SB: 2023 in season news

[shoxlax]

Based on my conversations with some insiders this weekend:

Hoekstra will get a long look at 2B when Hood moves to SS. Really good speed as well.

Aguilar was all but set to go to Texas Tech until their coach got canned. She became available late.

Schertz from tiny Fairland, Oklahoma plays for a really good summer team based out of Iowa. Like a who’s who of softball good. Don’t let her school size fool you.

That is all I know.

[1972Shocker]

Based on my conversations with some insiders this weekend:

Hoekstra will get a long look at 2B when Hood moves to SS. Really good speed as well.

Makes you wonder if the Shocks may try to utilize the team speed more next year and perhaps play a little more small ball.

[shoxlax]

[1972Shocker]

Pretty impressive list of commitments.

[1972Shocker]

Here is Erica's player profile page for the Iowa Premier Gold website inlcuding some short videos. However, all the videos were posted in December 2021. Looks like when she was on the 16U team.

https://sportsrecruits.com/athlete/erica_schertz

[flyingMoose]

Here is Erica's player profile page for the Iowa Premier Gold website inlcuding some short videos. However, all the videos were posted in December 2021. Looks like when she was on the 16U team.

https://sportsrecruits.com/athlete/erica_schertz

Two of them HS videos with one umpire calling balls and strikes from near the circle!! Rise ball? Slow-arm change? (The staff will fix that.) Looked promising.

[1972Shocker]

Two of them HS videos with one umpire calling balls and strikes from near the circle!! Rise ball? Slow-arm change? (The staff will fix that.) Looked promising.

That may already be fixed. Remember these videos appear to be a couple of years old.

[flyingMoose]

That may already be fixed. Remember these videos appear to be a couple of years old.

True. It just depends on how much pitching support there is on a travel team. Often it is simply a collection of skilled HS players with DI aspirations without a lot of teaching going on. Did Erica spend her summers in Iowa somehow, or did the players just convene at the next tournament?

But if she had a private coach or Iowa Gold had a pitching coach as part of their program ... . A change is a tricky pitch. It almost seems each pitcher's change is unique to them.

[SubGod22]

True. It just depends on how much pitching support there is on a travel team. Often it is simply a collection of skilled HS players with DI aspirations without a lot of teaching going on. Did Erica spend her summers in Iowa somehow, or did the players just convene at the next tournament?

But if she had a private coach or Iowa Gold had a pitching coach as part of their program ... . A change is a tricky pitch. It almost seems each pitcher's change is unique to them.

I've not seen a travel team that didn't have access to pitching or hitting coaches. I know the teams my nieces have played on the pitchers worked a few times a week at least with pitching coaches. Often college pitchers, or former college pitchers, to help them improve and dissect what's going on. Heck, I know Syd has had an affiliation with a local team and has been involved in both hitting and fielding instruction. Bailey Lange has also been used as a pitching coach for the same team.

I can't say how often they're used, but they weren't just one off events. I'd be surprised if a team as highly thought of as Iowa Premier doesn't have similar opportunities, or that players don't at least seek out assistance from other local options. I know the organization my oldest niece played for was started by a former player of Coach B and she made sure to utilize all of the connections she could to help with instruction. She was also a pretty damn good D2 player herself and took care of a lot of the hitting instruction. Even after she left for a college job, the organization was big on having proper instruction in all facets of the game. Another niece has played for a few organizations and most of them do the same. There was one that just left it all to fairly untrained coaches to throw together, but most don't do that from my experiences over the last 15 years or so.

[1972Shocker]

I am confident she has worked regularly with a pitching coach either privately or through Iowa Premier Gold. It would also not surprise me if she needs to continue to work on her off-speed pitches. However, I don't think you can judge that from videos from a couple years ago when she was 16.

[1972Shocker]

Alex Aguilar | Midland, Texas | 5'5" | Pitcher
Alex Aguilar is one of two pitchers in this year's signing class. She will bring her talents in the circle from Midland High School to Wichita State. A four-year starter and letterwinner, Aguilar has racked up more than 500 strikeouts during her prep career, while also hitting better than .450 at the plate. She has earned first team all-district honors every year, while helping Midland to the District Championship as a junior. Aguilar was named the District MVP as a junior behind 150 strikeouts in the circle. She is the daughter of Rod and Gaby Aguilar. She has one brother, Ryan, and one sister, Sophia. Aguilar plans to major in biology at Wichita State.

Coach Bredbenner on the signing of pitchers Aguilar and Proberts: "As we navigate the trends in softball, we are seeing an increase in the number of pitchers teams are carrying on their rosters. We are following that trend by signing Alex Aguilar and Sarah Proberts. They bring two completely different pitching styles to the circle, but both are competitive and have had to carry their travel teams through some tough tournaments."


The description of Alex would not lead you to think she would become the ace of the staff - ace, in my opinion, at least. It is hard to compare with the descriptions of other incoming pitchers over the last few years. Any coach is always going to say positive thinks about incoming players.


Oh, I will say this. I don't think being a late recruit is a good thing in general. It sounds like a lot of hard work is ahead for that young lady. A lot of it.

Who are you referring to in your last sentence? Chloe Barber?

[1972Shocker]

Here is some information on the other incoming freshman pitcher, 5-11, 160lb Cloe Barber out of LIno Lakes, Minn.

Bredbenner on Chloe Barber: "Chloe was a late addition to our 2023 class but one that we are very excited about. She is a power pitcher with a nice offspeed pitch, and understands how to spot the ball with natural movement on her pitches. If Chloe can command her pitches and get stronger throughout her time here, I think she will be part of a very solid pitching staff at Wichita State."

As flyingMoose points out HCKB is going to be as flattering and upbeat as possible with her comments about recruits and only time will tell what the reality will be.

Chloe played her summer club ball with the Minnesota Force.

Here is a list of the college commitments for players on this club: https://sportsrecruits.com/committed/minnesotaforce

Not is impressive as the commitments for Iowa Premier Gold players but does include 8 D-I commitments for the class of 2023.

Here is Chloe's club profile page with a few videos including a couple from the summer of 2022: https://sportsrecruits.com/athlete/chloe_barber2

Looks like in 2021 she was pitching in the 64-65 mph range with her hard stuff.

Perfect game graded Chloe at 9.5: https://www.perfectgame.org/Players/...spx?ID=1022273

Perfect game had her FB velo at 66 mph on 10/14/22 which was up 1 mph from a year earlier and according to PG was in the 98.89% percentile for the Class of 2023.

Here is Chloe's twitter page: https://twitter.com/barberchloe26 (Looks pretty similar to the Shocker softball twitter page).

I do Iike what little I have seen of both Chloe and Erica. I hope this is an indication that the success of the program is starting to have a positive impact on HCKB's efforts to recruit pitching.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

[flyingMoose]

So you will know where my semi-informed comments are coming from ... :)


DI coaches are rarely going to a 18U tournament except to support a girl they have signed or intend to. They are recruiting from 16U. That's the world they are in. (Thus the late recruit comment.) But both Syd and Alex have stories, so Chloe may also. I watched a couple of her videos. She rarely had a pitch that was not on the edge. Very nice. One change-up in the first two videos?


The Wichita Mustangs are the Gold level travel team I am most aware of. Athough they had a number of teams at various age levels, it appeared that the primary reason for their existence was the talented daughter (not a pitcher) of the sponsor/resources of the team. That daughter is now out of college. They were not a program that was going to have a Gold team every year for a number of years. Most years, I think their primary pitcher was out-of-region. Stayed in Wichita for the summer? Who knows?

In the last couple of years, 316 Elite has started locally, and they appear to be trying to establish a program that will have a Gold team every year with coaching starting at a young age. Bailey, Mackenzie, Laurie Ann, and possibly other Shockers are part of that coaching as far as I know. It takes time and money to establish this kind of program, so we shall see.

Other teams (Renegades come to mind) - there are others) play "serious" softball, but I do not have the impression they are Gold level or even pretend to be most years. I could be wrong.

Yes, I am confident there is a lot of private coaching, of pitchers in particular.


Okay, I probably know just enough to be dangerous.