As a young boy growing up in Doylestown, Reece Moody was a big fan of former Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley. “I liked him a lot and how he played,” Moody said of the scrappy infielder, who played for the Phils from 2003-15.
So it probably is not a surprise that the former Central Bucks East baseball star is now playing the same position in college at Division I James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
While Moody is a long way from the big-league level – he does have a goal of one day being drafted by a Major League club – the JMU infielder has drawn on a strong youth program to help him reach a higher level.
“When I first started (with organized baseball) I was five or six. I started at YMCA in T-ball and then moved to Doylestown,” said Moody, standing by the third-base dugout of JMU after a recent victory over Georgia Southern. “I played in Tri-Township in Wrightstown. That is where I started my little league days.”
Moody gives a lot of credit to his youth coaches. That includes Patrick Devlin, his travel ball coach with the Bucks County Generals. “He has had a big impact on my career,” Moody said.
The JMU infielder is one of several standout baseball players in recent years to come out of Central Bucks East.
Nick Bitsko, a right-handed pitcher, was a first-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020 out of the same high school and has been in the minor leagues since then.
Former high school teammates of Moody now at the college level include Chase Fulford, now a freshman infielder at Division I Binghamton in New York, and Jack Mislan, a sophomore outfielder at Lafayette.
Another pro player from Central Bucks East is third baseman Chase Harlan, drafted in the third round in 2024 by the Los Angeles Dodgers who reached the Single-A level last season and is friends with Moody. Harlan is listed as the No. 17 prospect in the Dodgers’ system going into the 2026 season by mlb.com.
One day, Moody would welcome the chance to play in the minors like Bitsko and Harlan.
“It is definitely a goal for me,” said Moody, who is eligible for the MLB draft in 2027. “But I am trying to stay in the moment and be there for my teammates.”
For now, the Doylestown product is one of the top hitters for JMU – he was batting .339 and was one of just two players to start in each of the first 16 games. He ranked third on the team in hitting and had three triples, two doubles and a homer in his first 56 at-bats this season with 11 RBIs.
“He’s just going to play the game no matter what the scoreboard says,” veteran JMU coach Marlin Ikenberry told the Harrisonburg Daily-News Record about Moody. “He’s just trying to get his teammates through the inning” no matter the situation.
Other schools that recruited Moody included West Virginia, Maine, and Stony Brook. “It was mainly between JMU and West Virginia. When I stepped on the JMU campus, I knew it was right for me,” he said.
Moody is not the only player from southeast Pennsylvania with JMU. Tyler Lutz of Telford and a product of Souderton Area High is a lefty pitcher for the Dukes. The lefty led the team with an ERA of 1.47 through March 13.
“We were in the same (high school) conference,” Moody said of Lutz. “We would play twice a year. I got to see him after games and face him, too. I drove him home (from Virginia) during breaks (from JMU). That is pretty cool.”
They are playing in the same city that Christopher Dock alum Erik Kratz starred in college. A product of nearby Division III Eastern Mennonite, Kratz also played for the Harrisonburg Turks in the summer Valley Baseball League before beginning his pro career, which included time with the Phillies as a catcher from 2011-13 and 2015.
Central Bucks East grad J.D. Reichenbach pitched in the minors for Cleveland from 2010-13 and Robbie Welhaf, another pitcher, was in the Detroit system from 2018-19. Tyler Young, an infielder from the same school, played in the Indy Frontier and Pioneer leagues in 2025. He went to Lehigh.
Editor’s note: David Driver is a native of Harrisonburg and the former sports editor of the daily paper there. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” available on Amazon and at daytondavid.com. Driver covered the Washington Nationals from 2013-22 for several outlets, including several series in Philadelphia against the Phillies.
