We finish our look at the updated Hot 100 after spotlighting 10 prospects each day over the last two weeks counting down from 100 to No. 1.

Today we announce the Top 10 of the 2018 class--be sure to check out our profile of the No. 1 player tomorrow (Saturday, December 24) and next week look for our "Next In (101-200)" list as well as the Top College Rankings for the '18 class.

Since we first released the 2018 Hot 100 about 18 months, there have been a lot of changes as players have emerged as nationally prominent recruits.  In fact, 43 of the players in this updated list are new!

These junior standouts were chosen based on input and feedback from college and club coaches who've seen them play across the nation. 

Criteria for choosing and ranking the players including performances at the club and high school levels and projecting how they will play at the collegiate level. 

Today we feature players No. 10 to 1 with standouts from Arizona, California (4), Georgia, New Jersey, Texas (2) and West Virginia.

10--Brittany Allen SS/3B… Explosion - Denio/Wilson (Florida)
Brittany is one of the most feared power hitters in the country in any class and can swing the bat with power to all fields. She currently leads her club team in doubles and walks while ranking second in hits. Brittany is also an excellent two-strike hitter and leads the Explosion in this category and only struck out three times all fall facing many of the top pitchers in the country. The Corona, California junior leads by example and is a great team player and leader in the dugout. Even better this year is her defensive play at third base. This fall, her fielding percentage was .970 as she's made only two errors in 67 chances playing the hot corner at the elite level.  At the high school level, she was flawless in the field, making zero errors in 2016. Adding to her all-around game is her intangibles and leadership on and off the field.  Said one coach, "Brittany's maturity as a person and as a player has truly developed her into a Top 10 player in her class and in the country."

9--Grace Green 3B/P… Batbusters -- Gomes (Oklahoma)
Grace is a great all-around athlete who does everything at a high level, from hitting to pitching to defense. She made a national splash at the prestigious OnDeck West Coast Camp in 2013 when she dominated the testing drills including the 10 and 20-yard dashes revealing her excellent quickness and foot speed. The NorCal standout also impressed with her overhand throw and bat speeds and soon had many Top 25 programs after her including most of the Pac-12. As a pitcher Grace throws in the low-to-mid 60's and has a dropball, screw and rise she can throw for strikes. Offensively, she combines power and speed to hit for a high average and a high on-base percentage. Her stick is one of the best in the nation and this year for her Oakdale, California high school she batted .488 with 30 RBI, eight triples and five home runs with a .531 on-base percentage, a .963 on-base percentage and a 1.494 OPS. Her athletic DNA comes in an unique way for a softball player: her parents have rodeo backgrounds and her father, Daniel, qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 10 times and won the Timed Event championship three times, the last one in 2013. 

8--Grace Fagan P… Birmingham Thunderbolts (Mississippi State)
Grace has been playing 18U level ball since she was 13 and over the last year has emerged as one of the most promising pitchers in the nation at any age. She's a 6-foot-1 lefty who throws hard stuff in the mid-60's complemented with a drop, rise, curve screw and drop curve but her array of change-ups--including a drop and split finger--is nasty and makes her fastball look like it comes in at 70 mph. One coach said of Grace, "She keeps batters off-balance as well as any pitcher I've seen. The Swedesboro, New Jersey junior caught fire this summer at PGF Nationals playing for the Birmingham Thunderbolts and threw more than 90 percent of the team's innings to help lead the Bolts 16U team to a 3rd place finish. Grace was tops in ERA at PGF of all the pitchers and showed her toughness and durability by throwing 27 innings on the last day. The exciting part of Grace's future though is she has such a high ceiling and, according to one high-level coach, "She hasn't reached 75 percent of her potential yet; once Grace gets in a college weight room I see her as an All-SEC, maybe All-American, level pitcher."

7--Megan Faraimo P/1B… Corona Angels (UCLA)
Megan has been one of the top pitchers in the 2018 class since leading the Corona Angels 14U team to a PGF Nationals title in 2014. She carried the team on her back and willed them to win so much that Coach Marty Tyson gave her the championship trophy. Megan has continued her excellence in the circle and made the huge jump from 14U to 18U in 2015 to become the ace of the powerful Angels Gold team. She is a workhorse who is a true power pitcher but what makes her so tough is the movement on her pitches that, even when batters know what's coming, makes it tough to hit. Despite missing three weeks with a sprained ankle this past high school season, Megan still earned 1st Team All-State Underclass honors by CalHiSports.com and was a 1st Team All-San Diego Section pick as she went 10-2 in the circle with a 0.22 ERA and 152 K's in 93 2/3rd innings while hitting .433 and driving 28 RBI in 25 games. An excellent two-sport athlete, Megan is also a standout volleyball player this fall and helped her school win its fifth Div. II California Div. II state championship and second in three years leading the team with 13 kills in the title game.

6--Montana Fouts P… Beverly Bandits (Alabama)
Montana was a FloSoftball 1st Team All-American in 2016 and the MaxPreps Sophomore of the Year as well as the West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year after putting up video game-like numbers. The 6-foot-1 right-handed pitcher went 33-2 with a 0.48 ERA with 479 strikeouts in 221 innings and threw 14 no-hitters and nine perfect games. Offensively, Montana was a force as well batting .446 with 50 RBI and a .520 on-base percentage in 39 games. She has been throwing in the high 60's for a few years know going back to 2014 when she was clocked at 66 mph at an OnDeck camp. Later in the year she hit 68 mph on the gun and before long she had almost every major Power 5 school knocking on her door before she committed to the Rolling Tide on Halloween of that year. Montana has all the physical tools including a smooth throwing motion, but what's made her an elite franchise-type pitcher is her mastery of both sides of the plate. She's very difficult to square up on because she hits her spots consistently. Add to the package a great stick and excellent defensive skills as a pitcher and first baseman and you have a player that has the potential to be one of the top pitchers in the game at every level she plays at.

5--Makinzy Herzog OF/UT… Texas Bombers (Florida State)
One high-level coach, when asked who he would pick first to build a team around, mentioned Makinzy because she is a complete athlete who can play every position including pitcher at an elite level. She was the Texas District 23-5A Co-Player of the Year after leading her Missouri City, Texas team to a 2nd place in district and fifth consecutive regional quarterfinal as she batted .610 with 20 steals in 14 league games and also compiled a 0.99 ERA with a pair of no-hitters in district play. Makinzy is one of the fastest players in the Lone Star State and can steal bases at will. She is a complete athlete and from a saber metrics perspective it would be tough to find a player in the country with better numbers that help her team win. A true triple threat from the left side who has plus power, she can play the small and long ball game and defenses struggle as to where to play her because she can bunt, slap or swing away and hit a home run. Defensively, she's an ideal centerfielder because she covers so much ground and has a gun for an arm. As a pitcher she throws in the mid-60's and has a great change to go with a tough riseball. Because of her all-around abilities, she's been compared to another great Texan, Kristen Shortridge, who played at LSU.

4--Grace Lyons IF… Firecrackers -- Rico (Oklahoma)
Watch Grace on video and you are amazed at her defensive skills up the middle as one of the top infielders in the country. Her glove-to-hand transition is so fast you can't see the ball once she vaccums it up but she is strong enough to be a potential corner at Oklahoma. She has as good of hands a you're going to see, but she's more of a power player. Grace comes from a baseball background and because her father was in the military and has flown F-16's for the Air Force for over 20 years, she has moved around the country and received a lot of top baseball training enhancing her skills and mechanics including lessons with former MLB All-Star shortstop Damion Easley. After emerging as a national prospect with Jeff Hinkle's Firecrackers AZ team, she's moved to the Firecrackers coached by Tony Rico which won PGF 18U Nationals this summer. Grace won't miss a beat playing with a title winning team; she has a high level presence and she's the type that you notice right away when you first walk up to the field.  The Phoenix, Ariona junior--who earned 1st Team All-Div. I honors this year--is tough to miss as she's going to do something special every game.  What separates Grace from everyone else is her physical gifts and professional training which makes her one of the top pre-college prospects right now.  Not surprisingly, her athleticism rolls over to over sports and she's been a standout basketball player as well.

3--Ally Shipman C… So Cal Choppers -- Fausett (Tennessee)
Ally is a player who has been forced to live up to the expectations of her sister Maddi Shipman, who has been one of the best softball players in the world, first at the Univ. of Tennessee and now in the NPF with the USSSA Pride and Scrap Yard Dawgs. Despite the pressure of playing in such a huge sibling shadow, Ally has more than lived up to expectations. She has continuously played up age-wise in the Chopper organization and joined the nationally prominent 18U team her freshman year where she immediately became an impact player. As a sophomore, Ally was a force in the middle of the line-up for the Choppers in their 3rd place finish at PGF Nationals. At the high school level she catches fellow 2018 Hot 100 player Shea O'Leary at Valencia (Calif.) High and hit .447 with 36 RBI, 31 runs, seven homers with a 1.387 OPS to be named All-CIF Southern Section Div. I--the highest level of play in Southern California. Her father, Bill, is a coach in the Choppers organization and Ally has benefited from receiving great mentoring and instruction not just from her All-Word sister, but from her father--one of the top club minds in the country. Mentally years ahead of her peers in terms of knowing on-field strategy and anticipating plays, Ally also has all the physical and softball skills to be an All-American catcher as she can call games, has a strong arm, blocks and frames at an elite level and has the work ethic to continue to elevate her game even higher. 

2--Skylar Wallace SS… Georgia Impact -- Lewis (Alabama)
When surveying coaches--both club and college--across the country, especially in the East, no name came up more when talking position players than Skylar Wallace. A 2nd Team FloSoftball All-American after her freshman, she has exploded onto the national scene as arguably the top athlete in the 2018 class. Skylar ran a 2.61 home-to-first at the USA Elite Select 30 and, as a track athlete, has great form and mechanics in utilizing her speed and athleticism all over the field, be it going deep into the hole at short or exploding out of the box as a lefty who can drop down a bunt of drive the ball into the gap. A great story of her athleticism and toughness came out of the summer of 2014 when Skylar fractured her right hand two weeks before PGF Nationals and was unable to bat because of the pain. However, she switched over to the right side--which she hadn't done in over two years--and was able to not only play with the pain, but led the team in batting average.  Skylar earned 1st Team All-State honors again this year, at the Class 8A level this fall. In the fall of 2014 she toured most of the SEC schools along with Oklahoma and Ohio State before deciding to play for Patrick Murphy and the Tide.

1--Brooke Vestal P/UT… Firecrackers -- Rico (Oklahoma)
And then there is No. 1… Since the first 2018 Hot 100 list was launched in the spring of 2015, Brooke has lived up to the honor--and pressure--of being ranked #1 on that list. It's hard to argue with the success she's had in that time, which included earning 1st Team FloSoftball All-American honors this spring as a multi-purpose player and then a few months later led the Tony Rico-coached Firecrackers to the PGF 18U National Championship.  Brooke has become an even more accomplished player than a year and a half ago as she continues to develop emotionally and mentally. Said one coach, "Brooke's mental development of the game has been a key in helping her achieve so much. She's right on track in where she is expected to go as a franchise player and No. 1 Hot 100 pick."  A two-sport standout who also excels in volleyball and was all-district in that sport, Brooke repeated as a 6A All-State pick on the field and the District 29-4A Co-MVP after going 25-8 with a 1.73 ERA and 346 Ks in 211 innings in 2016. The New Braunfels, Texas junior threw three no-hitters in the playoffs and also hit .432 with 10 home runs and 41 RBI. Brooke has been so good so long that she has had to live under the spotlight of analysis and high expectations from everyone in the club space and she has thrived under the pressure. Moving to the Firecrackers early in the summer, she had to learn to adjust to the high standards of Coach Rob Weil, one of the top pitching and overall coaches in the game, along with the championship level of play expected by head coach Tony Rico. Brooke stayed in California over the summer and worked on her craft, not just in the physical approach but in how to approach and battle every pitch as she will have to do at the college level. The Texas pitcher, who was on the initial list of those invited to the USA Junior Women's National Team tryout, has long had the physical tools being a 6-foot-1 two-sport standout with long levels and dominating stuff, but when she mastered control of how to deal with in-game stresses and pressures, she was able to carry the Firecrackers to a championship. Coach Rico says what he will remember most about Brooke at Nationals is how she would take a deep breath, collect and calm herself before each pitch and stay under control no matter the situation. Late in the game in the PGF National Championship, Brooke bobbled a come-backer that loaded the bases with one out and her team clinging to a one-run lead. She reset herself, pitched out of the jam and went on to win the game--showing the maturity of a seasoned player who has mastered not just her physical abilities, but the intangibles including leadership that it takes to be a champion. She truly took her game to a whole new level and that's why Brooke Vestal is the No. 1 player in the 2018 Hot 100.

Riseball: Brooke Vestal Episode One
Riseball: Brooke Vestal Episode Two

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