Perkiomen School product Stoudt drafted by Mariners in third round

Perkiomen School head coach Ken Baker didn’t know Levi Stoudt was a pitcher when he arrived at the school in Fall 2012.

That was until then catcher Angel Lopez popped into Baker’s office and told him he had to come watch the young freshman tossing a bullpen session.

“I went into the gym and sure enough the kid was throwing strikes and had a knuckle curveball,” Baker said. “He ended up one of our starters in the spring time.”

Stoudt, a right-handed pitcher, went on to pitch four seasons for Baker and continued to blossom after that. Following a successful career with the Panthers and three standout seasons at Lehigh University, he was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the third round with the 97 overall pick during Tuesday’s Major League Baseball draft.

“If anyone’s going to be successful, I think he will be,” Baker said. “He’s got a great demeanor, and he will do what’s asked of him. That’s for sure.”

Stoudt pitched for the Perk School from 2013-16. He was a first team Mercury All-Area selection in his junior and senior seasons. Before arriving at Lehigh, Stoudt also pitched for Perkiomen Post 184’s American Legion program. He tossed  pair of perfect games and compiled a perfect 8-0 record with a 0.38 ERA in 2015.

He earned a spot in Lehigh’s rotation upon his arrival, starting 12 games and posting a 2.34 ERA as a freshman in 2016 to earn second team All-Patriot League honors. This past season Stoudt earned another second team all-conference nod as he went 3-4 with a 3.53 ERA, striking out 69 batters compared to 21 walks. Stoudt finished his career with a 2.97 ERA, 181 strikeouts and 65 walks in 190.2 innings of work.

“For Levi, the talent and work ethic is definitely there,” Lehigh head coach Sean Leary said in a press release. “But I think his maturity, his poise, his body language on the mound, a lot of the things that are intangibles, he has higher grades on those things for myself and for the scouts that have watched him pitched.

“He seemed to step forward when he faced (Duke’s) Graeme Stinson, he seemed to step forward when he faced (Navy’s) Noah Song (both fourth round picks). He had some outings in the Cape Cod League where he had his best outings in the moments when he faced pressure the most.”

Baker echoed Leary’s thoughts, saying along with entering the Perkiomen School with great mechanics, Stoudt always had a strong mental toughness.

“His composure mentally on the mound has always been good,” Baker said. “Some kids, somebody makes an error or somebody makes a bad call or somebody hits one out of the ballpark and they lose their composure and the next thing you know, they’re out of the game. That was never an issue. Even from the ninth grade on, he was always able to put it behind him and move on.”

Stoudt, listed at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, entered the MLB radar this past summer when he pitched for the Orleans Firebirds in the Cape Cod League, a summer baseball league for the top college players in the country, where his fastball topped out at 97 m.p.h.

While his fastball is typically a notch below that, Stoudt consistently sits in the low to mid-90s, and he throws four pitches. MLB.com ranked Stoudt as the No. 129 rated prospect in this draft class.

“Levi Stoudt is 91-95 with an athletic, repeatable delivery and consistent release point,” Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo tweeted out after Stoudt’s selection. “Split-change is solid, but he needs more consistency with the breaking ball.”

At the moment, Stoudt is the sixth Panther drafted since 2000 and third in three years. However, Perkiomen senior pitcher Carlos Torres, a Lehigh commit, could add to the list as he had scouts come to a few of his starts down the stretch and may be drafted in the later rounds of the draft Wednesday.

Lopez, a 2015 grad, was selected in the 13th round (402nd overall) by the Cleveland Indians in 2017 after two seasons at Northampton Community College. Last year, Joseph Pena, a 2014 Perk School grad, was picked in the 33rd round (983 overall) by the Oakland Athletics out of St. Thomas Aquinas College.

Jose Morales (third round, 2001), Miguel Valcarcel (32nd round, 2006) and Ian Vazquez (45th round, 2010) were the program’s other draftees.

“All three of those guys (Lopez, Pena, Stoudt) came back and talked to our team over the winter,” Baker said. “They’ve been great in staying connected to the school, and it’s good for our high school kids to hear what they have to say. It give them a different perspective for sure.”