College Coaches Galore

Day 1 at the Clearwater Fall Classic on Friday was a big success… so how do you make it bigger on Day 2?

Answer: add a bazillion D1 college coaches.

OK, that’s an exaggeration as it was only a billion but it seemed like most of the Who’s Who of the college softball fraternity was in Clearwater on Saturday.

There were multiple pages of coach sign-ins… here’s a couple of them:

Of course there were the in-state programs like Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida International, etc., but there were ones from Power 4 programs all over—from Virginia to Clemson, Ohio State to Texas Tech, UCLA to Oregon.

But, if you followed the national news on Friday, there was a major FAA situation where air traffic was grounded for hours everywhere… and this also had a big impact for the softball community.

Several programs including LSU, Mississippi State and South Carolina had to DRIVE to get to the Clearwater Fall Classic and, as two assistants for the Gamecocks told me they did a drive of eight hours to make it earlier today.

Several head and assistants, including Karen Weekley of Tennessee, arrived halfway through Saturday’s action and we heard, anecdotally, that some programs such as Oregon State were trying to make it and just couldn’t because of suspended flights.

Bizarre, for sure.

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Tremendous Winning Streak Ended… But Is That a Bad Thing?

The Game of the Day was a significant afternoon match-up between two 18U powers—the Hotshots versus OC Batbusters.

What made it impactful was that the Nathan Nelson-led Texas-based Hotshots had not lost all fall, compiling a 28-0 record.

Two of those wins were over the very same Batbusters team that was in the opposing dugout and you know that Mike Stith’s team wanted to end that streak today… and it did.

The Batbusters produced a strong effort, taking the 2pm game at the impressive Sprowls Horizon Sports Complex by a score of 9-3.

So when can you win by losing?

You had the sense that not having to worry about the winning streak anymore to end of the fall season would be a relief and allow the deep and talented Hotshots to just play softball.

Of course, the team still has to go out on Sunday and finish with games against two other of the best 18U teams in the national, the Birmingham Thunderbolts and the Athletics Mercado-Smith powerhouses.

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Impressive 18U’s This Weekend

From the “It’s Way Too Early To Predict Favorites For Next Summer, But We’ll Do It Anyways” category, here would be our favorites:

* Alliance Nationals: Texas Bombers

* PGF Nationals: (tie): Athletics Mercado-Smith & Hotshots – Nelson

Realistically, that’s how it stands right now and there are many programs that have the coaching expertise and player talent to get it done next summer as needed including the Batbusters, Wow Factor, Texas Blaze, etc.

So why that trio of teams initially ID’d? Easy answer: depth.

Those three can come at you with waves of pitching, offense and defense.

Take the Bombers, for instance. This summer Scott Smith’s pitching corps has compiled a staff ERA of 0.90.

In the team’s four wins, only four runs have been given up. Just FOUR and those came in two games as the other two were shutouts! And the bats have been equally impressive with 37 runs scored to provide an incredible 33 run differential… and these are against quality teams.

One of the key reasons is 2027 pitcher Gisela Boitmann, who’s headed to Auburn.

I had the opportunity to interview Gisela with Coach Smith… here’s what they had to say:

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Hotshots Tremendous Defense

And the Hotshots, in one game had four home runs including a grand slam by Bella Nicholson (Central Florida), along with ones by Baileigh Taylor (Mississippi State), Daniella Villareal (Stanford) and Hunter Quentel (Oklahoma State).

Those last two were back to back… here’s Daniella being received at home plate by her teammates:

Then there was the Hotshots’s amazing defense.

In the loss to the Batbusters, the defense was incredible. Quentel, playing right field, made a sprinting catch to the foul line and over the fence.

Then, in the same inning, Skylar Night (Texas Tech) made the Defensive Play of the Day when she made a lateral diving catch in centerfield and that was followed by a diving out in the infield by Taylor.

If defense wins championships, then watch out for the Hotshots—their 28-game winning streak this fall wasn’t by luck.

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Athletics Mercado-Smith Rolls On

Speaking of dominating, Dave Mercado and Mark Smith’s 18U team is just suffocating with its pitching and explosive with its offensive onslaught.

In its four wins so far, the pitching runs allowed has been 1, 3, 1 and 1 while the offensive has scored 13, 8, 3 and 9 runs—which equates to a 33 run differential.

The tightest game of the four wins came today in a 3-1 win over Unity and that was sealed by a two run RBI triple by Hayden Huerta… here’s a clip of that key hit by the ASU bound player:

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Many Eyes on 2029 & ’31 Rising Stars

I did get to watch quite a bit of 16U action on Saturday as well and here’s a name to remember from the 2029 class: pitcher/third baseman Hattie McCumber of Arizona Rising – Appel/Kobasew.

In her big game of the day, she pitched three innings and had four strikeouts, just one hit allowed and no runs given up.

It was a good time for her to shine, too, because there were coaches watching her from D1 schools including Florida, UCLA, Oregon, Clemson, Illinois, Penn State and Minnesota.

Here’s a clip of her recording a strikeout…

And if she’s a skyrocketing 2029, Hattie has a 2031 rising star on the same 16U team in Teagan Man.

Head Coach Steve Appel, who knows talent, has been raving about Teagan and you watch her and you quickly see why: she’s playing against talent years older than herself and excelling.

Case in point: in one of the games today, she hit a bases-clearing triple in the fifth inning that helped the Rising win a game versus a strong Bandits team as well as an excellent Aces Fastpitch team.

I had the opportunity to interview Teagan after one of her games… here’s what she had to say:

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Double Dinger Game by LG

The Offensive Player of the Day was LG Goldin, the tremendous 2029 infielder with the Birmingham Thunderbolts 18U team.

LG has thrice been named the No. 1 player in the Line Drive Media 2029 HOT 100… here’s a good article that touches on why she’s a franchise-caliber player already:

No. 1 Spotlight: How Top-Ranked 2029 Infielder LG Goldin—Like NBA Legend Michael Jordan—Learns from Her Failures in Achieving Great Success (June 11, 2026)

On Saturday, LG had a game where she smashed two home runs had a walk and totaled four RBIs in her team’s 11-7 win… here are those smashes:

It doesn’t take a savvy fortune teller to accurately predict that LG will be one of the top players in the game for a long time moving forward.

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Day 3 Will See a Champion Crowned… in 14U

The finale of the three days of great softball in Clearwater wraps up Sunday afternoon and that will be highlighted by a championship in the 14U age division.

We’re now in elimination mode and the finalists that will battle for the title on Sunday include:

• Ohio Outlaws – Medley
• Arizona Rising/Mabrey
• Beverly Bandits – Moran
• Atlanta Vipers – Patterson
• Birmingham Thunderbolts – Wilkerson
• Warrior Academy – McDonald/Nicholas
• Texas Hotshots – Seneca
• Texas Glory – Shelton
• Indiana Magic – Rodgers/Fritsche
• Virginia Unity – Sifrit
• Texas Blaze United – JB
• Rhode Island Thunder – Lotti

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Reagan Eldred Continues to Dominate

Speaking of No. 1 players in our HOT 100 rankings, 2028 pitcher Reagan Eldred of Texas Blaze 18U – Robertson, continues to shine.

In a big 9-0 win over LTG Lions, the Tennessee commit tossed four innings with 10 strikeouts and just one hit allowed.

This after a 10-strikeout performance yesterday… just another day at the office for the Lone Star State standout.

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Keep Your Head on a Swivel Out There!

Finally, Texas Glory 16U head coach Cedric Coleman, the father of Jayda Coleman, was coaching third base and watching his 2029 outfielder Braylee Smart at the plate when she hit a screaming foul ball that nailed Cedric in the leg.

He went down like a shot and, fortunately, he was more having fun in acting like he was in pain (thank goodness it wasn’t more serious!).

The “Softball Academy Award for Third Base Acting” goes to…

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Media