Talk about a successful few weeks on the baseball fields for Gabriel Pegues.
Back on June 8, he was the leadoff hitter for the McLean Highlanders, who won the Virginia High School League Class 6 state championship that day. Then July 12 through 14, Pegues was the cleanup and No. 5 batter for the North All-Stars, who won the gold medal with a 3-1 record at the Commonwealth Games at Liberty University.
Those are two of the biggest high-school team milestones a player can achieve, earned in a bit over a month.
“It’s been quite a summer so far,” Pegues said. “It’s so cool to win both of those titles and get those medals. They are both on my desk in my bedroom.”
Pegues had three hits, including a triple, had one RBI, scored a run and stole multiple bases in the four Commonwealth Games. He started each contest in either center or right field, where he made a diving catch.
“It was a good and fun experience,” Pegues said. “It was fun to play on a team with other players from this area and against players from all parts of the state.”
The North All-Stars defeated the West squad, 6-1, in the gold-medal game. Other wins were over the Central All-Stars, 5-1, and the East, 9-1. The North lost to the West, 2-1, early in the competition.
Rosters for the all-star teams consisted of high-school underclassmen. The speedy 6-foot-3 Pegues is a rising senior at McLean, who wants to play Division I college baseball. He hopes his performance during the Commonwealth Games will create some opportunities to play at that level.
Two other players from the GazetteLeader’s coverage area who played for the North All-Stars at the Commonwealth Games were pitcher Shota Fogus and infielder/pitcher Noah Haught, both from Bishop O’Connell High School.
Fogus pitched the final three scoreless innings in the North’s first game. The right-hander allowed one hit and struck out three, throwing 44 pitches.
Haught did not pitch. Instead, he started each game in the infield at shortstop or second base. With the bat, Haught was the leadoff hitter had multiple hits along with stealing multiple bases and scoring multiple runs.
“With his speed on the bases, Noah was a catalyst for us,” North All-Stars coach David Colangelo said. “Everybody came together on his team and had a lot of fun.
Fogus is a rising junior at O’Connell and Haught a rising senior, who will play college baseball at the University of Richmond.
“Shota and Gabe got a lot of looks from Division I college coaches,” Colangelo said. “There were a lot at the games. I got texts from them asking for their contact information.”
Pegues and Fogus play for the Stars traveling program during the non-high-school baseball season. Other Stars players on the North All-Star team at the Commonwealth Games were Weston Yount, Ayden Mitchell, Caden Merritt, Aaron Ritenour and Garrett Camp.
