We are all over the nation today profiling verbal news as well as spotlighting players whose stock is on the rise… so let’s jump in, shall we?

*** Many were surprised when we posted the FAB 50 16U Club Rankings that the Beverly Bandits DeMarini team was ranked No. 2.

A major reason why is the pitching talent and depth on the team.

Michigan-bound Meghan Beaubien (2017) had a great fall pitching 106 innings and only gave up four earned runs (0.34 ERA) and Mallor Marsicek, a 2016 pitcher going to Radford, also did well.

The surprise, though, may have been another 2016 hurler in Gabby Schnaiter, who in 78 1/3 innings had a 0.74 ERA with 128 K’s.

Gabby is headed to Butler and her father, Sean, explains how she ended up committing to the Indiana university (she is from Fishers, Ind. so she’ll stay in-state):

“Gabbi’s recruiting really began to increase in January of 2014 when she attended Banditfest.  Ohio State took interest and began to watch her very closely.  She attended a couple of their camps in the winter and summer.  They came out to watch her in high school in the spring of 2014 and the summer 2014 as well.”

“Unfortunately, as it goes in recruiting, they (OSU) had an injury to a pitcher at the end of their season last year which necessitated them bringing in a 2015 pitcher and skipping the 2016 year for pitching recruits.”

“Gabbi was bummed as she loved Kelly Schoenly and her staff and they in turned really liked her.  It just wasn’t meant to be with the circumstances.

“At the same time the recruiting with Ohio State started, Scott Hall at Butler began to express his interest more and more.  Scott had been watching her since she was 12-13 in the local travel arena.  She attended their winter camp and did a couple of unoffical visits in the spring.”

“During the summer Scott continued to watch her at various tournaments and then in the fall Jenna Grimm (his new pitching coach) began to follow Gabbi very closely.  The first formal offer from Butler was at the end of October.  Gabbi politely put it on hold as there were several other schools who were interested and she wanted to visit them as well.”

“Valporaiso, Murray State, Kent State, Ohio University, Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio, and Syracuse all began to recruit her in the fall as well.”

“After her final tourney in the fall in Orlando  (November 5th) Gabbi and I hit the road visiting four schools in the next five weeks and verbally talking to the other three.  Gabbi was telling all the schools that she hoped to have a decision made by the middle of December.”

“She was blessed to have offers from the schools and she liked the coaches and they were all quality schools.  I always told her that with the choices she had she couldn’t go wrong, but she needed to figure out what school fit her personality best and where she was most comfortable with the coaches, environment and her teammates.”

As we visited each school we would each re-rank them in different categories: quality of education, coaches, players, school atmosphere, location and surrounding area and travel for softball games (where and how, i.e. fly or bus).”

“I always let her go first as I wanted this to truly be her decision, but ironically our lists were never that far apart.  So about Mid-December a couple of weeks after our last school visit, she came downstairs to my wife and I and said “I have something to tell you guys, I have decided to go to Butler.”

“We met with Scott and Jenna a couple of days later and the rest is history.”

“In the end it came down to the following for Gabbi: quality of education, competitive softball program and the opportunity to compete in a good conference (Big East).”

“Also, there were girls with similar personalities to her already at Butler and she really gelled with them on her unofficial visits and she liked the comfort level with Scott and Jenna as well as the integrity of the program and school plus being able to travel to places she never has been before like the upper East Coast, and the yearly trips South.”

“In her words, it ‘feels right!’ It was an incredible journey, which I was happy to be along for the ride.”

*** As we work on the 2018 Hot 100, we’re starting to get info on top 2019 prospects who are starting to rise to the surface.

Addison Davis, the President of the Jacksonville Storm and Florida Storm, writes that there are two promising ‘19’s to watch for in his program:

— P Madisyn Davis
“Madisyn is already 5-foot-9 and has been on unofficial visits to North Carolina and USC Upstate and will be visiting South Alabama on Feb. 13th-15th with upcoming visits on the horizon.”

— IF/UT Baylee Goddard
“Baylee has also been invited to South Alabama, USC Upstate, Jacksonville University and Central Florida.

*** One college program that’s on a roll is North Georgia which has picked up a trio of talented players in the last few weeks.

First, the Nighthawks picked up 2016 Hot 100 outfielder Lexi Duncan who had been previously committed to Kentucky. Lexi plays for Georgia Elite – Hoover, the No. 1 rated team in the FAB 50 16U rankings.

Then, Mike Davenport’s program got Kynsley Rae Blasingame, a 2017 pitcher with Georgia Elite Premier – Laukka. The 5-foot-10 sophomore, who had a stellar fall campaign with 286 K’s in 210 innings with only 30 walks, 12 shutouts and a 1.21 ERA, told Full Count:

“I loved the campus and the school’s academic reputation, the great athletic facilities, the very nice coaches and how it’s very competitive for championships every year. I just absolutely loved my visit, the coaches did an excellent job promoting their program!”

*** The Atlanta Vipers – Palazzo have had a nice run of verbals recently, about a half dozen, with the last two being 2016 outfielder Shelby Robinson to Tennessee and 2017 middle infielder Bailley Concatto to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (SIUE).

Regarding Bailley, we have this scouting report by Mike Petros, an assistant coach for the Vipers and the Recruiting Manager:

“Bailley’s combination of offensive and defensive ability, speed, and knowledge of the game is rare at this age. She is a table-setter at the top of the lineup that can win via the slap or by driving the ball to the gap for extra bases.”

“Bailley hit .460 with 11 stolen bases and 14 runs scored at this past summer’s TC/USA Nationals in Georgia. She followed that up with an impressive showing at 16U USA/ASA Nationals in Salem, Va, hitting .427 while leading her team in runs, and OBP and stealing nine bases.”

“Bailley has been an All County and All Region selection each of her first two seasons at the high school level, and won the Offensive MVP award for her West Forsyth team that made the 6AAAAAA playoffs in 2014.”

“She had offers from multiple D1’s from the state of Florida to Illinois.”

*** Moving to Texas, a fast-rising 2018 is outfielder/second baseman Tate Whitley of the Aces Express Futures.

She’s a 4.0 student who last summer helped the Futures to the championship win at the TC/USA Nationals in Georgia and a 4^th place finish at ASA 14U Nationals in Calif.

Tate hit .535 with an on-base percentage of .679 while being perfect on the basepaths going 38-for-38 in steals in 68 games played.

The freshman is being recruited by several schools in the ACC, Big 12 and SEC and has already visited Ole Miss, Florida State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

*** One of the top teams to watch at the 14U age group and a likely candidate for our Full Count FAB 50 Club Rankings coming out Thursday is Georgia Force – Haag.

Head Coach Steve Haag writes about one of the standout 2018 players on his team:

“I have a player that I think has the ability to play at the highest level. The player is Cesyrea Cox.”

“We’re a second year 14U A level team and Cesyrea is probably the best catcher I have seen at this level. CC’s pop times to second are consistently around the 1.75 time frame, she runs under 3.00 to first and hit over 450 last year and through the fall.”

“CC blocks and frames pitches excellently and she was key to our team qualifying for PGF Premier Nationals last year. She started as a freshman for her Jefferson High School team and was Honorable Mention All Region.”

*** More verbals…

First	Last	Pos	Year	Club Team	University/College
Tori	Ayala	1B	2015	Firecrackers - Blanco	Detroit Mercy
Kynsley Rae	Blasingame	P/1B	2017	Georgia Elite	North Georgia
Brycen	Blinco	SS	2017	Texas Blaze - Bonola	Texas-San Antonio
Kenzie	Bolin	MIF	2018	So Cal Athletics - TO	Utah State
Haydi	Bugarin	SS	2015	Alamo City Firecrackers	Arkansas
Bailley	Concatto	MIF	2017	Atlanta Vipers - Palazzo	Southern Illinois-Edwardsville
Stephani	Crumrine	C/OF	2015	Alamo City Firecrackers	Trinity
Elli	Dixon	C/2B	2016	Birmingham Mustangs	Alabama Birmingham
Lexi	Duncan	OF	2016	Georgia Elite	North Georgia
Aimee	Felices	SS	2016	Alamo City Firecrackers	Alabama State
Angela	Giampolo	SS	2017	Newtown Rock Gold	Villanova
Reagen	Jacobs	1B/OF	2016	Foothill Gold	Southern Miss
Arielle	James	SS	2016	Oklahoma Exclusives Gold	Houston
Kamdyn	Kvistad	C/3B	2017	Gold Coast Hurricanes - Fisher	South Alabama
Emily	Lawrence	C	2016	East Cobb Bullets - Legere	Georgia College and State
Priscilla	Martinez	C/1B	2016	So Cal Athletics - McNee/Myers	George Washington
Alexis	Morales	P/SS	2015	Strike Force - Jensen	Hawaii Pacific
Kara	Myrick	OF	2015	Alamo City Firecrackers	Florida State College
Jordyn	Nowakowski	C	2016	The Next Level	Stony Brook
Kristian	Osbourn	P/UT	2016	Alamo City Firecrackers	Abilene Christian
Shelby	Robinson	OF	2016	Atlanta Vipers - Palazzo	Tennessee
Taylor	Rosser	C/UT	2015	Alamo City Firecrackers	Alabama State
Emily	Tidd	OF/3B	2018	So Cal Athletics - TO	Utah State