This is Brentt Eads of Line Drive Softball…

This week starts the Line Drive Media HOT 100 countdown to No. 1 as we continue into Weed 2 with the 50-41 range tomorrow (Monday, Aug. 31).

One of the greats I’ve been privileged to cover was Amanda Lorenz who’s won a room full of personal awards and team championships at multiple levels… here’s a look at some of the title’s he’s been part of:

• She won three PGF National Championships (2012, 2014 & 2015) when playing for the OC Batbusters coached by Mike Stith,
• A the University of Florida, Amanda won three SEC regular season championships (2016, ’17 and ’18) and back-to-back SEC Tourney championships (2018, ’19),
• Amanda started her pro career in the National Pro Fastpitch League (NPF) winning the Cowles Cup title,
• In 2022, she helped Team USA win Gold at the World Games
• Two years ago (2024), the California native won the 2024 Athletes Unlimited Championship Season individual title.

Today, Amanda is playing for the Texas Volts in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) and is a member of the United States women’s national softball team.

Back when Amanda was playing with the Batbusters and starring at Moorpark (Calif.) High (where she was a four-time Cal-Hi Sports 1^st Team All-State selection), I caught up with her in January of 2014 at a Surf City Showcase tournament in Southern California when she was playing with her Batbusters team.

There, I told Amanda that she’d be the #1 player in the Class of 2015 in the FloSoftball HOT 100 rankings, which was the predecessor of today’s Line Drive HOT 100.

The SoCal standout also blogged for me when she was in high school and below you can read what she wrote back then about being named the No. 1 player in the Class of 2015.

That 2015 class, by the way, was loaded with talent and the Top 10 included:

• 1 – Amanda Lorenz
• 2 – Kelly Barnhill
• 3 – Sydney Romero
• 4 – Shay Knighten
• 5 – Taylor McQuillin
• 6 – Taryn Alvelo
• 8 – Alyssa Palomino
• 9 – Kenzi Maguire
• 10 – Rachel Garcia

Here’s the video of Amanda I shot from January 2014 when she was first told she’d be the #1 player in the Class of 2015:

*****

The former Florida All-American also blogged for me that month and shared what being recognized as the top player in her class at that time meant to her.

Amanda Lorenz Blog 

Written on Jan. 13, 2014

First of all, I just wanted to say how honored I am to have been recognized as number one.

The girls in my class are unbelievably talented and I am just thankful to be in the same category as them. It’s a great feeling to know my hard work is paying off, but I will never stop working hard!

Although getting awards and recognition is amazing, all it does is add pressure for me to increase my performance so I can live up to the honors!

I am a perfectionist and I am never satisfied unless I had a perfect game. Everyone has room for improvement no matter what.

I feel that athletes are either born with self-motivation or not. Thankfully, I am very self-motivated. I always to want to get better. Being ranked number one only makes other girls work harder to pass me.

I am so honored to have been ranked number one, but nothing will change about my game. I am still going to want to get better every day, still going to get mad about certain at-bats and still going to keep my goals as high as possible.

I believe that all things can happen through hard work and that is exactly what I plan on doing for the rest of my life.

I won’t be satisfied until I have fulfilled all of my dreams and I have a very long way to go.

— Amanda Lorenz