Alexandria southpaw headed to Atlanta for Prep Baseball Future Games in July
written and photographed by Marshall Loeffler
For baseball know-it-alls, foul line fence-leaners and summer ball enthusiasts around Central Louisiana, the pitching ability and steady improvement of GCS underclassman Logan Maricle since his 8th grade year has been plain to see for a couple of years. And were it not for an off-field injury to his left hand during an early season home tournament his freshman year, Logan may have sounded the alarm about his talent and potential several months earlier.
But now, after a thunderous sophomore season and an invitation to play in the Prep Baseball Future Games near Atlanta in July, the name, the box scores, the numbers, and the reputation of Logan Maricle begins to reach people far beyond England Airpark, and well beyond what a lot of Class B tenth graders experience. But don’t take my word for it: a quick look at the results from June of Prep Baseball Louisiana’s Top Prospect Underclassmen Games at UL-Lafayette showed Logan hitting nearly 91 MPH with his fastball; he also displayed an 82 MPH changeup with a 75 MPH curveball. One number that stood out to Prep Baseball LA scouting director Alex Armand in regards to that fastball was Logan’s 7.1 feet of extension off the rubber.
What does that mean? Great question. Because of his height, Logan is able to, quite literally, stretch out and release the ball closer to home plate than many other pitchers, which Alex Armand said “essentially, makes his fastball play better in the eyes of a hitter.” If the ball doesn’t have to travel as far due to his delivery, it can make that already elite fastball look just a little bit faster heading towards the mitt.
According to Grace Head Coach Josh Brown, this year has seen a huge jump in that fastball. Coach Brown said he threw about 86 MPH during an early season trip to Samford, which had jumped up to about 89 MPH at a team camp at NSU later in the spring. Now, with scouts watching in Lafayette, he eclipsed the 90-plus mark, and it wasn’t just the heater that showed signs of promise.
His off-speed pitches also impressed scouts and featured spin rates that bode well for all of his pitches potentially registering at elite levels at this pace. Without getting too deep into some of the those highly detailed numbers, it’s safe to say that you can probably find a well-known pitcher who Logan can match on his best day right now.
The way that he threw during the season and during scouting sessions this summer earned him a spot in Georgia later in July, where Armand says “we expect well over 400 college coaches to be in attendance, many of whom will be excited to see him pitch.” The event will be another chance for Maricle to show his improvement at the regional level, and with summer league competition wrapping up, that will prepare him and his quarterfinal team for what will hopefully be a successful junior season.
After all, when speaking with Logan, any question that you ask him about his numbers or future prospects will immediately be answered with something about getting his Grace Christian Warriors to the state championship game. Any of the individual momentum that he gains goes right back into the team’s push for shared success.
“When you look at the numbers, and what it looks like on paper, there are some things that tell me I’m doing well. But as a pitcher, I left Lafayette thinking of things that I could have done better, some areas where I need to get stronger. So that’s the way that I look at it, I want to go forward from it and just get better,” said Maricle.
The now-famous 20-strikeout game against Ouachita and the numerous no-hitters from 2026 were what really began to gain Maricle the notoriety to attend high profile off season events and gain interest from coaches at the next level. But his early athletic potential matched with an unwavering devotion to preparation and a steadfast set of family values has made the recent individual milestones not much of a surprise to people that see a lot of pitchers around the state.
For Logan Maricle though, even though the outside attention and his continued development will be exciting for baseball fans across the South, all of his efforts are meant for others, not himself. “We have been working this summer as a team to have every single guy ready to go in the game and be successful, getting better and stronger at everything we do; we think that’s going to be most important for us, and we think that’s what going to get us to the state championship.”
