Underrated Players Making Major Noise In Summer Ball

Summer is the peak of travel softball season, with prospects traveling all over the country to play in tournaments and attract attention from college coaches. These five players have already made considerable improvements over the first few weeks of this summer and are sure to remain on coaches' radars going forward.   From powerful sluggers to speedy slappers to flamethrowers in the circle, Prep Softball highlights underrated players making major noise with their club teams this summer.    Brooklyn Mason is coming off a stellar sophomore high school season, with a .426/.552/.706 triple slash in 21 games to go along with four triples, 42 runs scored, 16 walks and just nine strikeouts. She also was a perfect 24-for-24 on stolen base attempts and made major improvements defensively, and she has only kept getting better throughout the summer. Mason has a clean uppercut swing that generates home run power to the middle of the field, and she does an excellent job pulling her hands in to yank pitches on the inside edge to left field. Her speed is what makes Mason a complete offensive player, with the ability to steal third base just as easily as second. She is a versatile defender in both the infield and outfield—no doubt her outfield experience helps her charge in to catch high-topspin pop flies at second base. Mason is staying close to home this summer, with tournaments in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.     Sienna Soto missed nearly a month early in the summer with an injury and to attend prospect camps, but returned better than ever in early July, hitting a home run in her first at-bat back at a prestigious tournament in Colorado. She faces some of the top competition in the country with both her high school and travel ball teams, coming from Southern California, and her raw power can measure up to anyone's. When pitchers make mistakes in the middle of the strike zone, Soto rarely misses the barrel. She has been to camps at North Carolina and Columbia in the last month, and while she can play all over the diamond and is most comfortable as a middle infielder, she is also an outstanding defender at first base. Soto is also social media savvy and markets herself well, so she should have no problem getting noticed by college coaches come the fall.     Iowa regularly produces a steady stream of high-level talent given its size and climate, and Emma Stupp looks like another star in the making. As a high school freshman in 2024, she slashed .449/.530/.847 with 10 home runs, nine doubles and 47 RBI en route to a first-team all-conference selection. Stupp is tall and strong, and when she gets a pitch up in the zone, it seldom stays in the ballpark. She has struck fear into opponents for several years, to the point where she has been intentionally walked even with first base occupied. Stupp is also immensely flexible for a player her size and can stretch for throws at first base. She is comfortable at either corner infield spot when she is not pitching. Stupp hit .429 at the S&C Minnesota Summer Showcase and .556 in her final spring tournament in May.     Baylie Ciremele plays in the same travel ball organization as Soto, and just like Soto, she has been tearing it up on the club circuit. The speedy slapper batted .479 in her freshman high school season with four home runs, more than twice as many walks as strikeouts and 40 runs scored in 25 games to go along with 35 stolen bases. Ciremele is a multi-sport athlete who also competes in track and field, soccer and flag football. Her exit velocity has topped out at 64.5 miles per hour, impressive for a slapper at her age, and her arm has been clocked at 63.7 miles per hour overhand. Ciremele has been to camps at Arizona, Liberty and Grand Canyon, and may find herself in the leadoff spot at the college level within a few years.     Olivia Doty is as consistent as it gets in the cage, hitting line drives on nearly every pitch she sees off the screen in front of the tosser or to the corner of the cage on her pull side. That consistency is just as clear in games, where she succeeds against right-handers and left-handers alike with extra-base power. And she is just as capable in the pitcher's circle, using her 5-foot, 10-inch frame to generate good extension and field her position well. Her off-speed drop ball is an effective pitch, with batters frequently swinging out in front and on top of it, and she can also beat hitters on her curveball that has late, sharp horizontal break. And Doty still has three more years to continue her development before making her way to the college ranks.

Summer is the peak of travel softball season, with prospects traveling all over the country to play in tournaments and attract attention from college coaches. These five players have already made considerable improvements over the first few weeks of this summer and are sure to remain on coaches' radars going forward.