Varsity baseball practice wrapped up at 8:00 p.m., and Malvern Preparatory School junior Tague Davis was late to pick up his little brother. With darkness encroaching, Davis hopped in his truck and drove the wrong way down the school’s ring road to shave a few minutes off his travel time.
Tague is the son of Ben Davis, a seven-year major league vet, Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster and the best high school baseball player to ever come from the region. Everyone knows Ben’s name, even if he never played for the Phillies, and they know he played baseball for the Malvern Prep Friars.
Few are more acutely aware of that fact, and that privilege, than his son - who sometimes lives in his shadow.
So when Tague pulled into school the next day only to find himself summoned to the dean’s office, he was shocked. His Malvern Prep parking pass was suspended for two months after the dean cited security camera footage of him leaving campus.
You’ve got to be kidding, he thought.
“I was kind of an a--hole,” Tague said. “I feel like I always played to my ability and always had an IQ for the game [of baseball]. But outside of that, well, you know, I was a clown.”
The experience hit Tague hard. He was supposed to be a leader on what was perhaps the best high school baseball team in the state. Leaders don’t get their school parking passes suspended, certainly not leaders for a school that has won eight of the last 11 state championships.
“Literally after that, I mean, I snapped. I snapped in. I was like, 'all right, I'm done. I'm ready to go,'” Tague said.
Head baseball coach, Freddy Hilliard, noticed the change instantly. Hilliard saw Davis go from a player who showed up and went through the motions to an athlete who loved the game more than anyone else on the field. Tague became more accountable, more disciplined and a better teammate.
After stellar junior and senior seasons, Tague committed to the University of Louisville where he’s faced an even higher level of talent at one of the nation’s best NCAA Division-I schools.
That level of success is not unusual for ballplayers coming out of Malvern Prep - especially under the leadership of Freddy Hilliard. They’ve been a regional powerhouse since the ‘80s, but since Hilliard took over the program, it has become a dynasty. He took over managerial duties at Malvern Prep in 2010 following a middling NCAA career as an infielder at Temple University.
During Hilliard’s 16 years in charge, the program has produced eight professional ballplayers and dozens of NCAA athletes. Before Hilliard’s time, Malvern Prep produced 12 other pro players and three Major Leaguers: Ben Davis, Phil Gosselin and Tim Cooney.
There’s a culture of excellence at Malvern Prep baseball, one that’s not often seen up north at high schools where the sport can’t be played year-round. That’s not to say elite ballplayers don’t come from Pennsylvania; plenty do. But if you’re an NCAA or pro ballplayer from the Philadelphia area, there’s a good chance you played high school ball at Malvern Prep.
The school announced six new NCAA commits for baseball this fall. Among them is shortstop Jackson Melconian.
Melconian was in his junior year at Malvern Prep when he committed to Vanderbilt University. As one of the best young baseball players in the region, he’s been a highly coveted prospect for several years. But on March 22, 2025, against Avon Old Farms, he sure didn’t feel like it.
That day, the team was in Florida, preparing for the season, and Melconian was playing shortstop. Hilliard looked on as the 17-year-old faced disaster.
“I thought I had to prove myself again, and just show everybody like, I'm going [to Vanderbilt], I'm that guy,” Melconian said.
The baseball gods gave him that opportunity, and Melconian blew it. He made three errors in one inning, a nightmare for a player touted for his defense.
“That was a huge learning moment. [Hilliard] pulled me aside and let me know that, ‘We got you, we got your back,’” Melconian remembered.
Sometimes physical mistakes are unavoidable. As Hilliard’s philosophy demonstrates, there’s no need to admonish a young athlete after a bad day.
After that miscue, Melconian shone both defensively and offensively for the Friars in his junior year and again so far in his senior year. He’s vaulted up national lists, now ranked as one of the top high school prospects ahead of the 2026 MLB Draft.
The reassurance Coach Hilliard gave to Melconian that day, similar to what he gave to Davis and others in the past, has been a stabilizing factor for players key throughout his tenure as Malvern Prep's head coach.
While critics could insist that the Friars’ achievements are due to smart recruiting, the brass at Malvern Prep doesn’t think so - other Pennsylvania schools recruit too. In fact, many of them recruit more. But few win as many games as Malvern Prep.
Head athletic director Jim Stewart believes it comes down to Hilliard’s system: “Freddie certainly does it right at the top of the list as one of the very best at having his guys be accountable and maximize their absolute potential,” Stewart said.
Stewart believes Hilliard’s policy of accountability is unique because it doesn’t come from the top down. Hilliard has his players police each other. It is one thing for a player to be scared of letting their coach down; it is another for a player to be better for their teammates.
“So less [Coach Hilliard] telling guys what to do and more guys telling each other how to help each other if there's a mistake, enhancing skills, polishing skills,” Stewart said. “The way he wants this program to operate is by the kids taking ownership of everything.”
Jason Kay, a corner infielder and University of Maryland-Eastern Shore commit, was a sophomore on JV when Tague Davis was a senior at Malvern Prep. So when Davis asked the unassuming Kay to sit next to him at Chipotle one day after school, it was a big deal.
“Him saying that to a sophomore JV player, you know, it means a lot,” Kay said.
“I do remember that story,” Tague said. “I think that day in Chipotle, I saw him sitting alone. ‘Dude, come over here, sit with us.’ I would totally give that to Coach Hilliard because he just helps you become a better man.”
That moment encapsulates what the directors at Malvern Prep believe makes their program - and Hilliard - special. To this day, Tague calls it a “brotherhood.” But it didn’t always feel like that to him, and Hilliard witnessed that first-hand.
“Tague dealt with stuff that nobody else can really understand because there's not many people out there that have a dad who was the second pick of the Major League draft,” Hilliard said. “I think for the longest time he put up a mask and kind of acted like he wasn't super serious about baseball because I think deep down he felt like no matter what I do, it's never going to meet what my dad did.”
The pressure on Melconian and Kay is enormous, but it’s hard to imagine what the pressure is like on a kid whose father is the greatest prospect to ever come out of the region he is still a part of. What Hilliard saw in Davis after he began taking accountability was a love for the game.
“He made improvements, leaps and bounds,” Hilliard said. “I mean, he became a better teammate. He became a better player. I think the hardest part for him was just getting over that hump in that maturity piece to realize you can't just show up every day and think that's enough. There's more involved than that. But from a playing standpoint, I’ve never seen a kid who enjoys the game as much as he does.”
When Hilliard watches Davis’ Louisville games on TV, he never fails to notice Davis smiling on the ballfield. That is what matters most to the head coach. And after Louisville clinched a berth at the College World Series in Omaha last season, Hilliard and Davis' father, Ben, flew out together to watch Tague play.
At dinner one night in Omaha, Hilliard leaned in and said to Tague, “You know, it was totally me, right?”
Tague replied, “What do you mean?”
“I got your [parking] license revoked,” Hillard revealed. “Wasn't the dean or anything. And there was no such thing as security camera [footage]. That was all me.”
“Dude, no way,” Davis responded. “To this day, you’re going to tell me that?”
“Yup,” Hilliard said. “I just had to wait until you were out of high school. I took your license for two months.”
Hilliard said the goal was to make him a better man, and even Tague agrees it worked.
“And, you know, I appreciate that now,” Davis said. “I didn't in the moment 'cause I thought it was funny, but I appreciate that now and the little things he did for me.”
Tague won Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year in 2026. He led all NCAA Division I players in home runs with 34, breaking both team and league records. When he’s draft eligible in 2027, he will certainly be a first-round selection if he keeps up his current pace.
For Kay, Melconian and all of the other high school players at Malvern Prep, Tague will bring the Malvern Prep “brotherhood” instilled by Coach Hilliard with him on his baseball journey, wherever it may take him.
