Pictured above: infielder Candace Yingling, who recently committed to a Pac-12 school.

Still catching up after a super fun and busy summer of club events that took us across the nation with events ranging from California to Colorado to New York in the last few months. Cleaning out the email folders, here's some odds and ends we picked up over the last few weeks…

Baseball Stud to Softball Scholarship

We start off with a couple baseball alums who are now having success on the softball fields:

2019 shortstop Katie Goldberg of the Georgia Impact 16U National Lewis team has committed to Virginia, the first verbal for new coach Jo Hardin.



Katie became a national celebrity in 2013 when she starred as the only girl on an all-boys 12U baseball club team.

She had 11 home runs hat summer including three in one game and that caught the eye first of the local ABC affiliate in Atlanta and then of the producer of the "Katie" show starring Katie Couric, who, ironically is a Virginia alum.

You can watch the videos of both the local and national shows here:

Local Girl Shines on Boys Baseball Team

Katie Goldberg on the "Katie" show

--- Another standout baseball player turned softball star is Bailey Vannoy, who we were impressed with at PGF Nationals this summer as she helped the Texas Blaze White 16U team tie for 9th with a 4-2 record.

Bailey played high school baseball this past spring due to her high school, Cedar Park Summit Christian Academy, not having a softball team and she actually caught her brother, Cody, and even pitched!

As a freshman she earned 2nd Team All-District and, from all appearances, didn't miss a beat transitioning back into softball this summer.

Here's a video from May telling Bailey and Cody's story:

Yingling Pac-12 Bound

Infielder Candace Yingling, a 2019 infielder who is now with the Explosion -- Denio/Wilson, team committed to Cal last month and the Bears are getting a good one as Candace was a 1st Team MaxPreps Freshman All-American this year at Vista Murietta High (California).

She also earned 2nd Team California All-State Underclass honors by CalHiSports.com and as a freshman was also 1st Team All Southwestern League, All-Inland Empire, All-Valley and All-CIF Southern Section Division 1 (Large Schools 1st Team -- the only freshman chosen).

Candace had multiple offers with interest from Pac-12, Big 12 and SEC Top 25 programs.

A standout student who says, "My goals are to attend a Top 10 academically ranked business or economics school and win a College world series narrowed the field to Cal, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Dartmouth before she decided to stay in California.

Already 5-foot-10, Candace has the size and strength to make others think she is  much older than she really is.

The Class of 2019 player hit .542 with 10 home runs in her first high school season in arguably the toughest high school division in Southern California (five of the schools in the Div. had been ranked nationally No. 1 during the season) for perennial powerhouse Vista Murrieta, playing 1st base and hitting clean up by season's end.

She also broke some key freshman varsity records held by such former Vista notables as Sierra Romero (this year's NCAA Player of the Year at Michigan) and Taylor and Tatum Edwards (All-Americans at Nebraska).

Her Vista team had 12 collegiate verbals or signees including players going to UCLA, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Central Florida and others.

Says Candace, "I knew Vista would be tough because of all the great past and present players but it was the everyday competition and coaching by Head Coach Dan Torres that made me rise to the occasion. I had been a part of some highly ranked travel teams before but the talent and togetherness at Vista is incredible - at every position -- which I credit to Coach Torres -- everybody wants to play for him."

One coach said of the 2019 grad, "Candice really understands the game, making her a huge threat both offensively and defensively. She has great game awareness and moves exceptionally well to cover a lot of ground."

Bruce on the Rise

We're well underway in looking at 2020 players for our Hot 100 list to be unveiled the first week in September.

One pitcher that was impressive this summer was 20202 grad Landyn Bruce, who we profiled in May in a Rising Star feature.

From Fort Collins, Colorado, she played for Team Seattle this summer and helped her 14U team finish tied for 17th at PGF Nationals.

Landyn finished her commitment to Team Seattle and is now officially back with the SoCal Athletics - Mercado organization. 

At one game we watched in Fountain Valley, Calif., there were 8-10 college coaches watching her team play, likely there watching her especially.

Landyn received a lot of interest from multiple SEC and Pac-12 schools as well as one major Big 10 program. 

One SEC coach was quoted as saying of her, "She could throw that sick change-up in college today."

"K" Impresses This Summer

We're covering a lot of young players, but uncommitted players in the 2017 and 2018 classes are still getting looks.

One we really like is Reagen "Reggie" Kanagawa, a 2018 pitcher who played this summer for the Original-OK 16U team and then the Jersey Intensity -- Hawkins squad that finished 3rd at PGF Nationals.

Reggie also helped pitch her team to the runner-up spot at ASA 16U Gold Nationals and 3rd at Elite Select WFC, where she was a workhorse sometimes pitching 18 innings in a day.

At PGF, the pitcher lost to the South Dakota Renegades team in ITB 3-2; the Renegades then made it to the title game and lost 3-2 to the Beverly Bandits.

At the WFC, she had the OC Batbusters down 3-2 in the sixth when and infield error led to a run and at 16U ASA GOLD Nationals she contributed on offense, including a 7th inning two-run homer. She also hit two blasts at PGF Nationals.

After a stellar summer, she drew more and more attention but yesterday she pulled the trigger and committed to BYU.  The Cougars are getting an underrated pitcher who can also hit...

Voodoo Summer Ends with Six Commits

We love when coaches or those associated with teams--like team recruiting managers--send us commit lists!

For example, it's been a busy summer for the Louisiana Voodoo in getting players tied in with colleges… here are some of their more recent ones:

•    OF Sarah Vanetta 2018 (Memphis)
•    C/2B Alyssa Dean 2018 (Memphis)
•    3B/1B Madison Ciascio 2017 (Louisville)
•    P Jordan Moon 2018 (Drexel)
•    C Sarah Boquet 2019 (Missouri - Kansas City)
•    OF Gina Escude 2020 (Southeastern University)

Coaches' Comments

And we also love it when coaches reach out to us to update or provide insights into players… here are two recent ones we found interesting and of value to pass on:

--- "Just wanted to reach out to you as we are very excited for one of our top prospects in North Texas with the Firecrackers. Hailey Schmaltz is a 5-foot-11, 2020 C/3B who just verbally committed to play for Coach Kristi Fox at Texas-Arlington."

She has a cannon for an arm, a great game IQ and hits for power. She will be an incoming freshman but is home schooled. Hailey is a very intelligent young lady and has a very strong work ethic. Just wanted to pass along. Good day!"
--- Steve Evridge, Head Coach - Firecrackers DFW - Evridge  

---  "I wanted to reach out to you and let you know we have a special young lady here at Glencoe High in Hillsboro, Oregon in Morgan DeBord who is about to be thrown onto the softball scene in a big way."

"At our Oregon Thunder 16 Gold tryouts Sunday she ran a 2.41 and a 2.45 from home to first.  At the Fastpitch NW event, she ran a 2.44 and 2.50 home to first. She plays SS/OF for me both on my High School team and Summer team."

"Morgan played a major role in helping our high school team take 2nd place in the 6A Oregon State Championships down in Corvallis at the Oregon State Softball Complex.  She hit .441 and had 35 steals in 30 games."

"She also is an amazing volleyball player and plays at a national level."
--- Jason Eastman, Head Coach - Oregon Thunder 16 Gold, Glencoe High

***

Finally, it's always great to see the sport growing as resources are added to help players get better.

For example, Northeast Ohio is getting a new state-of-the-art training facility.

Leffew Fastpitch has been training pitchers for over 20 years combined with Dave Leffew - one of the most winning high school coaches in the state of Ohio -- starting lessons in his home.

Six years ago his daughter, Amie O'Brien opened a small facility with just two cages. The father-daughter duo have had great success and graduated some of the best pitchers the state has seen and currently have over 40 pitchers playing at the Division I, II, and III college levels.

More recently, they also have coached recruits like Riley Frizell (Missouri) and Lauren Shaw (Iowa).

Next month, Amie is opening a 19,250 square foot facility to expand the business to cater to all aspects of the game: hitting, fielding, catching, and, of course pitching.

The facility will have nine cages and nine "practice stalls" (10 x 10 spaces for tee or drill work). In addition, the trainers will be equipped with bio-mechanical evaluation equipment (dart fish video analysis and force plate technology).

Says Amie, "This is the only strictly softball training facility of its kind in all of Northern Ohio, possibly the whole state and bordering states."

Good luck to the new facility and continued success in helping develop the next generation of softball talent in the Buckeye State and Midwest!