Top 2027 Prospects To Watch In Northern California

They may still be underclassmen, but the class of 2027 is already making an impact on the high school softball scene in the San Francisco Bay Area and across Northern California. College coaches will not want to miss out on these prospects when the official recruiting period opens for them next September.   See below for five of the top 2027 college softball prospects to watch from Northern California.    Cooper was named to the All-Metro Second Team by the San Francisco Chronicle after an outstanding freshman season, in which she batted .500 in 23 games with 15 doubles, 10 home runs and 37 runs batted in. She struck out just five times and had an OPS of 1.648, while making just one error in the field. Cooper hit safely in all but three games and homered five times in a four-game stretch in April, leading her team to a 20-4 record and a league championship. Top college programs are already showing interest in Cooper, as she has attended camps with the likes of LSU, Florida and Oregon.     Coleman was a two-way standout in her first high school season. She hit .481 in 21 games with 30 runs scored and 24 RBI and did not strike out a single time, finishing with a 1.239 OPS and 22 stolen bases, while making just one error. In the pitcher's circle, Coleman won all 17 of her decisions and had a 2.22 ERA in 126 1/3 innings, striking out 183 batters and issuing just 44 walks. She held opponents to a .194 batting average and had three seven-inning complete-game shutouts. Coleman had a 14-game hitting streak during the season, hitting safely in 11 straight at-bats to end that stretch.     Tsao is attracting interest from college programs like UCLA, Stanford, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington, Northwestern and Auburn, and it's easy to see why. At one of the top high school programs in all of California, Tsao slashed .421/.489/.947 as a freshman with 11 homers and 32 RBI in 29 games with just nine strikeouts. She had back-to-back multi-homer games in late April as part of a 12-game hitting streak. Tsao has power to all fields and the speed to beat out infield grounders, and is also an academic standout with a 4.12 GPA. She helped lead the Lancers to an undefeated regular season, a West Catholic Athletic League title and a Central Coast Section Open Division championship.     Viruet stars at the plate, in the circle and in the classroom. She had a 1.43 ERA in 54 innings pitched as a high school freshman, striking out 65 batters, walking just 13 and holding opponents to a .190 average. She also made just one error while playing a variety of positions. Viruet batted .462 last spring with a .723 slugging percentage, hitting 14 doubles in 23 games and striking out only six times. She had a 13-game hitting streak that lasted more than a month, highlighted by a 5-for-5 performance that included three doubles against Justin-Siena. Her team finished 11-1 in league play, atop the standings. Viruet will be a strong fit at schools with stringent academic standards, as she currently carries a 4.16 GPA.     Nichols is already a hot name in the Central Valley, hitting .593 during her freshman season with eight home runs, six triples and just four strikeouts in 28 games. She slugged 1.093 and also had 20 stolen bases, becoming the lone freshman named to the Modesto Bee's All-District team. Nichols finished the year on fire, hitting safely in her last 11 games with two multi-homer performances and multiple hits in 10 of those contests. For her club team over the summer, Nichols had three hits and drove in two runs in a quarterfinal victory to help her squad win the 14U Alliance Super Cup tournament in Colorado.

They may still be underclassmen, but the class of 2027 is already making an impact on the high school softball scene in the San Francisco Bay Area and across Northern California. College coaches will not want to miss out on these prospects when the official recruiting period opens for them next September.