“I can truly say this past summer was the best I have ever had,” says 2015 outfielder Amanda Lorenz as she looks back over her 2013 softball experiences.

Amanda, a centerfielder from Moorpark (Calif.) High, has committed to Florida and will be one of the top rated players on the upcoming Hot 100 juniors list.

She is such a dangerous leadoff hitter that some teams walked her to lead off games rather than risk the damage she can do with her bat!

In 2013, Amanda won several national, state and local honors at the high school level including MaxPreps Underclass All-American, CalHiSports.com All-State and Ventura County Star Player of the Year after batting .626 with 17 home runs and compiling a spectacular 1.377 slugging percentage.

 In 96 at-bats, she only struck out once and her sweet swing has some saying it’s one of the best batting strokes to ever come out of Southern California.

Amanda plays for the OC Batbusters and helped lead Team Mizuno-Stith to the PGF 18U National Championship game this past summer.  In 2012, she was part of the 16U team that won the PGF national title.

Click here to read Amanda’s earlier blogs and those from our other outstanding bloggers!

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As this year comes to an end, I realize there was some amazing times this year. I finished my sophomore year and had the most memorable softball summer of my life.

I am very blessed to be on a very talented team with very talented teammates. But this summer was unlike any other!

I had so much fun with our team as we competed in many tournaments in So Cal, but we also traveled to New Jersey and Colorado.

In New Jersey, we bonded a lot as a team and ended up winning the tournament. We had one day off until we left for Colorado so we got to go to New York City all day! It was so much fun.

We then traveled to Colorado where we ended up winning the Independence Day tournament as well.

The summer flew by, and suddenly we were down to our last tournament with our amazing seniors. Hannah Flippen (Utah), Sashell Palacios (Arizona State), Justine McLean (Florida), Delaney Spaulding (UCLA), and Madison Labshere (Virginia) were the backbone of our team.

Going through PGF, we lost a big game to Texas Glory and we were placed in the loser’s bracket. The day before the championship, we played five games to earn our spot in the championship game.

Unfortunately, we lost in the championship to the talented So Cal Athletics, but that wasn’t the only thing we lost. We also lost our seniors as they were now heading off to college.

I can truly say this past summer was the best I have ever had. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to play with those girls and cannot wait to watch them compete on TV this year.

I am sad to see this year end, but I am extremely excited to see what 2014 has to offer!

Happy holidays!

Til next time,

Amanda