Remember these two key dates for the next edition of the Line Drive Softball player rankings, the 2026 Line Drive HOT 100:

• The deadline to submit nominations is a week from today, Tuesday Sept. 3, 2024
• The actual rankings countdown starts on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, with No’s 100-91 and, over the following two weeks, will progress down to the No. 1 ranked player.

*** Click HERE to access the player nomination form

The nominations for deserving 2026 grads continue to come in and there’s another date that looks large for these standout athletes: this Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, marks the first day that college coaches can directly contact athletes in their junior year of school, be it by phone call, text, emails, etc.

We’ll have more on this milestone day, Sept. 1 and what it means, in the upcoming days, but for now, we’re focusing onthe standout players who will be ranked in this class.

One player who’s been in the Top 10 in each of the two previous times I’ve ranked the 2026 class is Taylor Johns, a standout infielder from Nevada who plays on the powerful Athletics – Mercado/Smith 18U team.

She’ll make easily make the Top 100 list once again and there are five main reasons why….

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

Scroll down to see Taylor’s bio and what puts her atop her class as one of the very best fastpitch softball high school juniors in the country…

*****

First Name: Taylor
Last Name: Johns
City/ST: Las Vegas /NV
Grad Year: 2026
Position(s): Infielder
School: Palo Verde High School
Club Team: Athletics Mercado Smith 18U Gold
Club Head Coach: David Mercado and Mark Smith
Division age: 18U