming power that keeps getting more prevalent. He’s a premier defender on the infield with crisp and fluid actions, and he’s athletic enough to play all over the diamond with the arm-strength to go along with it. He was a Second-Team All-State selection this past spring for us after he hit .402 with 11 doubles, nine home runs, 40 RBIs, 39 runs scored, 29 walks, and 21 stolen bases. We’re excited to see Bass in Miami once again as the Wake Forest commit is primed for a big showing.

Wisconsin will also have its top two prospects in the 2026 class heading down to Miami as well, in 1B Dominic Santarelli (St. Joseph) and RHP Tyson Grulkowski (Muskego). Santarelli is one of the top left-handed hitting power bats in the country and shows above-average feel to hit as well. The 6-foot-1, 223-pound physical specimen earned Wisconsin Player of the Year honors and has been tearing up the National circuit all summer long.

Grulkowski is a 6-foot-5, 227-pound, South Florida commit who received a recent call to participate in Miami. Grulkowski stands out immediately, given his workhorse, physical frame, and he delivers the ball from a 5.2-foot release height on average, extending down the mound at over 7 feet. The fastball plays in the upper-80s to low-90s and seems to play up given his extension down the mound and his quality slider that he throws in the upper-70s with 2700+ rpm.

Follow along on Prep Baseball social media accounts as more 2025 All-American Game content comes out over the next couple of days.

+ Watch the 2025 AAG Livestream HERE

FRIDAY, Sept. 19, WORKOUT schedule

  • 9:00 a.m. ET: Player Arrival at loanDepot Park
  • 10:00 a.m.: Athletic Testing
  • 10:30 a.m.: Defensive Work
  • 11:15 a.m.: Class of 2027 BP; Home Run Derby, prelims
  • 12:15 p.m.: Class of 2026 BP; Home Run Derby, prelims
  • 1:15 p.m.: Home Run Derby, final round

Saturday, Sept. 20, ALL-AMERICAN GAME

  • 9:00 a.m. ET: Player Arrival at loanDepot Park
  • 10:30 a.m.: Class of 2027 BP
  • 11:10 a.m.: Class of 2026 BP
  • 12:45 p.m.: Pre-game Warm-up
  • 1:15 p.m.: First Pitch

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