2028 Middle Infielders To Watch In The New Year

All softball teams, at any level of the sport, will have a hard time winning if they are not strong up the middle. The spine, as it's sometimes called, consists of the catcher, pitcher, second baseman, shortstop and center fielder, and all five positions are critical to a team's defensive success.   Middle infielders, in particular, are involved on just about every ball put in play. Whether they're fielding grounders, turning double plays or corralling cutoff throws from the outfield, the middle infield is the anchor of the defense — and these class of 2028 prospects are as good as it gets.    Kelsey Burden is already making waves, earning MVP honors as her high school team won an Alabama state championship last spring. She is a human vacuum cleaner at shortstop, stopping any ball hit within her solar system no matter how tough a play may look. From diving catches on hot liners to her backhand side, to ground balls deep in the whole while playing in, to high choppers just out of the pitcher's reach, Burden can do it all. She had a perfect fielding percentage and turned two double plays at the Legacy Showcase Alex Wilcox Invitational over the summer, shortly after she hit her first home run with her club team. Burden's lightning-quick reflexes help her thrive both offensively and defensively. She has been to camps at Auburn, Texas and Alabama.     Michaela Landers played with Team USA's U15 team at the World Cup in Italy last summer, and was named defensive MVP of the entire tournament for her prowess at shortstop. She is also a two-time USA Softball High Performance Program participant and a two-time national champion with her club team. Landers is no slouch at the plate either — a left-handed batter, she has a short, compact swing that allows her to stay back on outside pitches and drive them into the opposite-field gap for extra bases. Her bat speed stands out on tape, and it served her well at the Alliance national tournament in July, when Landers was named Most Outstanding Player. She batted .595 with three triples, two homers, two doubles, 21 runs batted in, 12 runs scored and nine stolen bases, leading her team to the title.     Abbey Crockett has made the rounds visiting SEC schools for camps, spending time at Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky. A highly-motivated student with a 4.0 GPA, Crockett is a powerful left-handed hitter and a sure-handed defender up the middle. She has no problem catching pop flies with tricky spin and can make the off-balance throw to first after charging slowly-hit grounders. Crockett is also a heads-up baserunner, sometimes catching defenses napping and taking an extra base on the catcher's throw back to the pitcher. She hit .467 this past summer, including .524 at PGF Nationals, and her athletic exploits are not limited to the softball field. Crockett is also a volleyball player, coached by a former Florida and Nebraska standout who also attended her high school in the Birmingham area.     Ellie Nguyen has a smooth-looking swing with easily repeatable mechanics, using a slight leg kick and maintaining control of the bat all the way through the zone. She makes driving the ball over the fence look effortless, posting stellar numbers while playing up at 16U for the Scenic City tournament in June. Nguyen had a .583/.667/.833 triple slash at the event, coming off her freshman high school season in which she was named to the all-district team and won a state championship. She finished with a .481 average, .557 on-base percentage and 1.192 OPS with 14 doubles and 38 RBI, showing the ability to bunt for a hit and take an additional base with the ball in the infield.     Abrianna Carlton has off-the-charts power, whipping her bat through the strike zone and launching prodigious blasts well beyond the wall. At a tournament in College Station, Texas earlier in November, she hit .417 with a .533 on-base percentage, two home runs and five runs driven in, building on an excellent sophomore fall season of high school softball. Carlton hit for the cycle in late September, then homered again in that day's second game. Her two-run shot helped lift her team to a win in the district championship game. Carlton can play anywhere in the outfield as well as both middle infield spots, and she takes her academics seriously as well, carrying a 4.15 GPA. She has visited Kansas, Duke, Ole Miss, Iowa State and Oklahoma State, among others.

All softball teams, at any level of the sport, will have a hard time winning if they are not strong up the middle. The spine, as it's sometimes called, consists of the catcher, pitcher, second baseman, shortstop and center fielder, and all five positions are critical to a team's defensive success.