CORONA, Calif. — In the first eight years that Bob Mauger taught his auto body course at Corona High, two, maybe three balls were hit into his classroom area, located well beyond the baseball team’s left-field fence.
The peace and quiet to which he’d become accustomed ended on the first day of practice last fall. He stormed up to the field in a huff; his sanctuary was suddenly the site of what felt like target practice.
“The balls were just raining down on my classroom,” Mauger recalled, finally able to laugh about it. “They were hitting my shop car. I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
Head baseball coach Andy Wise had started to run toward Mauger’s classroom, having heard the auto teacher was mad. Mauger was already at the field.
“He’s hot, he’s upset,” Wise said. “He’s like, ‘What’s going on here? This has never happened in all the years I’ve been here.’”
Mauger was certain this was the result of some thoughtless drill, perhaps one that required hitting from the outfield grass. Or maybe, he thought, the coaches were taking swings — it had to be them because high schoolers couldn’t hit the ball this far, this often. Instinctually, there was no other way to explain it. This had never happened before.
“I go, ‘No, man.’ And he’s a big dude,” Wise said. “I patted him on the chest. ‘The reality is, they’re all big like you, man. And they’re really, really good.’”
Corona baseball was built from scratch into one of the nation’s most formidable powerhouses. The best team in the most populous state resides at a school that never could have imagined this level of success. This season, it has three players projected to be first-round MLB Draft picks: pitcher Seth Hernandez, shortstop Billy Carlson and infielder Brady Ebel.
If all three are selected, it would be the first time in the draft’s history that one high school produced three first-rounders — with an outside chance at a fourth. It’s a program built from nothing, sustained by winning and good coaching, amid a season that might be once in a lifetime.
And there is perhaps no better measure of its prowess than the damage it’s done to one teacher’s classroom. Not all the scouts, media, potential new players or fans who have flooded this school.
Instead, it’s Mauger’s body shop — and the 40-foot fence the school will build to protect the rest of the classrooms — that serves as the most tangible measurement of growth for this program and the players in it.
“I said, ‘Hey, man, tell everybody,’” Wise said he told Mauger, who initially wanted the principal to step in. “‘Tell everybody.’”
At a preseason tournament in Las Vegas, Corona faced something it will seldom experience this year: a deficit. And what ensued, Wise said, was a celebration by the opposition akin to winning a championship. His team wasn’t even using its full complement of starters.
This season, the Panthers are 6-0 and have outscored opponents 35-1. That’s one run allowed in 42 innings. They will be every opponent’s biggest game, and thus far, it’s been no problem.
“I told the team they kind of remind me of us, the Dodgers,” said Brady’s father, Los Angeles Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel, who often throws BP or fungoes with the team. “We’ve got a target on our backs everywhere we go. Each stadium, everybody’s out to beat the Dodgers. They’re the same way.”
The Ebels are a great example of the benefits of building. Dino’s sons transferred from Etiwanda High to play for Corona, located nearly 30 minutes away. They liked the way Wise coached fundamental baseball.
Infielder Brady Ebel is projected to be a first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. (Gia Cunningham / Courtesy of Corona High School)
The same could be said for Hernandez, who was home-schooled for multiple years. He came with his parents to watch Corona’s games before eventually enrolling. Then there’s Ethan Bingaman, another early-round prospect, who transferred in this season at the suggestion of Hernandez and Carlson.
In many ways, success is a flash in the pan. It’s so anomalous to what’s possible that there’s no way it can be sustained at this level, particularly at this school. But this is no fluke, either. It’s a product of building a culture so strong that the best baseball players from all over will do whatever it takes to get a roster spot.
In that, Carlson is a rarity.
“I was a little freshman kid just trying to make my way, and now we’re here,” said Carlson, who has been with the program his entire high school career, starting for junior varsity as a freshman. “To see the growth of Corona and the program is super special.”
Carlson is the only player among Corona’s group of stars who has known only one school. He developed into a prospect and is rated No. 12 by MLB Pipeline heading into the draft. Wise made a point to stand behind first base as his shortstop took grounders, highlighting how assured he was by his shortstop’s accuracy.
Like Hernandez, Carlson is a two-way player, and his fastball reaches the upper 90s. He’s committed to Tennessee and says he’s confident he’ll stick as an infielder in the professional ranks. “My heart’s on the dirt,” he said. Unlike Carlson, however, Hernandez plans to pitch at the next level. His fastball has hit triple digits.
Scouts line the bleachers anytime he’s on the mound. He’s MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 overall draft prospect and is widely considered the best high school pitcher available.
“I think it’s definitely a lot of pressure, but only if you think about it too much,” Hernandez said. “… If I could (throw 100 mph) now, as my career goes on — I get bigger, stronger, turn into a man — some crazy things can happen.”
And then there is Bingaman, the team’s fourth star. On most teams, Bingaman is the player who everyone comes to see.
Instead, he’s a relative afterthought in the national conversation surrounding this team because he will have to play his way into the first round this year, whereas his more publicized teammates will have to play their way out of it. The Athletic’s Keith Law had Carlson and Gonzalez within his top 30 draft prospects, with Ebel as one to watch.
“There’s no way that you can say anybody in the lineup is better than Ethan Bingaman,” Wise said. “So what do I do? Jump him up and hit him second? Is that a slap in the face to a Brady or a Billy, the Gatorade Player of the Year last year? What am I, gonna bump him?”
That is, as they say, a good problem to have. And it’s one Bingaman — a two-way player with speed, pop and a mid-90s fastball — embraces.
“I could see myself in the first round,” Bingaman said. “I’ve just got to keep proving people wrong.”
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tristan Beck will regularly log in to online streams to watch Corona, his alma mater.
The seeds of the success date back to veteran MLB reliever Joe Kelly, who graduated from the school nearly 20 years ago. He also played a critical role in bringing the Ebels on board this year.
It’s Beck, though, whom Wise credits as being the catalyst for the most recent iteration of Corona High baseball. In the aftermath of his tenure at the school, the team has gotten better and more players have gone to top colleges.
“It’s been a pretty crazy run,” Beck said. “It’s one of the best high school teams of all time. Me, the guys from my era, my brother, we all tune in still. It’s pretty cool.”
Beck and Kelly are the only big leaguers to come from Corona since 2001, and the school has produced only five in its history.
That’s because Corona is not the biggest school. It’s not the richest, newest or nicest. U.S. News & World Report ranks it as the sixth-best school in the district and 692nd in the state of California.
“This is the lowest socioeconomic school in the district,” Wise said. “It’s incredible, it really is.”
Seth Hernandez is a two-way player for Corona. (Gia Cunningham / Courtesy of Corona High School)
Within that context, their success is so improbable. They don’t come from the prototypical SoCal powerhouse mold — think Harvard Westlake, Junipero Serra and Huntington Beach — but that’s exactly where this is headed. Last year, pitcher Ethan Schiefelbein was selected by the Detroit Tigers with the No. 72 pick. And next year, Corona hopes to have multiple players drafted, including Brady Ebel’s younger brother, Trey.
Athletic director Jeff Stevens said the winning has brought a different set of challenges — namely, a lot of people from all over hoping to transfer into the program. He has to explain all the various requirements to parents and stress that playing time won’t be guaranteed.
“When we did what we did last year,” Stevens said, referring to Corona’s California Interscholastic Federation Division I championship, “I was getting emails from families in Mexico saying, ‘We want to transfer to your school.’ I had a family reach out to me from Puerto Rico.”
It’s remarkable for a school that has no real advantages. Centennial High, located just a few miles down the road, opened in 1989. Santiago High, also in the district, opened in 1995.
Corona High has been open since the 1890s, and its current building was constructed in 1907. It does not have the resources or amenities, but for this team, it doesn’t matter.
“It makes me feel good that people have the decision of where they want to go,” Wise said. “I ain’t asking or begging or telling nobody to come here.”
Wise’s attention is always getting pulled in different directions. One day, it’s preparing the grass on the field. The next, it’s coordinating with scouts, local media and agents, all of whom want to be at games or practices.
“It’s an honor,” Wise said. “And it is a f—ing pain in the ass. Like, I’ve been everywhere. I answer all the scouts. … That’s me: I’m the second agent.”
Wise is the brash but approachable mastermind behind this team’s success. And after losing just three games last year, he believes his program can go undefeated this season.
Corona High coach Andy Wise believes his team “should be favored in every game” this season. (Gia Cunningham / Courtesy of Corona High School)
Baseball is a weird game in that failure is inevitable at some point. Even the best of major-league teams, like the Dodgers, will still lose 50 games. A bad outing on the mound or a few bats go cold for a day and an upset loss could be the result.
That conventional wisdom might not apply to this team.
“We should be favored in every game,” Wise said. “If we’re going to run out a pitcher — the other team might have a great pitcher, but we’re running out a great pitcher too. Your defense isn’t better than ours. It might be really good, but it’s not better. Your hitting is not better than ours. It’s just not.”
“Our goal, yeah, I feel like we could go undefeated if we play our game the right way,” Brady Ebel said. “Win every tournament we’re in and hopefully become CIF champions back-to-back years.”
The players say they haven’t allowed themselves to think much about draft day — where they’ll be or who they’ll spend it with.
In many ways, all this attention was brought on so quickly. It wasn’t long ago that Carlson was committed to Vanderbilt, largely for the education. Then his talent started to shine, so he switched that commitment to Tennessee, a choice rooted solely in his baseball future.
It’s with that understanding that all these players and coaches operate. Even Rome fell, Wise noted. This success is fleeting. Nothing is guaranteed. Not even their names being called on July 13.
So for now, they’re focused on what’s in front of them: a high school baseball season, the likes of which we have never seen before and might never see again.
“It’s going to be history,” Hernandez said of this season and the upcoming draft. “I think that’s pretty cool to leave a legacy behind at this place.”
(Top photo of Billy Carlson: Gia Cunningham / Courtesy of Corona High School)
