Top 2027 Prospects To Watch In Maine

Tucked away in the northeast corner of the United States, the state of Maine has just one Division I college softball program and a climate that makes playing outdoors year-round difficult. Still, the Pine Tree State produces its fair share of promising softball prospects each year.   Below, Prep Softball highlights five of the top prospects from Maine in the high school graduating class of 2027.    Addison Deroche is already being recruited nationally despite not coming from a traditional softball hotbed. She was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Maine as a freshman after giving up just one earned run in 60 innings in the pitcher's circle, striking out 146 batters and walking only nine. Deroche threw four no-hitters last spring and was a standout at the plate as well, batting .469 with four doubles, four home runs and 19 RBI in just 14 games. She also walked twice as often as she struck out and had a perfect fielding percentage, leading to her being named the top player in the state by the Portland Press Herald. Deroche has attended camps at schools such as Florida State, Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.     Emma Tripp was a two-way star as a high school freshman, batting .500 in 17 games with eight doubles, 27 runs batted in and 22 runs scored. She walked 10 times with just five strikeouts and had an OPS of 1.418 as well as 16 stolen bases. As a pitcher, Tripp was 6-2 with a 2.33 ERA in 48 innings with 80 strikeouts, holding opposing hitters to a .189 average. In her first-ever high school varsity game, Tripp was 3-for-3 with a double, a triple, a home run and a walk, and drove in six of her team's 11 runs. Tripp can also play the middle infield or a corner outfield spot when she is not pitching.     The compressed Maine high school softball season did not stop Annalise Soucy from putting up huge numbers as a freshman last spring. She batted .525 with a 1.337 OPS, scoring 16 runs in just 14 games with more walks than strikeouts. Soucy hit three triples in a game in late April, which marked her second of five three-hit games that all came in one seven-game stretch. She is also a versatile defensive player with the ability to play shortstop and in the outfield. The Maine Association of Softball Coaches named Soucy to the sophomore/freshman all-star game roster.     Brooke Shields burst onto the scene as a freshman with a 1.38 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings in the circle. She also hit .382 with a .447 on-base percentage and .529 slugging percentage, driving in more than a run per game. Shields started the season with a bang, notching 10 RBI in her first six games as part of a prolific offensive attack for the Warriors. The two-way standout did not hit for much power, but that is often a tool players develop later, and Shields still has three more high school seasons ahead of her.     Kloe Luce is a multi-sport athlete, who is also a member of Belfast's varsity basketball team. In softball, she was part of one of the best young cores in the state last year, helping Belfast win its most games in 17 years with 11 underclassmen on its roster. In addition to handling the pitching staff from behind the plate, Luce hit .404 with 18 RBI in 17 games to go along with a .987 fielding percentage. She broke up a no-hit bid with two outs in the seventh inning against Nokomis and had back-to-back three-hit games in early May.

Tucked away in the northeast corner of the United States, the state of Maine has just one Division I college softball program and a climate that makes playing outdoors year-round difficult. Still, the Pine Tree State produces its fair share of promising softball prospects each year.