Climbing The Charts: Fast-Rising Prospects Making Noise

Countless high school softball players across the nation have the same goal: to make some noise on the field and get their names out to college coaches who they dream of one day playing for. That is, of course, easier said than done, especially with all the youth softball talent around the country today. However, if you look closely enough, you will find players who have cracked the code.   Below, Prep Softball highlights five fast-rising college softball prospects who are making noise on the field this year.    There are elite softball players everywhere you look in California, but Brooklyn Talbot is quickly becoming a household name in the San Francisco Bay Area. After finishing with a combined record of 2-28 in their past two seasons, Talbot arrived this year as a freshman for the Armijo Royals and made a giant impact. She finished the season with a .765 batting average, 46 RBIs, 40 runs scored, 12 doubles, five home runs, and an astounding on-base percentage of .812. And she accomplished all of this in only 15 games. The Royals finished their season with an overall record of 15-2 and an appearance in the postseason for the first time in over 10 years. Talbot, meanwhile, completed her season ranked third among all freshmen in the nation in batting average and on-base percentage. With this kind of performance in 15 games, imagine what she can do in a schedule with 30 or 40.     About 25 miles north of Houston is Spring, Texas, home of Legacy The School of Sport Sciences and the hot-hitting sophomore Oriana Hamlett. In her freshman season, she led the Titans in batting average (.688), on-base percentage (.746), home runs (10), fielding percentage (.968), runs (37), hits (33), RBIs (44), slugging percentage (1.917), and triples (12). Similar to California, there is top-level softball talent nearly everywhere you look in Texas, but Hamlett finished first among all freshmen in the state in slugging percentage, tied for second in home runs, third in batting average, and fourth in on-base percentage. She has speed, plenty of power, and almost always puts the ball in play. Add in her 13 assists on the field this past season, and you have a player who truly excels in all facets of the game.     Ava Ruckle took her successful freshman season with the Northwest Area Rangers and turned it up a notch (or 20) in a monster sophomore campaign. The Pennsylvania product finished her high school season with a .731 batting average to go along with 44 runs scored, 34 RBIs, seven doubles, seven home runs, and an on-base percentage of .785. To put her transformation into perspective, for her freshman season, she had a base hit in 32% of her plate appearances. In her sophomore season, she increased that total to 58%. While playing for the Stripes and Strikes this summer, she has kept up her hitting ways with 24 hits, five triples, and 18 RBIs in just over a month of action at the time of this writing. Her stock is rising at just the right time.     It's hard to put together a more eye-popping freshman season than AJ Jarzab did for the Hickory Hornets. To start with, she led all freshmen in the nation with a 0.48 ERA. She allowed only six earned runs in 86.2 innings pitched, held batters to a .099 batting average, collected 189 strikeouts, and allowed only nine walks. She managed to strike out over 55% of the batters she faced. On April 16 against the Jamestown Muskies, she threw a no-hitter with 20 strikeouts. And then just over a month later, in her postseason debut, she threw a complete game, one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts. If that's not impressive enough, she also led the Hornets in batting average (.375), on-base percentage (.561), home runs (4), and slugging percentage (.725). There is making a statement, and then there's this kind of entrance.     Miley Stimpson can do pretty much everything on a softball field and excel at it. For the past two seasons at West Central, she has proved that, and then some. After a stellar freshman year, in which she hit for a .468 batting average and had eight wins in the circle with a 1.97 ERA, she realized she could do even better. In her sophomore season, she went 17-2 in the circle with a 0.60 ERA and 168 strikeouts. She didn't forget about hitting either, as she finished with a .400 batting average, 46 hits, 38 RBIs, six doubles, and four home runs. Hitters simply cannot lay off her rise ball, and she is proficient at locating her pitches using all quadrants of the plate. She is an athlete who can carry a team.

Countless high school softball players across the nation have the same goal: to make some noise on the field and get their names out to college coaches who they dream of one day playing for. That is, of course, easier said than done, especially with all the youth softball talent around the country today. However, if you look closely enough, you will find players who have cracked the code.