And so it begins!

After compiling the Full Count Softball Hot 100’s for the 2014, ’15 and ’16 classes, we turn to the current sophomores—the 2017’s—and begin shining the spotlight on those talented players who will be honored as one of the best fastpitch softball prospects in the nation.

The “Next 100 In”

In this post, we list 100 excellent players from around the country who are “on the bubble” to make the Hot 100. As we recently did with the 2015 class, we updated the 100 players included and we’ll do that eventually with the juniors and ultimately this sophomore class.

If players, parents and coaches want to refer to these athletes as making the “Full Count Softball Hot 100 rankings, 101-200,” that’s fine by us!

Players: if you’re on the cusp of making the Hot 100, keep working hard because we will watch you and consider you for inclusion in the next go round (and that DID happen with several seniors who were bumped up when we revised the rankings in October, 2014).

Also, for the 2016 class we had the “Next 25 In;” for the 2017’s we have 100 listed below. Why the added number? Because we feel evaluating younger players means there’s still room for improvement and growth so any of the ones here can potentially make a big jump and certainly make it into the Hot 100 updated ratings down the road.

How Players are Chosen & Ranked

Full Count Softball has a database of thousands of players we track but, obviously, we can’t see and scout every player. We lean heavily on input from club coaches and college scouts get their input and feedback.

We canvass the nation doing our own research and then get with dozens of the coaches and scouts to start getting opinions to help us narrow the list down and ultimately rank the players.

As we will freely admit, the process is simply taking a big list and filtering down to a consensus of top players which is an inexact science and we know we’re missing players… and we know you’ll let us know that!

So Why Do It?

Because we as Americans love lists! We love to quantify and rank, list and debate the lists. If we’re high on the list, it validates the hard work. If not, we love to argue how wrong the results are! And that’s great because…

… it creates discussion and interest around the sport. We get to talk about these fantastic athletes, honor them and promote those that should maybe be included.

We feel that’s a very good thing for softball and have been told this from great coaches like Tim Walton of Florida and Kelly Inouye-Perez of UCLA in the college ranks to Mike Stith with the OC Batbusters, Kevin Shelton of Texas Glory, Bret Denio of Explosion, Mark Griggs from the Wichita Mustangs, Kevin O’Donnell with Jersey Intensity and so on and so on.

And who are we to argue with these great minds?

Finally, as always, e-mail any thoughts, corrections or criticisms to Brentt@FullCountSoftball.com

***

So, without further ado–kicking off the sophomore top player countdown–we present the:

2017 Hot 100 “NEXT 100 IN”

(listed alphabetically)

These are the 100 sophomores who were finalists for the Hot 100 and are leading contenders to be included in the next 2017 Hot 100 revision to take place sometime in 2015…

First	Last	Pos	Year	Club Team	University
Jaden	Accardo	C/IF	2017	Louisiana Bombers	Baylor
Ariana	Adams	P	2017	Texas Firecrackers	Texas
Brittany	Anderson	UT	2017	Beverly Bandits	James Madison
Kailey	Anderson	OF/IF	2017	Texas Glory	Louisiana Tech
Savana	Avila	UT	2017	Firecrackers - Hinkle	Virginia
Hannah	Bailey	P/1B	2017	So Cal Breakers	Minnesota
Addie	Balderston	OF/SS	2017	St. Louis Worth Prospects	uncommitted
Sam	Bates	SS/C	2017	Team NC Elite	Georgia Tech
Kynsley	Blasingame	P	2017	Georgia Elite Premier - Laukka	uncommitted
Hope	Brandner	IF	2017	Firecrackers Norcal - Baisdon	Syracuse
Jessica	Bren	C/OF	2017	Minnesota Renegades	uncommitted
Alyssa	Brumelow	UT	2017	Georgia Elite	Georgia State
Lauren	Burke	OF	2017	NW Batbusters	Oregon
Kiana	Cisneros	OF/MI/C	2017	OC Batbusters - Smith	uncommitted
Mikayla	Coelho	OF/P	2017	Sorcerer Gold	Cal-Berkeley
Taryn	Collins	P	2017	East Coast Firecrackers Gold	Rutgers
CC	Cook	P	2017	Arizona HotshotsE	uncommitted
Savanna	Copeland	P	2017	St. Louis Esprit Premier	Florida State
Sydney	Cross	C/3B	2017	All American Mizuno - Walker	uncommitted
Konnor	Dahlberg	P/1B	2017	San Diego Power Surge - Berndes	San Diego State
Jordan	Dail	P	2017	Charlotte Starz	Virginia Tech
Cana	Davis	OF/3B	2017	Wagners 3n2 - Kiple	Virginia Tech
Analise	De La Roca	OF	2017	Corona Angels	Arizona State
Samantha	Dees	SS	2017	OC Batbusters - McGowen	Illinois
Naomi	Dickerson	P	2017	So Cal Athletics - Quarles	Penn State
Taylor	Dockins	P/UT	2017	Firecrackers - Brashear	Cal State Fullerton
Felicia	Drake	C/UT	2018	Texas Strike Force	Texas Southern
Maddy	Dwyer	P/OF	2017	OC Batbusters - Briggs	uncommitted
Tabitha	Dyer	P	2017	So Cal Pumas	uncommitted
Lynnsie	Elam	C	2017	Oklahoma Twisters	Oklahoma
Taylor	Ellsworth	C	2017	Texas Dirtbags	Texas
Hannah	Epps	IF/OF	2017	Texas Storm	Baylor
Hannah	Eslick	MIF	2017	Lady Orioles	Maryland
Brooke	Etheridge	OF/SS	2017	EC Bullets - Legere	uncommitted
Olivia	Ferrell	P/1B	2017	Nebraska Gold	Nebraska
Christen	Florence	UT	2017	Atlanta Vipers - Vallery	Mercer
Maggie	Foley	OF/MIF	2017	Stumps Bandits Gold	uncommitted
Lauren	Foster	SS	2017	Impact Gold - Newcomb	Wisconsin
Alexa	Franks	3B/OF	2017	Oklahoma Worth Hericanes	uncommitted
Sarah	Genz	3B	2017	Minnesota Renegades	Notre Dame
Peyton	Glatter	OF/UT	2017	Nebraska Gold	Nebraska
Kayla	Green	C	2017	So Cal Athletics - Mercado	Arkansas
Mary	Haff	P/1B	2017	Rhode Island Thunder	uncommitted
Emily	Harris	MIF	2017	EC Bullets - Legere	uncommitted
Chardonnay	Harris-Leark	P/1B	2017	Lemont Rockers	Auburn
Emily	Hudgins	SS/CF	2017	Illinois Chill	Penn State
Katherine	Huey	P/1B	2017	Atlanta Vipers - Palazzo	Purdue
Payton	Huscroft	1B/OF	2017	Nebraska Gold	Nebraska
Jenny	Jansen	SS	2017	St. Louis Worth Prospects	uncommitted
Janae	Jefferson	OF	2017	Aces Express Gold	Texas
Allison	Jones	OF/2B	2017	Georgia Impact - Gibson	uncommitted
Savannah	Jones	SS/2B	2017	Sorcerer - Williams	uncommitted
Tyler	King	OF/UT	2017	OC Batbusters - Smith	uncommitted
Alexis	Koltz	P	2017	Nebraska Gold	Baylor
Caitie	Ladd	IF	2017	So Cal Athletics - McNee/Myers	Michigan State
Jewel	Lara	3B/UT	2017	Texas Magic Gold	uncommitted
Kayla	Laukka	IF/C	2017	Georgia Elite	uncommitted
Lauren	Lee	SS	2017	Tennessee Fury	uncommitted
Rachel	Lewis	SS/2B	2017	Beverly Bandits	Northwestern
Sara	Lillie	C	2017	So Cal Athletics - McNee/Myers	Oregon State
Bayleigh	Masterson	SS/UT	2017	Tennessee Illusion	uncommitted
Hannah	Mayo	P	2017	Firecrackers HTX	Texas A&M
Riley	McCarthy	C/OF	2017	Wagner's 3n2 - Kipple	Florida Gulf Coast
Hannah	McEwen	CF	2017	San Diego Power Surge - Berndes	San Diego State
Lynsey	Meeks	3B/OF	2017	Beverly Bandits	James Madison
Madison	Miller	3B/1B/OF	2017	Texas Glory	uncommitted
Kaylee	Misiti	3B	2017	Tampa Mustangs - TJ	Central Florida
Autumn	Moffat	P/3B	2017	USA Explosion	BYU
Pat	Moore	P	2017	All American Mizuno - Walker	uncommitted
Myah	Moy	2B/UT	2017	Tampa Mustangs - TJ	uncommitted
Julia	Noskin	IF	2017	Firecrackers - Redmond	Utah
Sabrina	Nunez	OF	2017	Sorcerer Gold	Cal-Berkeley
Patty Maye	Ohanian	P	2017	Vienna Stars	Illinois
Riley	Paxson	1B	2017	Beverly Bandits	Michigan State
Randi	Phillips	P	2017	Texas Bombers Gold	Texas A&M
Kayla	Poynter	P	2017	Southern Force - Palmer	Georgia
Mackenzie	Puckett	IF	2017	Tallahassee Merchants	uncommitted
Saige	Pye	C	2017	All American Sports Academy	Georgia Tech
Abby	Robertson	SS/2B	2017	OC Batbusters - Briggs	Utah
Chloe	Romero	P/UT	2017	Firecrackers - Brashear	Texas
Amanda	Roth	3B	2017	American Freedom Gold	Ole Miss
Sam	Russ	OF	2017	Team NC Elite	North Carolina State
Alexis	Sangermano	3B	2017	Rhode Island Thunder	uncommitted
Ryleigh	Scott	MIF/CF	2017	Lids Indiana Dreams Hackertd	uncommitted
Abby	Settlemyre	SS	2018	Carolina Cardinals	North Carolina
Sydney	Sherrill	3B/SS	2017	Oklahoma Gametime Stars - Fisher	Florida State
Leah	Shipp	P	2017	Vienna Stars	Michigan State
Timberlyn	Shurbutt	UT	2017	Birmingham Thunderbolts	North Carolina State
Hannah	Smith	OF/IF	2017	GT Chockers Gold	Baylor
Karell	Sparacino	OF	2017	Shockers Gold	Oregon
Peyton	St. George	P	2017	Dixie Chicks	uncommitted
Cameron	Stanford	OF/P	2017	Georgia Impact - Stanford	Georgia Tech
Shelby	Sunseri	P	2017	Impact Gold	LSU
Samantha	Thomas	IF/OF	2017	Georgia Impact - Jeffreys	Virginia
Kaylee	Tow	OF	2017	Southern Force - Peyton	Alabama
Riley	Unzicker	OF/IF	2017	Nebraska Gold	Nebraska
Amanda	Vitalich	OF	2017	Firecrackers - Rico	uncommitted
Danielle	Watson	P	2017	Indiana Magic Gold	uncommitted
Paityn	Willoughby	IF	2017	Blaze Gold	Oregon
Kama	Woodall	P	2017	Gold Coast Hurricanes - Arcuri	North Carolina State
Lauren	Woodward	OF/IF	2017	Beverly Bandits	Penn State