As we start the process of doing our post-summer FAB 50 Club Rankings for the 18U, 16U, 14U and 12U levels, we’ll occasionally spotlight some of the teams that make the rankings .

One to watch for this fall and for the 2016 Nationals season will be the East Cobb Bullets 16U team coached by Andy Biele which played 14U last season.  

Last week the Georgia-based team picked up several outstanding players who, combined with a strong core including one of the top 2019 pitchers in the country, will make the team tough to beat in the next year.

Before the summer season kicked off, FloSoftball had the Bullets ranked No. 9 in the 14U preseason rankings in large part because of standout pitcher Kelley Lynch, one of the top hurlers in the 2019 class.

With her in the circle, the Bullets tied for 5th at Triple Crown Sparkler Junior and won the Triple Crown Southeast Nationals.

Recently added were a pair of 2018 Hot 100 pitchers in Logan Caymol, who has committed to Tennessee, and pitcher/infielder Kassidy Krupit, who just committed this week to Delaware.

Both helped the Georgia Impact-Lewis team finish second at PGF 14U Nationals and are two of five players—the others being infielder Maddison Koepke (2019 commit to Auburn) and 2018 outfielders Maddy Libby and Arielle Oda—who are coming over from the Impact.

Lynch, Caymol and Kruppit—along with Angelina Biele—gives the Bullets team a strong quartet of hurlers and talent across the board at all positions.
 
“We could have six to eight major conference commits on this team by year’s end,” says Coach Biele. “The team will be a triple threat with incredible power, elite speed and potentially the most dominant pitching staff in the country.”

Along with the strong pitching, a strong suit for the newly assembled Bullets 16U squad will be its speed at the plate and on the basepaths.

““We have three girls that have all be clocked sub 2.7 home-to-first in Haley Simpson, Olivia Davis and Arielle Oda,” continues the coach. “Last season Haley and Olivia stole 178 bases. It’s fun to watch their speed and adding another player with the same caliber speed in Arielle is just going to make this team dynamic. It will be a race to 100 for sure with these three.”

While the speed will help the players get on base, it’s the power to drive them in that has the Bullets’ staff equally excited.

“We will not be short on power,” Biele believes. “Adding the power of Kassidy and Maddison with Paige Cook, Alison Durrence and Mia Jenkins is going to incredibly fun to watch. Krupit and Durrence are shear power hitters and I was really excited to get Koepke as she and Paige are so alike as pure hitters with power and great upside.”
 
The defense should add a final piece to make the 16U a complete, competitive team.  One key advantage is depth as most of the players play multiple positions.

The continue says, “Our defense is going to be fun to coach. We have four girls that were the starting shortstop on their earlier travel teams, and we also have three center fielders. It’s really going to be fun coaching this group. Did you see the catch that outfielder Maddy Libby made in the PGF championship game in center field for the Impact? It had to be the best catch of the year.”

On paper, the EC Bullets-Biele team should be one of the teams to watch in the 16U division come next summer, but the head coach knows it won’t come easy.

“The coaching staff is excited and realizes it will take hard work and time to gel, but it is sure going to be fun to watch,” he adds. “No one is going to just hand us W’s, and that’s fine. If these girls bring their best they will be pretty hard to beat.”

“This team has no ego’s, the players want to compete, they want to win and they want to play with the best. We will play a lot of 18 Gold competition in preparation for a title run at 16U PGF.”

“It’s going to be a fun year.”​