From San Bruno to IMG Academy

“We’ll get our (championship) rings this year,” Hanson said. “Very excited.”

While Hanson’s .433 batting average ranked third on the team — behind draft-eligible seniors Tayshaun Walton (.473) and Stone Russell (.436) — the junior paced the Ascenders with the other two staples of the slash line, producing a .609 on-base percentage and a .900 slugging percentage.

With this production, however, Hanson may have just been getting warmed up for a vigorous summer on the showcase circuit. Son of South San Francisco native Dave Hanson — a disciple of legendary baseball coach Bob Brian, who graduated from South City in 1990 — Josh Hanson is a baseball prodigy, one who is readying to play on some of the biggest stages summer baseball has to offer.

Hanson arrived Wednesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the regional Area Code Games tryouts at Louisiana State University, this just two days after the Tigers won the NCAA national championship, with two IMG Academy graduates on roster in freshman catcher Brady Neal and sophomore third baseman Tommy White.

“It’s definitely going to be pretty hectic down there, especially being in Baton Rouge, on the campus,” Hanson said. “But I’m excited for it. I kind of want to be around that kind of stuff.”

Hanson is committed to play at USC but is aiming to impress professional scouts to boost his stock for the 2024 MLB Draft. In addition to a potential spot on the Washington Nationals Area Code team — the Area Code Games will be held Aug. 6-11 at the University of San Diego — he is also slated to play in the Perfect Game National Championship tournament with his Trosky Baseball travel team.

“I’m just trying to travel, get to tournaments, get into the Area Code stuff, get in front as many pro scouts as I can,” Hanson said. “But it’s really just developing and getting ready for USC … just get there be prepared … and be in the starting nine for USC.”

Hanson’s most recent baseball splash came not on the showcase circuit, but in the friendly confines of San Bruno Park as the youngest rostered player with the San Francisco Seagulls of the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League.

As emphasized by its title, the GSCBL is typically for collegiate players. Seagulls manager Marc Caviglia has previously made exceptions for high school standouts, though. And Hanson certainly fits the bill.

“He’s doing really well,” Caviglia said. “I think that you show up to the field and you look at his physique and his physicality, and you can tell there’s something there.”

During his junior season at IMG Academy, Hanson totaled 13 hits, with over half of them of the extra-base variety — four doubles, two triples and two home runs. The chiseled 6-1 right-handed hitter with quietly explosive batting mechanics has spent the last season refining his swing to cut the ball gap to gap.

“Now mentally I’m thinking right-center gaps only — line drives,” Hanson said. “Not going out of my way to hit a home run. … At IMG, we’re taught home runs are mistakes.”

That didn’t stop him from “going yard” the last time he suited up with the Seagulls before leaving for Louisiana.

In eight games with the Seagulls, Hanson — facing exclusively college pitchers with a wood bat — is batting .316 (6 for 19) with four RBIs, three stolen bases, and one home run, a booming shot to straightaway center field that landed on the infield dirt of the softball diamond adjacent to Lara Field. It technically wasn’t a regulation home run, but Hanson had plenty reason to slow into his home run trot as he rounded third base after launching the ball approximately 400 feet.

“Definitely it was loud, let’s put it that way,” Caviglia said. “He got a pitch up in the zone and you could hear it off the crack of the bat, it was something that was going to be hit far. … It was a no-doubter.”

Had Hanson stayed local, he could have potentially played at either Capuchino or Burlingame. Currently residing in San Francisco, Sacred Heart Cathedral and St. Ignatius would have also been options, according to Dave Hanson.

Instead, the baseball prodigy broadened his horizons by enrolling in the Dunn School in Los Olivos as a freshman. He anchored shortstop for the varsity team at the private boarding school. But then the outfield in Bradenton, Florida of the most prestigious baseball school in the country — one that has produced 54 MLB draft picks in its history — called to him.

It helped that Hanson had a friend at IMG Academy in Hillsborough native Dean Moss, whose younger brother Dylan Moss was promoted to the national varsity team this year and hit .372 with three home runs and 20 RBIs.

Hanson is trying out for the Washington Nationals Area Code team — instead of the Oakland A’s Area Code squad, based in Stockton — precisely because of his affiliation with IMG Academy.

“It’s because of the high school,” Hanson said. “They saw me in Florida. I lived off campus, had a house out there, and they just saw me through Florida. I got the invite through the Nationals, and I just wanted to do it out there.”

While Hanson is committed to USC, whether or not he ever sets foot on campus may be determined by his stock in the 2024 MLB Draft. The Area Code Games are one of the biggest showcases in the nation to open the eyes of professional scouts.

“I don’t want to jinx anything,” Caviglia said, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes in the top five rounds.”