The 6-foot-4, 205-pounder’s fastball was clocked around 91-93 miles per hour, which ranked him among the hardest-throwing pitchers at the event.

Turner has already drawn a lot of attention from Division I schools — his older brother Jacob, a catcher, is headed to the University of Missouri in the fall — as well as Major League Baseball scouts. He’s got the prototypical pitcher’s body type and only figures to get stronger over the next few years.

As we approach the high school baseball season next spring, Turner will likely be talked about in similar terms as Holt High’s Tim Melville and Highland High’s Jake Odorizzi, two high draft picks earlier this month.

Turner has already had an outstanding high school career. This spring, as a junior, he went 5-2 with a 1.45 ERA. In 48 1/3 innings, he struck out 92 batters and walked nine and allowed just 26 hits — holding opponents to a .148 batting average and .244 on-base percentage.

Class 4

1. Ozark
2. Francis Howell
3. St. Louis University High
4. Oak Park
5. Blue Springs South
6. Parkway South
7. Blue Springs
8. Holt
9. Fort Zumwalt West
10. Columbia Hickman

Other receiving votes: Parkway Central, Oakville

Class 3

1. St. Dominic
2. Webb City
3. TIE: Cape Girardeau Notre Dame and Boonville
5. Westminster Christian
6. Winfield
7. TIE: Carl Junction and Sullivan
9. St. Joseph Benton
10. St. Francis Borgia

Others receiving votes: Harrisonville, Festus, Clinton, Logan-Rogersville, Ladue, Platte County, DeSoto

Class 2

1. Scott City
2. Barstow
3. Conway
4. Hallsville
5. Clearwater
6. Blue Eye
7. Orchard Park
8. El Dorado Springs
9. Forsyth
10. Fatima

Class 1

1. Santa Fe
2. Stoutland
3. Oran
4. New Haven
5. Valle Catholic
6. Miller
7. Cooter
8. LaPlata
9. Winona
10. Archie

Others receiving votes: St. Elizabeth, Norwood, Walnut Grove, Paris

The 24-year-old Buschmann, a 2002 graduate of Lafayette High School, is a right-handed pitcher for the Double-A San Antonio Missions, a San Diego Padres affiliate, and took the mound on Friday against the Springfield Cardinals at Hammons Field.

Buschmann is part of a new era of St. Louis area high school products playing professional baseball, which includes Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard (Lafayette), St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle McClellan (Hazelwood West) and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Max Scherzer (Parkway Central) along with minor leaguers like Ross Detwiler (Holt), David Freese (Lafayette), Christopher Frey (Highland), Jay Marshall (Kennedy) and Nick Schmidt (Vianney) among several others.

“I was telling my buddy the other day it’s kind of cool to be in this park, growing up as a Cardinal fan and you see all the people and the atmosphere is really cool,” Buschmann said before Thursday’s game. “Obviously I’m with the Padres now but you still think back to it. I grew up for seven or eight years in St. Louis and so it’s kind of ingrained in me. I grew up loving the Cardinals and went to the games. I look forward to it. I look forward to having my family out here. It’s a pretty cool experience.”

The result, however, was not so good for the former Lancers standout.

Buschmann surrendered three straight hits to open the game, including a single up the middle by third baseman Allen Craig that lifted the home team to an early 1-0 lead.

There would be fireworks before the post-game pyrotechnics show, as Springfield first baseman Mark Hamilton crushed two long home runs well beyond the right field fence, Craig had two hits and two RBIs and righthander Jess Todd tossed seven shutout innings and allowed one hit.

Buschmann’s final line — 4 1/3 innings pitched, 10 hits, five earned runs, two walks and four strikeouts and an 0-for-2 at the plate — dropped the righthander’s record to 4-4 on the season and pushed his ERA to 4.04.

But Friday night’s outing was Buschmann’s worst of the season, and came after an impressive string of four starts that saw him allow just four earned runs on 18 hits over 22 innings, during which he struck out 23 batters and walked only five.

“It’s his first year in Double-A and he’s been doing above and beyond really from what I’ve seen,” San Antonio manager Bill Masse said on Thursday. “He’s very competitive. He seems like he’s been getting better every start, so that’s obviously a positive. He’s very driven, very competitive. I like the way he goes about his business.”

A 15th round pick as a senior out of Vanderbilt in 2006, Buschmann was rated by Baseball America as the 21st best prospect in the San Diego Padres’ system before this season.

He was impressive at Single-A Lake Elsinore a year ago, when he went 12-6 with a 2.89 ERA in 25 starts and had 115 strikeouts against 26 walks in 149 1/3 innings.

“I think last year was a big turning point for me,” Buschmann said. “I was in high A Cal League and had a rough first part of the season and that was kind of a learning experience for me. To be able to come back from that and I kind of turned my second half of the season around and I think it gave me a lot of confidence coming into this year. I think this year it’s been more of being able to fine-tune some small things and just get ready to be consistent and take everything I’ve got and make it more consistent instead of changing major things about mechanics and stuff. It’s just taking the things I have and being more consistent.”

Consistency is one of the biggest factors in what separates career minor league players from the guys in the major league clubhouses.

Buschmann doesn’t have overpowering stuff, spotting his fastball in the high 80s to low 90s and relying on his slider as his second pitch. But the righthander has a deceptive 3/4 delivery where he throws across his body, good control and has taken to heart the Padres’ organizational thinking of attacking hitters quickly and to try to keep pitch counts low.

Masse, the San Antonio Missions’ manager, said he likes Buschmann’s competitiveness and that trait is what takes the righthander to another level in his opinion. The manager said Buschmann “wills himself” to get out batters at times, which can make the difference with a pitcher who has good but maybe not great stuff on the mound.

“What he does need to work on is he needs to work on command of his pitches,” Masse said. “Sometimes he gets a little over-excited and tries to overthrow and he loses command of his fastball and breaking ball. He needs to learn how to be more consistent with his command of all his pitches.

“You never know, that may come five years from now. It may come next year. It may come seven years from now. But I think one of the things that’s going to aid him in his development and trying to get to the big leagues is his competitiveness. This guy is a big-time athlete too. He’s a real good athlete, he takes care of himself, he’s driven and he’s got enough stuff to pitch in the big leagues. He just needs to command it a little bit better.”

Only this time, he had something unexpected to tell them. Pfund told his players he was leaving St. Dominic after 13 years, including 12 as the Crusaders head baseball coach, for a job at Lutheran South.

“It’s tough to do it,” Pfund said, “but it’s nice to go out on top.”

After the post-game meeting, most if not all of the Crusaders lined up and wished Pfund well. One by one, the players thanked the coach for everything he had done for them.

“Every one of those guys are near and dear to my heart, especially those underclassmen,” Pfund said. “Them guys work so hard and they have a bright future ahead of them. It was a really hard decision. I’ve been praying over it for a few months here and I have a good opportunity to go to Lutheran South.”

A Class of 1978 Lutheran South graduate, Pfund cited three primary reasons for his decision, which were his religion, having an opportunity to return to his alma mater and being closer to family in South County.

Pfund said he would be involved with the baseball and football programs at Lutheran South, but would not say in what capacity. In his 13 years at St. Dominic, Pfund was the head baseball coach for 12 years, the softball coach for 10 and spent two years as assistant coach for football and basketball.

“My family and I decided if we’re ever going to do it, this is the time to do it,” Pfund said.

St. Dominic, the No. 1 team in the Post-Dispatch small-schools rankings, finished the season with a 25-3 record and the school’s first state championship in its second trip to the title game. The Crusaders had previously finished second in 1988 and third in 1992.

One of the brightest stars was Washington standout Scott Suggs, the winner of the prestigious Missouri Mr. Basketball award, who scored a game-high 26 points in the boys Class 4-5 game.

Suggs, who is headed to the University of Washington next season, helped the White team to an 89-56 victory at Bible Baptist College’s W.E. Dowell Fieldhouse.

McCluer North guard Femi John, a St. Louis University signee, scored 15 points in the losing effort for the Blue team. Webster Groves center Zach Redel added six points.

One of the top players in the Class 1-3 boys game was Cardinal Ritter’s Anthony Jones, who tallied 23 points, five rebounds and four assists in the Blue squad’s 89-75 victory.

Lutheran North’s Charles Dunbar led the White team with 18 points, and Wellston’s Lydell Patton added 17 points.

A redshirt sophomore righthander from Eureka High School, Clubb was previously selected as the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year. Clubb went 11-0 with a 2.52 ERA in 14 starts. He struck out 82 and walked 32 in 103 2/3 innings and held opposing hitters to a .233 batting average.

“I guess a lot of people could say it’s a dream season in terms of being undefeated and being the pitcher of the year and an All-American and I’m very happy with it, but I know there are things ahead of me in terms of being drafted and making it to the major leagues that I still want to accomplish,” Clubb said.

Clubb becomes the sixth Missouri State player to be honored as a first-team All-America and the 18th All-American in the program’s history.

Last year, as a redshirt freshman, Clubb went 6-3 with a 4.07 ERA.

The former Wildcats standout is eligible for next week’s draft as he’s been out of high school for three years. Clubb said he and his advisor have talked to about half of the major league organizations and are getting indications he will be picked in the first five rounds of the draft.

 The town of Oxford, Ohio, reminded Soderberg of Madison, Wisc., where he grew up while his dad was coaching at Wisconsin, and one of the people on the staff at Miami is Jason Grunkemeyer, who was on Brad’s staff at SLU.

 ”Grunk tried to explain it to me and he said the only place he could compare it to was Madison. He said it was a mini-version of Madison. I liked it. It’s a neat campus.”

 Soderberg, the Post-Dispatch’s player of the year, chose Miami over Wisconsin-Green Bay, which had its own advantages since there are plenty of Soderbergs within a short drive of Green Bay.

“On the plane ride home, I wrote down the good things and the bad things and compared them on paper. They were extremely close. It pretty much came down at the end to a gut feeling. I followed my stomach, which I’ve done all my life.”

By coincidence, Miami was able to go after Soderberg after another St. Louis area player, Alex Moosman from Borgia, decided to transfer, opening up a scholarship.

Kramer’s dad, meanwhile, remains without a job. Brad has interviewed for several head coaching jobs and is a candidate for the still-open Florida Atlantic job, though former St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis is believed to be the frontrunner for that job.

Class 4

1. Francis Howell
2. Fort Zumwalt West
3. Blue Springs South
4. Blue Springs
5. Ozark
6. Columbia Hickman
7. Lebanon
8. Oakville
9. CBC
10. Fort Zumwalt South

Others receiving votes: SLUH, Rockhurst, Raytown, Parkway South, Rolla

Class 3

1. Sullivan
2. St. Joseph Benton
3. St. Dominic
4. Westminster Christian
5. Webb City
6. Boonville
7. Winfield
8. (Tie) Carl Junction
Clinton
10. Cassville

Others receiving votes: Festus, Chillicothe, Kirksville, Platte County

Class 2

1. Forsyth
2. Blair Oaks
3. Fatima
4. West County
5. Clearwater
6. Conway
7. Hallsville
8. Harrisburg
9. Twin Rivers
10. Scott City

Others receiving votes: None

Class 1

1. New Haven
2. Santa Fe
3. Stoutland
4. Oran
5. Miller
6. Valle
7. Dora
8. St. Elizabeth
9. Silex
10. Laplata

Others receiving votes: Cooter, Hurley, Knox County, Leeton, Saxony Lutheran, Sturgeon, Winona

“I think that the person that replaces me will be fully stocked to go 
to war and have a chance to do some great things, which will make the 
transition easier,” Porter said.

“It definitely caught me by surprise,” Scherzer told MLB.com.

The righthanded pitcher was the 11th overall pick in the 2006 draft following his junior season at Mizzou and signed with the D-backs 11 months later.

Scherzer pitched at Class A Visalia and Double-A Mobile last year and was dominating at Triple-A Tucson this season. He had a 1.17 ERA and 38 strikeouts (against just three walks) in 23 innings. He was rated by Baseball America as the fourth-best prospect in the D-backs organization.

The 23-year-old Parkway Central graduate features a fastball in the mid 90s that can touch 97, but he’s worked at developing his change-up and slider as complimentary pitches so hitters can’t sit on his fastball.

Scherzer was a starter at Tucson, but will work out of the bullpen for now with the Diamondbacks.

“For me, It’s a quick change,” Scherzer told the website. “It doesn’t take a lot for me to go back and forth. If my ticket is in the bullpen, then I can do that. For me, it’s just pitching; it’s a little different style of pitching, but it’s still pitching, so the same principles still apply.”

Going forward, Scherzer could be a fixture in the D-backs’ rotation.

“In the long term, I think with any pitcher we would sort of give starting every opportunity to be successful,” Arizona general manager Josh Byrnes told MLB.com. “He’s responded. He’s really done quite nicely. We’ve gotten him through the system in Double-A and in Triple-A and even in Spring Training. We’re optimistic that he can be a quality Major League starter, and probably prefer that that’s the focus at this point.”

The Diamondbacks’ future is bright, with a pair of aces in Brandon Webb and Dan Haren to go along with a core of young position players like outfielders Justin Upton and Chris Young and first baseman Conor Jackson, shortstop Stephen Drew and third baseman Mark Reynolds.