PITTSBURGH -- If it were up to Cole Young, he’d still be playing playoff baseball for North Allegheny High School here in Pittsburgh. Young and his teammates had visions of a state title run, but when they were upset on May 23, their season came to an abrupt end.

Young, ranked No. 18 on MLB Pipeline's Top 200 Draft prospects list currently, took some time to get over the sting of defeat and can now shift his entire focus to the next chapter of his baseball life, which hopefully includes being selected in the first round of the 2022 Draft.

• Combine attendees | Draft Central | Draft order | Top 200 | Latest mock

The first step in that direction will be attending the second MLB Draft Combine. Last year was the inaugural event and this year it is taking place in San Diego from June 14-20. It’s a mutually beneficial one-stop shopping for players and all 30 teams, with numerous opportunities to interact.

“I think it's super nice,” said Young, who is committed to Duke for college ball. “How everyone meets in one spot and we just get everything done in one week. I think it's really convenient for everyone. I like how it's set up this year.”

Young will participate in the workouts being held, giving teams the chance to see him hit and take infield for the last time before the Draft. While he’s likely done some workouts with teams, those are not allowed after the Combine, so it’s a chance to make a strong last impression, something not lost on Young even if he’s been put through his paces in workouts like this many times, especially on last summer’s showcase circuit.

“It's the last time they're going to see you play, so I'm definitely not going to take anything lightly,” said Young, who has participated in other MLB events, like last summer’s PDP League and the High School All Star Game in Denver. “I'm going to go out and play my hardest. I think it's really important because it's the last time they see you. It's definitely going to be something that I'm looking forward to and I think it's going be a lot of fun.”

It will also be a bit of a reunion for Young. He played with and against the best high school players in the 2022 draft class all summer, but hasn't seen any of them as he is worked to improve his game in southwest Pennsylvania. Knowing that many of his “classmates” will be in San Diego is definitely icing on the cake.

“I've met so many people along the way, from the summer circuit, and all that stuff,” Young said. “I didn't see them since I guess the fall? I'm really excited to see all them again, and it's going to be really cool and it's going to be fun to watch them play, too.”

That Young knows he belongs in first-round conversations is no small thing. For players in cold-weather states where the competition isn’t quite as fierce as, say, Southern California, it’s always a test to see how you stack up once the opportunity to play in bigger showcases and tournaments come. For Young, that started a few years back when he began playing for the elite-level Canes national team across the country.

“I've always tried to just go to the biggest tournaments with the best team,” Young said of his ability to join the Canes. “That team, they go to all the big tournaments. So I joined them and I got to play against the top players. I think a few years ago, once I played against the top players, I knew that I belong in that group.”

Much of Young’s Draft status is hooked to how he fared in those showcase events and less on what he did or didn’t do this spring. The combination of the level of competition and the extremely unkind weather makes it more difficult to evaluate players from this region. Young got to play only around 20 games this spring, sometimes only once per week and there’s no question more than one scout had a trip scuttled because of weather.

“It is what it is,” Young said. “I grew up in western PA, so I’ve had to deal with it. I wish we could play more games, but I'm not going to make any excuses.”

One person who totally understands what that's like is former big leaguer Neil Walker. Walker, of course, was a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates out of nearby Pine-Richland high school in 2004. He's had the chance to watch young hit and to talk to him about making the transition to the pro game, and everything he has seen makes him think young has a bright future ahead of him.

“When I saw his swing and heard his thoughts on his approach in the box, we spoke the same language,” said Walker, who is now a TV analyst for Pirates games. “He’s more cut out of the old mold; he just wants to barrel more balls and that’s why we hit it off.

“My advice was less about on the field and more about what to expect going from playing 2-3 days a week to the grind of playing every day, the mentality of it. How to take the good with the bad and not get caught up on the numbers. He understood, and the conversations were really good. He is very polished for an 18-year-old kid.”