Baseball: Lake Stevens Shortstop Aspen Alexander Earning Player of the Year Consideration
Dominant season puts GCU commit in the same conversation as predicted top MLB picks Mason Pike and Xavier Neyens
LAKE STEVENS —Bat held upright in the left hand…forearm rippling….thousand yard stare framed by a mess of eye black… clean home whites and crisp purple pin stripes…. blonde curls piling out the back of the helmet.
Lake Stevens shortstop Aspen Alexander knocks the weighted donut off his bat for the fourth time Friday and strides slowly towards the right side of the plate.
He stops just outside the batter’s box and waits, bat gripped lightly in the left hand.
A moment earlier, he’d watched silently from the on deck circle as sophomore third baseman Blake Moser took ball four and skipped to first base in the sixth inning.
Alexander, a two-time Perfect Game Preseason All-American was already on a heater: 3-for-3 with two doubles and a triple.
And now he’d have a chance to throw gas on that fire.
“The Hottest Hitter We Saw All Summer”
It’s not a surprise that Aspen Alexander is posting impressive numbers. Depending on who you ask, he’s been at this level for a while.
In addition to the dual preseason All American nods, Alexander also earned a series of all tournament team and even MVP honors from the national travel circuit, where Alexander represents Baum Bat Northwest Upperclass.
“He was the hottest hitter we saw last Summer.”
That’s what one Grand Canyon University baseball coach said on record. (And they should know about hot-hitting shortstops, they developed current Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson.)
And across the prep ranks, Alexander is a career .405 hitter across three all conference varsity campaigns with a reputation for a well rounded hitting/speed/defense game.
As one collegiate assistant coach/recruiter told J425,
“(Aspen) impacts the game in so many ways…he’s just so athletic.”
Although Alexander homered in WIAA play last year, neither his lofty average nor his previous season’s homer were necessarily predictive of the type of explosion his senior campaign has become.
Aspen Alexander is currently leading ALL of state 4A baseball in homers, slugging, extra base hits, and RBI.
Let that sink in. That said, it’s not like he just arrived.
Stat Leaderboards and Industry Rankings
Alexander was ranked in the top 20 in his class by a couple PNW-centric sites, including this one that has Alexander at 18th. They also think Xavier Neyens is 6’0 170 though. Not sure how often they actually see these guys (crying laughing emoji goes here.)
More importantly, the highest-level college baseball talent evaluators have long liked him: Alexander was a University of Washington commit as early as 16 months ago. During his recruitment, he received heavy interest from USC, UCLA Texas Christian USD, Duke, Arizona State, and Arizona – among others.
And most importantly, he ended his recruitment by signing with a top-50 D1 program last November.
These are pretty big resume bullet points.
"Aspen is extremely athletic in the field and has the ability to impact the game in multiple ways. He was one of the hottest hitters we saw this summer and has a very fundamentally sound offensive game.”
Division One Assistant Coach
Just because Alexander doesn’t currently command the name recognition of Mount Vernon’s Neyens or the rising public draft status of Puyallup’s Mason Pike…doesn’t mean Alexander can’t command a couple other things: like the state offensive leaderboards – and a young, talented 4A squad that just ripped through perennial state contender Jackson en route to a second straight Wesco title…. and a top seed in the WesKing tourney, where Alexander and the Viks just need to win one of their first two games to reach State tournament play.
Perhaps in the current barren media environment, there’s just not a ton of spotlight to go around when you’re part of a class that features established names like Xavier Neyens – a guy seen around Lake Stevens quite a bit — who has featured on Baseball America covers and MLB.com Draft previews for years, or perhaps it’s because reigning 4A champs Puyallup remain unbeaten…as their fireballing return player of the year Mason Pike’s name continues to climb industry draft boards. J425 has heard that Pike is likely to command a $2M+ signing bonus regardless of slot. Basically he’s viewed as a first round talent in other words.
Aim Higher: Look at the Leaderboards
But if you take your glance away from industry reports and social media and instead direct it to the Wesco leaderboards, you’ll notice one name repeated again and again and again: Aspen Alexander.
Hell, aim higher. Take a look at the state 4A leaderboards.
Story Continues Past the Jump with Stats, Photos, Video of Aspen’s Senior Night Homer and more…
Sure, Mason Pike leads the state with that .497 average.
But it’s Lake’s Alexander that’s tied for the homer lead (4). It’s Aspen Alexander leading the state in slugging at .887. It’s Aspen Alexander leading the state in RBI (25), Triples (4) and Extra Base Hits (16).
And it’s Alexander and the Vikings who swept the fifth-ranked Jackson Timberwolves and later claimed the league title on an incandescent Senior Night win (Alexander: 4 for 4 with a home run, triple, two doubles and five RBI).
Surprised? Shouldn’t be. It all makes sense in retrospect.
Add it up. Alexander has long impressed on area travel teams, compiling a staggering resume of honors on his Perfect Game awards page including Most Valuable Player honors at a prominent national tournament held in Arizona.
And Alexander was a Big-10 commit by the time he was a junior, tied to the hometown University of Washington baseball program. After a coaching change, Alexander signed with an emerging top-50 D1 collegiate baseball power – Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.
Alexander says he chose GCU for “the culture, coaching and recent track record. Not to mention the beautiful location, campus and facility.”
GCU is the power player in the Western Athletic Conference and boasts a shiny new stadium, great facilities, back-to-back postseason appearances …and oh yeah, they just had a shortstop drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft. And that guy made the majors in less than a year.
Scouts rave about Alexander’s well-rounded game: he’s got the feet, hands and arm strength to stick at the premium middle of the diamond defensive position… speed to patrol his area and the base paths – as evidenced by a blistering 6.7 60 yard dash timed at an industry event last Summer…and the hit tool that brought the D1 scouts around since middle school (Alexander is a career .405 varsity hitter).
If anything’s changed, it’s been the arrival of the power. Coming into his senior campaign, Alexander had one varsity home run.
He’s hit three in the last two weeks and four on the year.
And when he’s not hitting it over the fence, he’s repeatedly smacking the ball off of the wall or deep into gaps, resulting in state leading extra base hit and slugging marks.
The gap between Alexander and second place isn't comparatively close. Alexander’s .887 slugging leads all 4A hitters by well over .100 points. And Pike’s 13 extra base hits (11 doubles 2 triples) trails Alexander’s 16 extra base hits (4 homers, 4 triples, 8 doubles) by three.
Back to Senior Night: the Fourth At Bat
Just outside the box, Alexander stares straight down, idly adjusting the pin-striped jersey fabric gathered above his opposite bat-wielding shoulder.
Adjustment completed, the right arm swings back across the body, and on cue, the right leg crosses into the box, rear foot digging in. Foundation set, the front foot steps in adopting a wide, powerful stance.
The left arm brings the bat around, tapping the center of home plate twice before swinging out on an arc to point at the pitcher, as if calling a shot.
As the bat sweeps up from the plate to point towards the mound, Alexander’s gaze rises along the same path, stopping at the pitcher.
To Wesco pitchers’, the above is becoming a trauma cue, as that tug of fabric is the last thing that occurs before the presumptive 2025 Wesco Player of the Year steps into the batter's box and begins his at bat. Trigger warning: a lot of hitting happens next.
So much hitting, in fact, that last Friday, Alexander capped Viking his senior night with that fourth at bat this story opened with. What happened? Homer. On the night, Alexander went four for four with two doubles, a triple, a home run and five RBI.
He’s currently batting .435 and he leads both the league and all of State 4A in home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and extra base hits.
And now, after the Vikings claimed a second consecutive Wesco title, completing a 9-1 romp through league that included a sweep of fifth-ranked Jackson, the Vikings and their senior shortstop both look ready for the brighter lights and the bigger stage.