(Harlan, IA) — There must have been a time when Brett Sears and Cade Sears were rival brothers in their household near Harlan, both with big dreams and now both are on the road to accomplishing their dreams of playing baseball in the Major Leagues.
This past week, Cade Sears the youngest of the brothers has made a commitment to play baseball for traditional SEC power Vanderbilt. Sears has been playing baseball this summer in the Northwoods League — a baseball league for college age players that uses wood bats. Scouts for MLB and colleges notice potential prospects in these type of short season leagues. Playing for the Lakeshore Chinocks just outside of Milwaukee, Sears is hitting .316 with 1 HR and 16 RBI with 13 stolen bases and 13 runs in just 25 games.
Sears was once a football commit for South Dakota St. but changed his mind and decided his heart was set on baseball so he went to Iowa Central Community College and this spring hit .270 with 2 HR and 35 RBI with 31 stolen bases for the Tritons who made it as far as the Junior College semifinals.
Cade’s older brother Brett also was at Iowa Central for one season then went to Western Illinois where the third Sears brother — Dillon — played baseball for five seasons. Brett was with the Leathernecks for one season and then transferred to Nebraska. 2024 was Sears breakout season with the Huskers where a 2nd team All-American pitcher, going 9-1 with a 2.16 ERA. Sears was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the 7th round of the 2024 draft and number 221 overall.
So far this summer, Sears has been up and down in the Braves farm club, reaching as high as AAA Gwinnett but struggled in his two starts there and on July 29 was sent back to AA Columbus. So far in AA, Sears is 3-3 with a decent 3.96 ERA in his 8 games and 7 starts. He was moved up quickly after 3 starts with Rome in the South Atlantic League and 5 games with Augusta in the Carolina League, both Class A teams.
Brett also pitched in the Northwoods League in 2023 — with the Rockford Rivets, Sears went 4-0 with an impressive 0.62 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 29 innings pitched. Sears used the momentum from that experience to propel him to his great season with Nebraska in 2024.
