Softball Recruiting

[psycHOGlogist]

The exchange between me and Hogwild8765 in another thread got me thinking that I hadn't paid too much to recruiting beyond the class of signees that we inked this past fall. Although Hogwild and I didn't agree on everything, we both know that any turnaround in the fortunes of the program is going to come from new talent coming into the squad. So I thought I'd start a thread looking at what we know about classes beyond this past fall's signees. (All ranking #s are from FloSoftball.)

Our 2016 (now freshman on campus) class was pretty big - with 9 signees and three transfers (although one of the signees left after one semester). The freshmen are: P Autumn Storms, P Caroline Hedgcock, OF Sydney Parr, IF Hailey MacKay, IF Aly Manzo, twins  (UTL) Maddie and (C) Macy Brotherton, and  IF Keely Edwards. Storms and Hedgcock were both top 100 players nationally. The transfers are P/1b Katie Warrick, IF AJ Belans, and IF Sydney Benz. (Jade Miller was the signee who left; she was a top 100 kid, too.) Parr, Edwards, and the Brothertons are in-state kids.

The incoming 2017 signees are:

P Mary Haff (#47 nationally)
IF Valerie Ventura
C Kayla Green
OF Hannah McEwen
UT Jada Dotson
IF Kennedy Ratliff
C/MIF Nicole Duncan
OF Taylor Moore
IF/3b Lindsey Malkin

Most of these folks committed to Larabee and his staff. I believe that Ventura, Malkin (who was the Colorado 5A player of the year), and maybe McEwen (?) committed to Deifel. Ratliff is the only in-state kid on the list, and she has a younger sister (Macy) who is really good, too, just fyi. Duncan is from MO, apart from Malkin and Dotson (TN), I think the rest are from CA. This has the look of a solid class. You have Haff in the top 50, and then Duncan is 103 (and had been inside the top 100 earlier on), and Ratliff is 115. Dotson is apparently pretty raw but hugely athletic and can hit the ball a mile.

The 2018 class is smaller, as of now, as far as I can tell, but it contains some very promising players.

C Taylor "Taco" Greene, #22 nationally (GA kid, plays in CA)
OF Larissa Cesena, #25 nationally (from CA)
P Megan Robertson (FL)
SS/IF Sam Torres (CA)

Cesena is a fairly recent commit and a rather big get. Greene has been committed for a while, and she's really blown up. She is from GA but has recently started playing club ball out in California (quite the commute!). I believe that Robertson and Torres both committed to the new staff, but I can't be 100% sure.

Here's the blurb from FloSoftball on Greene:
22--Taylor Greene C/UT... So Cal Athletics -- Richardson (Arkansas)
Greene, also known as "Taco" for her requested reward when younger after doing well in softball games, is following in the path of Matty Moss, the All-SEC Freshman at the Univ. of Tennessee, who would fly out from the South regularly to play for the So Cal A's. Greene is a dynamic, and energetic catcher/infielder who can also play third and shortstop because of her cannon for an arm. She is a tough, durable infielder who can hit for a high average and power and had a great fall, leading her Georgia team to a 34-1 record and the 6A State Championship. Greene was the 6A Player of the Year after hitting .475 with 12 home runs and 37 RBI for the season. She also had two-game winning home runs in the playoffs and in 2015 hit a walk-off homer in the USA Softball JO cup, which her East Cobb Bullets team would go on to win.


Here's Cesena's blurb (ignore the "uncommitted" - she committed last month).

25--Larissa Cesena OF/IF... Explosion -- Greg (uncommitted)
Cesena, who goes by the nickname "Lari," is a 5-tool player who can do just about anything on the softball field. She has legit 2.7 speed ideal for her slapping skills, but has the size and power to drive the ball out of the yard at any time and to any part of the field. She's the sparkplug that makes Greg Borzilleri's Explosion team go and is a key reason they're ranked preseason as one of the Top 5 16U teams in the FloSoftball FAB 50. Larissa runs track in high school and can play centerfielder as well as shortstop in any system. Says one coach of the SoCal junior, "She's the real deal and is about as dynamic of a player as you will find at her age." She had heavy interest of late and her stock is rising with SEC and Pac-12 caliber programs after her. Look for her to be off the market in the next month or two.

Robertson is an interesting player. There's a FloSoftball feature article on her (that I can't link b/c it's behind a paywall) that basically says she's under the radar because she's been hampered by a serious gall bladder problem, but that she has all the tools and has done very well with her new club team (one of the Birmingham teams), where she's the ace. She is currently not ranked in the top 200 for 2018 by Flo, however.

Torres is a little speedster. You can find a bunch of youtube videos on her, and most of them are her laying down beautiful bunts and beating them out, even when the other team knows she's bunting. Not ranked by Flo at this point, however.

I haven't followed softball recruiting for very long, but I'd be surprised if Arkansas has ever had commits from two top 25 kids in the same year before. We have had plenty of classes with multiple top 100 kids in them (just this year we had Storms, Hedgcock, and Miller, for example). But two top 25 prospects in the same class is pretty good -- though lots of our SEC peers do that every year, of course. Still, nice to be joining them for once.

The 2019s are:

P Jenna Bloom #58 nationally (CA)
SS Paloma Usquiano, #180 nationally (CA)
P/UT Rylin Hedgecock (FL) - added March 2017

Here's the Flo write up on Bloom:
58--Jenna Bloom P... Explosion-Greg (Arkansas)
Bloom is a poised and competitive pitcher with a 64-65 mph fastball and a nasty knuckleball that's one of the best in her class. The Huntington Beach, California sophomore also has a change-up to make her hard stuff that much more effective. She leads one of the top 16U club teams in the nation and elevates her game in key situations. Jenna led the Explosion to a 5th place finish at Boulder IDT last summer and went 3-0 at PGF Nationals to put herself on the map. She kept the momentum rolling this fall as she dominated at the PGF Ultimate Challenge leading Greg Borzilleri's team to the early season championship. Jenna pulled the trigger and committed to the Razorbacks in late August of 2016.


We have a 2020 commit - only one that I can find so far.

P Lauren Howell (MO) - estimated at the 195 player nationally by Flo, but noted to be "one to watch" for her excellent performance in HS this far. This far out, those rankings are not too informative. 

That's all I've been able to suss out at this point. One thing to note - there seem to be fewer Arkansas kids on the commit list at this point - perhaps they'll be added later? Maybe the priority is the out of state, "blue(r) chip" kids first, and then try to pick from the top in-state crop. There's no doubt we need out-of-state talent on the roster to be competitive in the SEC. However, there is a kid from Rose Bud who is ranked in the top 100 2019s committed to Missouri, and there is also the younger Ratliff sister (who is the #85 2019). I have heard that she is interested in FSU. I think the staff is doing a real nice job with recruiting the out of state kids (Deifel is from CA and played there, so it stands to reason that she'd have connections out there), but you'd certainly want to keep the home state studs home, too. (That sounds like a criticism, but I don't mean it that way. Just an observation.)

Anyone know about other recruits or commits I've missed? Thoughts?

[sw403]

Looks like we are headed in the right direction.  Thanks for the update!

[hawg1221]

I hope we win enough to build momentum and not lose these already committed players. I've said this before, but I love watching women's softball over any other women's sport, hands down. Very entertaining. I want this program to be competitive in the SEC, which means they need to be pretty good. Go hogs! I hope they have a good season.

[psycHOGlogist]

A couple quick softball recruiting updates:

We gained a commitment from Rylin Hedgecock (amazingly, there is no apparent relation between Rylin and current Hog Caroline Hedgcock - how crazy is that?), a 2019 P/UT from Gainesville, FL. She is not a nationally ranked prospect at this point, but FloSoftball said this about her last summer: "An under-the-radar player to watch is P/UT Rylin Hedgecock who has tremendous power and will eventually go high D1."

We are also clearly keeping a very close eye on Gravette's own Cally Kildow, who is the #77 player in the 2020 class, per FloSoftball. Her dad (I think - maybe an uncle?) is a travel ball coach, and both he and Cally are clearly paying a lot of attention to the Hogs these days (based on their twitter activity and follows). Here is the Flo write up on her ranking:

"77--Cally Kildow, P/MIF... DeMarini Aces (uncommitted)
Cally, who hails from Arkansas, was a key part of the Aces 14U pitching staff this year and led the team with a 1.44 ERA.  Showing she is a two-way threat, she also led the team in home runs and compiled a .450 batting average hitting in the 3-hole. When not pitching, you can find Cally playing middle infield or centerfield. Competitive and a great leader in the circle, she is built and runs very similar to Mizzou commit Callie Martin on the Aces 18U team. She was clocked at 63 mph at the Kentucky camp and has several visits set up this fall with interest from schools like Kentucky, Georgia, Oregon, Missouri and Purdue." 

This was written last September, before this current season obviously, so I'd assume that we'd have to be listed on that group of schools with interest. Obviously she's a major talent in our backyard. One to watch, along with the younger Ratliff (though honestly, it seems like Ratliff is more interested in out of state programs at this point?).

More as I learn about it.

Okay - I found a couple other Arkansas kids who are headed out of state.

Rogers star Hallie Wacaser is a 2020 OF prospect (ranked #65 by Flo) who is headed to Florida State.

Alex McManus is also a Rogers kid with a VERY high ranking (2019 #17 by Flo) who is committed to Notre Dame. Pitcher with great stuff, apparently. (Wonder if this is why we scheduled Notre Dame this year -- kidding. Sort of.)

[flippinhogmana]

Thanks Psych.  Any idea why today's game with MoSt was cancelled?

[psycHOGlogist]

Thanks Psych.  Any idea why today's game with MoSt was cancelled?

SB Twitter says "Rain in the Springfield area."

[howie76]

What do you know or what have you heard of Maggie Hicks? She is a jr at Sheridan high school and good friends of the family. I do know she's committed to the razorbacks and has played shortstop her entire life. She is a great athlete and even greater young lady.

[psycHOGlogist]

We are also clearly keeping a very close eye on Gravette's own Cally Kildow, who is the #77 player in the 2020 class, per FloSoftball. Her dad (I think - maybe an uncle?) is a travel ball coach, and both he and Cally are clearly paying a lot of attention to the Hogs these days (based on their twitter activity and follows). Here is the Flo write up on her ranking:

"77--Cally Kildow, P/MIF... DeMarini Aces (uncommitted)
Cally, who hails from Arkansas, was a key part of the Aces 14U pitching staff this year and led the team with a 1.44 ERA.  Showing she is a two-way threat, she also led the team in home runs and compiled a .450 batting average hitting in the 3-hole. When not pitching, you can find Cally playing middle infield or centerfield. Competitive and a great leader in the circle, she is built and runs very similar to Mizzou commit Callie Martin on the Aces 18U team. She was clocked at 63 mph at the Kentucky camp and has several visits set up this fall with interest from schools like Kentucky, Georgia, Oregon, Missouri and Purdue." 

This was written last September, before this current season obviously, so I'd assume that we'd have to be listed on that group of schools with interest. Obviously she's a major talent in our backyard. One to watch, along with the younger Ratliff (though honestly, it seems like Ratliff is more interested in out of state programs at this point?).

Just a quick note that we have our 2nd 2020 commit at this point, as Cally Kildow announced her commitment to the Hogs tonight! Love that we are keeping some local studs local.

https://twitter.com/callykildow/status/849071179059138560

Now, back to discussion of Coach Neighbors and the future of Hog WBB! :-)

[psycHOGlogist]

What do you know or what have you heard of Maggie Hicks? She is a jr at Sheridan high school and good friends of the family. I do know she's committed to the razorbacks and has played shortstop her entire life. She is a great athlete and even greater young lady.

Sorry, had not seen this question before. No, I don't know anything about this kid, but that probably doesn't mean anything! Hope she gets the offer she's looking for!

[flippinhogmana]

Just a quick note that we have our 2nd 2020 commit at this point, as Cally Kildow announced her commitment to the Hogs tonight! Love that we are keeping some local studs local.

https://twitter.com/callykildow/status/849071179059138560

Now, back to discussion of Coach Neighbors and the future of Hog WBB! :-)

thanks Psych for your work!  I appreciate it.