FloSoftball continues our look at the Class of 2021 as we update the Hot 100 over the next two weeks, spotlighting 10 or more outstanding players each day on the way to the unveiling of No. 1.

We'll announce the Top 10 of the class on Friday, May 19, and shortly after will profile the No. 1 player and then the "Next In" classes comprising prospects Nos. 101-200, 201-300, 301-400, and 401-500!

FloSoftball has ranked the Hot 100 beginning with the 2014 Class and has done every year since: 2015, '16, '17, '18, '19 and '20. We've also updated most of those years several times, the 2019 Hot 100 being the most recent (updated in February).







And as for the 2021s -- who are just in the eighth grade, even though many are playing up at the varsity high school level already -- we'll update the Hot 100 list several times too over the next five years so know this is just the starting point!

These honorees were chosen based on input and feedback from college and club coaches as well as our own FloSoftball event and in-person observations. 

Criteria for choosing and ranking the players includes performances at the club and high school levels and projecting how they will play at the collegiate level. 

Today, we feature players No. 70 to 61, who come from California (three), Colorado, Georgia (two), Illinois (two), Iowa, Texas (three), and Virginia.

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T-70--Korbe Otis P/IF…OC Batbusters - McArthur/Stith (Louisville) 
Korbe lives in Littleton, Colorado, and flies two or three times a month to Southern California to practice with the Batbusters. Her dedication has paid off as she verbally committed to Louisville in January after showing major colleges from coast to coast that she's a dominant pitcher with great speed and movement who also wields a dangerous bat. Korbe compiled a 2.03 ERA last year playing for the Batbusters-Garcia team that won the USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championshp (12U) and took third at PGF Nationals. She also hit .663 last year with 35 RBIs while playing a strong first base and even in the middle infield. Coaches rave about her intelligence, maturity, and dedication to everything she does, from excelling between the lines to competing on a black belt competition team to running a weekly mathematics lab for young students struggling in school.
 
T-70--Rachel Allen C/1B…Firecrackers -- TJ (uncommitted) 
TJ Houshmandzadeh has assembled a dangerous team capable of doing a lot of damage in the 14U ranks, and Allen is a key component to the squad's prospects. She has tremendous power at the plate and came up big two years ago when she helped the OC Batbusters-Mascarenas 12U team win PGF Nationals by knocking in a tourney-best 11 RBIs. In the last two years at PGF Nationals, she's led her team in hitting with a .500-plus batting average. Allen is a solid backstop, as she moves well for her size and works nonstop to try and improve her game. One coach called her an "all-around great package" while Derek Allister of OnDeck Softball stated, "Rachel is a nice receiver with good upside and a strong leadership skill set." A second-degree black belt in taekwondo, Allen has attracted the attention of schools in the Big 12, ACC, and Pac-12 with her offensive and defensive skills, and she already has several offers on the table.

69--Niki Barbosa 3B…Explosion - Flores/Lumus (uncommitted) 
Barbosa is a prototype third baseman who is a very good defensive player because she is quick with a strong arm while adding home run-type power to the middle of the lineup. She plays the corner spot "like she is playing at the collegiate level," according to one coach. She's very aggressive and physically strong and not afraid to get dirty or go all out to make a play. With the stick, she can go deep often -- last year she went over a month with at least one home run in every weekend tournament -- and has been known to shatter a few windshields and put some dents in cars beyond the outfield fence. This year for the Explosion, she has clubbed 12 home runs and a ton of doubles as well. Last year, she helped the 12U team qualify for PGF Nationals, where she performed well and got on the list of several top 25-caliber DI programs.

68--Olivia McFadden 3B/1B…Impact Gold Navy - Vaughn (uncommitted) 
McFadden helped her Impact team finish second at PGF Nationals last year and is now on the 14U squad coached by Ray Vaughn. Her power is her greatest asset -- in her young club career McFadden has already hit 24 home runs over the fence, including 10 this year alone -- and it's been against top teams from California to Texas to Florida. The Houston-area slugger earned USA Elite Select 30 All-American honors last August at the camp in Alabama because of her hitting prowess and her play in the infield, where she flashes a sturdy glove, good footwork, and a strong arm. The infielder also has interest from Power Five conference schools and has attended camps or taken unofficials to Florida, LSU, Texas, and Texas A&M with more trips planned this year to top 25 programs such as Arizona, Auburn, Baylor, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, and UCLA.

67--Ella McVey MIF/OF…Iowa Premier (uncommitted) 
McVey's speed has led her to always play up at higher levels -- she was competing at the 14U age division when she was 11. This year she has even played for the Iowa Premier 18U Gold team in spots, as Greg Dickel's team has had regular players miss time due reasons like spring sports. McVey is considered one of the fastest athletes in Iowa, and that helps her play with good range up the middle defensively, be it centerfield, second or short. One coach said, "Ella is the best 14-year-old slapper in Iowa and one of the best in the Midwest." She ran a 2.7-second home-to-first time last summer at a PGF Scout Camp and has been called by legendary slapper Emily Allard, now with BetheMomentum Slapping, as "one of my best pupils this year." Ella is getting recruited by Big 12, Big Ten, and MAC schools among others that are eager to see how well she'll act as the pacesetter on her teams this summer at PGF Nationals and the World Fastpitch Championship.

T-66--Madi Young P/1B...Beverly Bandits Futures -- Stephens (uncommitted) 
Young is a tall, strong pitcher who has a great drop ball and outstanding change-up. The right-hander throws a heavy ball and throws up to 58 mph on the radar gun right now, but according to Derek Allister of OnDeck softball, "will be a high velocity pitcher at the next level. The kid is going to be a really nice player from the Midwest when it's all said and done." Young will be a nice complement to another standout 2021 hurler in Lauren Derkowski, whose flame-throwing hard stuff is accentuated by Young's strength at getting batters to mishit and ground out very frequently. When not in the circle, she can swing it effectively and is solid picking up balls at first base.

T-66--Emma Lemley P…Williamsburg Starz Gold (Virginia Tech) 
Lemley was one of the earliest commits in the 2021 class when she committed to Virginia Tech back in September 2016. She's a 5-foot-7 right-hander who effectively blends a fastball, a nasty curve, a change, and a rise to rank as one of the best pitchers in the East. Effective in hitting her spots with her pinpoint control, she's topping 64 mph on the gun and is fluid in her delivery and poised and confident in her presence in the circle. Lemley led her team to the Virginia ASA State title last year and was a USSSA Elect Select honoree and pitched in the event's finals. She also was recognized last September as the Sports Illustrated Sports Kid of the Month. She plans on studying engineering while attending Tech and playing for the Hokies.

65--Kylie Ferguson P…East Cobb Bullets - Heath 
The Bullets won the ASA 12U Nationals last year going 9-0 in the championship, and Ferguson, who goes by "Lefty," was dominating as she averaged 1 1/2 strikeouts per inning for the season and helped lead the staff to a combined ERA of 0.42. In the championship game, she gave up just two hits in the complete-game victory and in the fall -- moving up to the 14U level -- she has continued to look good in the circle as well as at the plate. She bats leadoff and last year had an on-base percentage of .582. A big-game pitcher who mixes several pitches with varying speeds and keeps hitters off balance, she is being looked at by DI programs, including LSU, Duke, Mercer, and Tennessee Tech.

64--Lacie Ham P/1B…OC Batbusters - Campbell 03 (uncommitted)
Few pitchers in the 2021 class are as well known across the country by other club coaches as Ham, who has received rave assessments about her performance at the highest levels. A main reason for her success is she's an incredible competitor who raises her play when the stakes are highest. As one scout said, "Lacie excels in competition, and she's a sophisticated pitcher for one so young." The So Cal athlete is a righty with good spin and location and is effective at throwing the rise in on the hands and then beating the batter low and away. She was the MVP of the World Fastpitch Championship, which the Batbusters-Garcia team won last year, and helped lead her squad to a third-place finish at PGF Nationals by going 6-1 with a 1.40 ERA. Ham also earned first-team Select 30 All-American honors. Her stats last year were stellar: a 42-4 record with 281 Ks in 247 innings, and a 0.95 ERA. She has Power Five schools from all over the nation looking at her.

63--Jaycie Hall P…Texas Glory 
Hall is a right-hander who considered to be one of the best pitchers in North Texas this year and is expected to be the ace of Ed Naudin's 14U Glory team. She possesses an excellent combination of speed and movement and is effective at inducing ground balls and strikeouts. Jaycie's top pitch is a devastating change-up, which leaves batters lunging and shaking their heads. The young Texan is already a veteran of playing in pressure games on the biggest stages and pitches her best when facing the best. Coaches rave about her team leadership on and off the field in large part because of her calm but competitive demeanor in the circle that rallies her teammates around her.

62--Rose Roach SS/OF…Beverly Bandits Futures -- Stephens
Roach is instant offense in that she's a lefty who can do it all in the box: She can hit for power or play small ball, power slap or hit away equally well. Her great jump out of the box puts the infield defense on edge, and she creates havoc and confusion in defensive rotations because of her great speed. Roach literally grew into a top national recruit in the last year when she sprouted three inches and gained 30 pounds of muscle. She impressed college coaches at an OnDeck workout, where event director Derek Allister commented, "Rose has nice mechanics and gap power, is very solid defensively and, though very young, is talented and a good athlete." Kevin Stephens' team will be playing in a ton of high-profile events this summer that are sure to get Roach on the radar of major Power Five programs from all parts of the country.

T-61 Samantha Landry P/1B…Texas Sudden Impact - Falterman 
Landry is a new addition to Troy Falterman's already loaded Sudden Impact team, and, if early indications are accurate, she will be one of the top players in the Southwest by summer's end. Samantha consistently hits 61-63 mph in her pitches and served notice at December's Faster2First event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that she's not only a dominating pitcher -- she was selected to play in the prestigious event's all-star game -- but also can do damage at the plate, as she slugged a pair of home runs. Landry is also durable and a workhorse as shown by her throwing five games in one day at PGF 12U Nationals last summer, including a 1-0 victory in the fifth game to advance to the title contest. This fall she also shined, compiling a sub-2.00 ERA in 56 innings of work. She's hearing from SEC and Big 12 schools with more surely to come this summer.

T-61 Natalie Heath 3B/OF…East Cobb Bullets - Heath 
While Kylie Ferguson (No. 65 on the Hot 100 list, see above) is the star in the circle for the Bullets, Heath is considered the "heart and soul" of the team. The daughter of head coach J.D. Heath, Kylie is, unsurprisingly, advanced in her knowledge and instincts of the game as well as in anticipating plays intuitively ahead of the action. Heath combines physical talent with maturity and an uncompromising work ethic to leave it all on the field every game. She is a big-game player and is strong on defense -- she only two errors all fall playing third -- and on offense, where the Georgia star batted .451 this fall after hitting .437 last season. Her resume includes ASA National and State Championships as well as an 18-game undefeated school season. Look for Heath to be playing 18U Gold at times this summer with Andrew Biele and Greg Schnute's Bullets teams, too. She's hearing from top programs such as Auburn, Florida, Duke, Missouri, Liberty, Notre Dame, and Georgia State.

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