Top 2029 Prospects To Watch In New Hampshire

It may be small, mostly rural, and cold for much of the year, but New Hampshire has a proud legacy of producing college-ready softball talent.   New England is home to a number of consistently strong Division I college programs, and the Granite State's high school and club teams often populate those programs with stars in the making. In 2024, there were 10 players from New Hampshire playing Division I softball — twice as many as its neighbors, Vermont and Maine, combined. The class of 2029 is hoping to continue that pipeline, with several strong recruits making their cases already.   Below, Prep Softball highlights three 2029 prospects to watch in New Hampshire.    [player_tooltip player_id='149238' first='Lexey' last='Boucher'] may attend Marshwood High School in Maine, but she lives just across the Salmon Falls River in Rollinsford, New Hampshire. She has been making waves with Rip City USA going back to the 10U level, when she threw a five-inning no-hitter with 11 strikeouts in the fall of 2021. A two-way player who plays third base when she's not in the pitcher's circle, Boucher has outstanding defensive instincts, faking throws to bait runners into trying to advance and instead running themselves into easy outs. She reacts quickly to hard-hit grounders and has a rifle for a throwing arm, whipping the ball all the way across the infield from a knee if she has to. Boucher also has plenty of pop in her bat and can make solid contact with any pitch, including some well below the strike zone. Her fastball reached 60 miles per hour last spring, and she takes her academics seriously as well, joining the National Junior Honor Society for her eighth grade year.     A member of the Great Britain 18 national team, [player_tooltip player_id='152252' first='Kora' last='Douglass'] excels at all parts of the game. She uses a curveball and changeup to make opposite-handed hitters look silly, and she fields her position well, covering home plate on wild pitches and using her alertness at first base and in the outfield. Douglass is a well-rounded player who bats from the right side and hit .419 with a 1.062 OPS in the 2024-25 season, and she has continued improving since then. She was 5-for-10 with an opposite-field home run at the New England Fall Finest Showcase in October, and has kept up her string of strong performances against teams from outside the Northeast. Douglass uses a significant speed difference between her fastball and changeup to keep batters on their toes, and she represented Great Britain at the 18U European Championships in Spain last July. She carries a 4.0 GPA, with several interests and activities away from the softball field.     Ashley Adrien is a lefty catcher who can slap hit and run well, making her a rare breed even at the youth level, and an excellent defensive outfielder when she is not behind the plate. She wrapped up an impressive fall season at the Clearwater Fall Classic and the Diamond 9 Coastal Showcase, posting a .552 batting average, beating out soft infield dribblers and firing the ball back to the infield to complete a double play with an outfield assist. Adrien has outstanding bat control skills and is a very good bunter, and as a backstop, she will leap out of her crouch to pounce on balls hit in front of the plate. Her throwing arm serves her well no matter what position she is playing, and her bat rarely takes a day off — she had 16 hits in eight games at a tournament last summer.

It may be small, mostly rural, and cold for much of the year, but New Hampshire has a proud legacy of producing college-ready softball talent.