Pictured: Hanah Bowen, a 2017 pitcher/infielder committed to Arizona and a new face on the OC Batbusters Haning/Stith team.

The center of the club softball universe this weekend will be in California at the PGF Ultimate Challenge where three PGF National Champions from last year will be competing and another one from 2014!

Be sure to read our PGF Ultimate Challenge event preview  which includes the team rosters and schedule of Saturday’s games.

In this Recruiting News & Notes column, we look at the top dog in the 18U ranks and some of the changes to the roster per the head coach himself as well as a 16U team we think has the talent to win a National Championship in 2016.

Headlining the verbal news: a very fresh Big Ten verbal and another week means another Duke commit!

If you’d like to submit info, be it commitment news, players to watch, outstanding performances, or other relevant recruiting news, send to: brentt.eads@flosoftball.tv.

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This weekend’s PGF Ultimate Challenge in Salinas, Calif. has many of the top club teams in the country at each of the 18U, 16U and 14U levels.

You can watch all 30 pool play games on Saturday and then the single elimination which start Saturday at 6 pm PST and run through the championships Sunday at noon PST.  Join Now to not miss a pitch!

One team that everyone will be watching closely will naturally be the OC Batbusters-Haning/Stith team which has won the last two PGF 18U National Championships.

FloSoftball spoke to Head Coach Mike Stith today about his team and how he thinks the team will do losing a dozen elite players including pitcher Taylor McQuillin (Arizona), infielder Sydney Romero (Oklahoma), outfielder Alyssa Palomino (Arizona), outfielder Amanda Lorenz (Florida), catcher Morganne Flores (Washington) and third baseman Tannon Snow (Washington) just to name half of them.

“We’ll see,” he said with a smile.  “A lot of people are saying we won’t be as good, but I like this team, they work hard and should be pretty good.  We still have pitchers Mariah Lopez (Oklahoma) and Natalie Lugo (Florida) to build around.”

[Editor’s note: FloSoftball has Lopez as the No. 1 prospect in the 2016 Hot 100!]

It will be interesting to see how the team plays this weekend; unlike many tournaments where the top players are separated into two teams—Maroon and White—all the good players will be on one team in Salinas.

Still, even if the Batbusters go 0-3, Stith says he won’t be concerned.

“I’m different than most,” he continued.  “I’m big into elevating the acceleration of their development so I don’t worry how we look in October or November, but I predict we’ll be pretty solid by next July.”

The coach, who has won six National Championships in 10 years as a head coach—three with Tuff-E-Nuff, one with Team Mizuno and a pair with the OC Batbusters—is excited about some of the new faces on the roster:

--- P/IF Vanessa Foreman (2018, Arizona)

“Vanessa is a pitcher that just committed to Arizona and she will get a lot of innings this fall.”

--- SS Reyna Carranco (2016, Arizona)

“Reyna’s skills and athleticism are crazy good.”

--- 3B/SS Malia Martinez (2016, Arizona)

“Malia is big and strong and has a wonderful personality.  She’ll add a lot to our team.”

The head coach also said some top players were pulled up from the 16U teams in the Batbuster organization and will be counted on to be key contributors including:

--- MIF Neli Casares-Maher (2017, uncommitted)

--- P/3B Hanah Bowen (2017, Arizona)

--- 2B Maddison Flores (2017, Loyola Marymount)

… and, finally, 2017 outfielder Lauren Gutierrez who is uncommitted, but won’t be at the Ultimate Challenge as she’s visiting Cal this weekend.

“Lauren is as good as anybody out there,” Stith says.  “Why she’s uncommitted still is a mystery to me.”

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One team we’re really looking forward to watching this weekend at the PGF Ultimate Challenge is Explosion-Greg, coached by Greg Borzilleri.

Last year the 16U team—which FloSoftball rated in the final FAB 50 Club rankings— finished 13th at TC/USA Nationals and 33rd at PGF 16U Nationals after losing to two of the best 16U teams in the country—Beverly Bandits-Tyrrell and Georgia Elite-Hoover.

With 16 of last year's 21 rostered players committing to some big-time schools the Explosion-Greg squad is one of the most highly recruited teams in the country.  

Here’s Coach Borzilleri’s read on his team:

“Frontline returners include catcher Liliana Bishop (2017, NC State), second baseman Hannah Ramelot (2017, Cal Poly SLO), Casey Shell,Maddy Ruffin and Isabella Gargicevich-Almeida plus several other key returners.”

“Key pickups include big-time hitters infielder Britney Allen (2018, Florida) and Jade Wittman along with speedsters Carmina Nichols, Charizma "Dj" Guzman and Ashleigh Inae.”

“Exciting young talented players include shortstop Taylor Olsen, pitcher Eve Harvey and freshman AJ Alatorre who will all contribute to a very potent attack.”

The coach is excited about the balance of his team as it competes in the 16U division.

“Explosion has the right combination of speed, power and defense,” he says. “There are zero roster fillers on this team. We think this very well could be a team to keep an eye on come summer time next year.”

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Congratulations to Julia Jimenez, a 2019 shortstop/third baseman who play for the Firecrackers Brashear 16U team.

She committed this week to Michigan according to her family.

We’ll be doing more on the freshman soon, but her mother, Gloria, had a great line saying, “Julia is die-hard softball day-in and day-out… she hasn’t had a season off since she was four!”

She’s moved up from the Firecrackers-Brashear/Thornburt 14U team where she played with 2019 pitcher Lexi Sosawho committed in January to UCLA.

In that article we ran a photo of Julia with Lexi at the Bruin’s Stadium, but now she’ll be wearing a different shade of blue!

*** Another week, another Duke commit!

This week it’s Amelia Wiercioch, a 2017 pitcher/first baseman who plays for Courage-Weaver in Orange County (Calif.).

Amelia committed to the ACC school on Friday, Sept. 18 during an unofficial visit to the campus.

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Not all of our campus photos have to be committed classes… for instance, above is a photo of a quartet of 2017 players committed to the Univ. of Texas last weekend to see the football game against Oklahoma State on Saturday and then participate in the DIRT camp on Sunday.

Pictured left to right are:  middle infielder Mary Katherine Tedder of the Birmingham Thunderbolts (No. 20 in the FloSoftball 2017 Hot 100), pitcher Chloe Romero (2017, Central Cal Dirtdogs, outfielder Janae Jefferson (2017, Aces Express) and catcher Taylor Ellsworth (2017, Texas Blaze Gold).

*** Thanks to a parent who updated us on the OC Batbusters-Lastrapes team which has been pulling in some good players… here’s the current roster:

Committed:

3B/2B Pearl Barroso (2017, DePaul)

C Molly Grumbo (2017, Loyola Marymount)

2B/SS Maranda Gutierrez (2017, DePaul University)

P/1B Kenedee Jamerson (2017, Cal State Northridge)

C/1B Isabella Loya (2017, Illinois)

OF Kate Polucha (2017, DePaul)

P/1B Kyra Snyder (2017, Louisville)

C/OF Teah Theis (2018, UC Santa Barbara)

Players uncommitted (as of September 2015)

SS Samantha Dees (2017)

OF Alyssa Avalos (2017)

P Dakota Casper (2017)

OF Kira Cauley (2017)

OF/MIF Kiana Cisneros (2017)

OF Mia Guevarra (2017)

OF Hannah Sasaki (2018)

P Courtney Springman (2016)

*** Happy to report that Shannon Mortimer, the talented 2018 pitcher from Grafton, Mass. who plays for the Polar Crush and was out for a few months with an injury, will be back on the field in a week at the Team NJ Fall Showcase.

After leading her high school team to the state finals as a freshman and making 1st Team All-State this year she tweaked her back at the Pennsbury Showcase and had to shut it down for the summer but she’s back now and expect her stock to blow up.

According to her father, George: “Shannon is finished with her physical therapy and raring to go. She is working hard again and hopefully has some good luck on her side this fall.”

Shannon is a 5-foot-10 pitcher who’s added five mph to her fast ball over the last two years and is now in hitting 65.  

She’s been getting interest from ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Ten and SEC schools and was rated No. 86 in our 2018 Hot 100.