*** I stopped by the Surf City Winter Showcase on Saturday and caught some of the games before the rain came in and killed the weekend.

Too bad, because there were a lot of good teams including OC Batbusters – Haning/Stith, So Cal A’s and Explosion among others.

Speaking of Explosion they picked up a great slugger in Sarai Niu, the senior first baseman who is headed to Mississippi State after blowing at the PGF Nationals where she had four home runs in four games.

But back to the weather: we needed the rain desperately here on the West Coast, but felt bad for the teams that travelled from afar to play in Orange Co., including the Newtown Rock Gold – Garvey team that came all the way from Pennsylvania!

Had a chance to talk with them and they announced they got a nice pickup in Bella Norton, a 2015 catcher/utility player who made the Hot 100 list.

She’s signed with Indiana and is a nice pick-up for the Keystone State team…

*** You may have missed it a few weeks ago, but several Hot 100 2017’s that were on the So Cal A’s – Richardson team have moved as well:

• 2017’s Malia Quarles, the power-hitting third baseman committed to UCLA, and outfielder Alexa Schultz, the Oklahoma commit who had a great fall, had moved up to Richardson’s team but decided to stay and play with the A’s – Quarles younger team.
• 2017 catcher Mary Iakopo, an Oregon commit, followed Coach Rob Weil when he moved from the A’s over to Tony Rico’s Firecrackers team. Mary plays for Coach Weil at Los Alamitos (Calif.) High so it wasn’t that big of a shock.

Not crying too much for Coach Richardson as he has excellent talent coming back and did pull up outstanding C/OF Madison Pacini from the Quarles team.

Madison is a 2018 committed to Tennessee and will likely rotate in with Stanford commit Montana Dixon. It’s also Madison’s birthday tomorrow and a year since she committed to the Vols so a big time for her!

We hope to be profiling her soon…

I did talk to Bruce between raindrops at the Surf City event and asked who looked good. In a deadpan voice he replied, “Nobody,” but you know he has to like his team.

*** Tis the season for high profile player moves and there are some big ones coming down the pike. Can’t say who they are now (was asked not too), but let’s just say there are a half dozen or more Hot 100 players who will be wearing different colors this year.

*** One really good pick-up by the Texas Glory was 2016 lefty pitcher Jenna Chapman who played with the Beverly Bandits organization last year.

She was a bubble Hot 100 pick for the junior class, but don’t be surprised to see the La Tech commit make it into the list if the Kentucky native continues to improve as she did last year.

*** A lot of good “sister acts” crossing my path recently: I put up the video interviews with Sierra and Sydney Romero right before Christmas (and both made the U.S National Teams last week, Sierra the Womens’ Team and Sydney the Jr. National Team).

I did a video interview on Saturday of Tannon and Taylon Snow, the Washington-bound sisters who play for the OC Batbusters-Haning/Stith team, and will post that soon.

Another pair of talented siblings hails from the same A’s organization with Alyssa Kumiyama, a 2017 catcher/first baseman on the same Quarles team from above and a South Carolina commit, and now her sister, Hannah, a 2019 3B/P with the A’s – Mercado team, is also headed to the SEC to play for the Gamecocks.

Hannah committed to South Carolina yesterday and it would normally be an ecstatic time, except dad Chris went into the hospital today to have his left knee replaced. Wish him the best…

*** About a month ago we profiled Rising Star Shannon Mortimer, a 2018 pitcher from Grafton, Mass. who plays for the Polar Crush National Gold team.

From what I’ve heard, she had a great BanditFest a week ago in Chicago and was clocked at 63 mph there and had a lot of coaches crowded around her cage where she reportedly threw over 100 pitches working in a strong change and off-speed curve.

The offers are starting to come in and she’s beginning to set visits… we’ll have more on her soon, but if colleges are on the fence with here, they better move quickly because they may not have a lot of time!

*** Ironically, the day before we did a Rising Star profile on Shannon, we did a Rising Star profile on Leea Hanks from Florida and she too recently blew up at a tournament!

Leea is a 2019 outfielder/shortstop who does have an offer from Central Florida already and the triple threat slapper had a huge tournament at Rising Stars in Florida the weekend of the month.

She played in the 18U Gold bracket with the Rock Gold Florida team and hit lead-off for three of the six games at the Plantation, Fla. event. Leea went 8-for-19 at the plate with a pair of RBI and nine steals to help the team go 4-1-1.

She’s now officially on the Rock Gold Florida team, which is part of the Rock organization run by Rick Waye. The team was the TCS East Coast National Champions and Florida ASA State Champions in 2014 and will play at ASA Nationals in Salem, Ore. in 2015.

*** Someone who’ll be added to 2017 Watch List: Jessica Jimenez a 3B/2B with the Firecrackers – Brashear Black 16U team coached by Carlos Gutierrez.

She’s a lefty who’s aggressive on defense and helped the So Cal Pumas Black 14u team, then led by Coach Gutierrez, to the TCS Jr. Sparklers Power Pool Championship game against the So Cal A’s – Tidd/Ornelas team last year.

Jessica has a 3.9 GPA in honor courses and is receiving interest from some D1 schools.

She hit .393 as a freshman at Bishop Alemany High (Calif.) and is from Sylmar, Calif. This year, she’s at San Fernando High.

One to watch for…

*** I was contacted by a head coach at one of the top 50 club teams in the country, a program that’s in the middle part of the country, and the coach is looking for a top-line pitcher in the 2017 and 2018 class.

He writes: “Not sure if you know of a pitcher looking?  Would prefer 2017/2018 will

get great exposure and plenty of mound time. Don’t care where she lives.”

Any pitchers interested, drop me a line (brentt@fullcountsoftball.com) and I’ll contact you with the team…

*** Finally, a player we’ll be hearing a lot more of – and I hope to profile very soon – is Braelyn Cooper, a 2018 pitcher who plays for 18U Charlotte Starz gold.

Braelyn just tunred 15 years old and is already 5-foot-9. She’s a lefty who was clocked by an SEC assistant coach at 64 mph at the Elite 80 put on by USC Upstate and is known to throw harder (her “cruise speed” is around 63 mph but she’s getting stronger).

Braelyn already has an offer from Liberty University, coached by Dot Richardson and Paige Cassidy, and Tennessee and Oklahoma coaches were reportedly watching her closely at the Diamond9 even in Florida.

As a bonus, she’s also a promising power hitter who wants to bat and play first if possible.

You heard it here first!

*** More verbals:

— OF TeAnn Bringle (2018, Indiana)… plays for Indiana Magic Gold
— P Holly Brooks (2016, Campbell)… plays for Wagners 3n2
— OF Alexa Dolby (2016, Georgetown)… plays for Wagners 3nd
— OF/IF Tajiah Ellisn (2017, Missouri)… plays for Arizona Storm Mizuno – Beach
— P Delaney Hull 982017, Utah State)… plays for Firecrackers – Luterloh
— C Lexi Malone (2016, Mississippi State)… plays for Velocity Gulf Coast
— 3B Caitlyn McCrary (2019, Tennessee Fury)… plays for Tennessee
— SS Kaitlyn Morrison (2019, Penn State)… plays for Ohio Outlaws
— 3B/C Serenity Steward (2017, Ball State)… plays for Vienna Stars
— OF Skye Webb (2017, Georgia Tech)… plays for Corona Angels