The third annual Louisville Slugger Hit Club takes place Saturday, July 29, through Monday, July 31, in Orange County, California, and once again features 10 of the top high school grads who are about to embark on their college softball careers.

Louisville Slugger and Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) have partnered to give these elite players from the Class of 2017 three unique days of education, fun, bonding, and competition ranging from a trip to Disneyland and watching a Giants versus Dodgers MLB battle to hearing from legends such as Sue Enquist and former Hit Clubbers who played in the Women's College World Series.

Past Hit Club participants have included such current college standouts as Shay Knighten (Oklahoma), Amanda Lorenz (Florida), Brooke Vines (Tennessee), Morganne Flores (Washington), Amanda Doyle (LSU), Jessica Harper (Arizona), Elissa Brown (Alabama), Nicole Mendes (Oklahoma), Nicole Bates (Washington), Shannon Rhodes (Oregon), and Dejah Mulipola (Arizona).

This summer's selections have been evaluated by a panel of coaches, scouts, and evaluators who looked for hitting expertise, technique, and ability for all types of hitters, ranging from speedy slappers to long-ball mashers, and come from the pool of players chosen as PGF All-Americans--many of whom are participating in the PGF All-American game on Friday, July 28--the day before the Hit Club begins.

For the next several weeks, FloSoftball will reveal two players each week who have made this year's prestigious event.

This first pair is, coincidentally, the only two going to the same program!

HIT CLUB PLAYER #1: LAUREN BURKE

Position: Shortstop/Outfielder
High School (City/St): Marist (Eugene, Oregon)
Club Team: Beverly Bandits
University: Oregon
Key Stats & Honors: First-Team FloSoftball All-American, PGF All-American, Gatorade State Player of the Year, First-Team All-State, led her high school to a 27-3 mark as a senior and a state title; career high school batting average of .627 after she hit .622 this spring (.699 as a junior) and recorded 31 steals in 34 attempts. Burke also had a 9-to-2 walk-to-strikeout ratio and set several Marist High records including career home runs (34 including 21 as a junior), breaking the mark set by Nyree White (Stanford, USA Jr. National Team).



Scouting Report: Burke played travel ball for Mike White, the current Oregon head coach, for four years, starting when she was 7 years old. She was the leadoff batter for the Bandits, who won the PGF 16U National Championship last summer and were ranked No. 18 in the 2017 FloSoftball Hot 100. She has a pure, effortless swing and is prolific on getting on base thanks to her ability to place the ball and her great speed. The Oregon native can be a table-setter or even hit in the No. 2, 3, or 4 spots because she has pop too--in one high school game she smacked four home runs. Simply, she's a complete hitter who can hurt a defense in many ways.

HIT CLUB PLAYER #2: SHAYE BOWDEN

Position: Catcher/Shortstop/Third Baseman/Outfielder
High School (City/St): Sunnyslope (Phoenix, Arizona)
Club Team: Birmingham Thunderbolts
University: Oregon
Key Stats & Honors: Bowden had a huge offensive year with a .654 batting average, 84 RBIs, and 17 home runs. Her RBI total was fourth best in the country and averaged out to more than 2.5 per game. A First-Team FloSoftball All-American at catcher, she earned PGF All-American honors and was the Ariona 5A Player of the Year. She's ranked as the No. 23 player in the 2017 FloSoftball Hot 100 and her best stat may be she only struck out twice in high school in 379 career plate appearances.

Scouting Report: Shay has been a national prospect since she shined at an OnDeck National Camp at Mt. SAC as an eighth-grader. As her numbers bear out, she hits for power and average and is as versatile on defense as she is prolific on offense. You'd be hard-pressed to find just one adjective that describes the Arizona standout who plays for an Alabama club powerhouse, but two that come to mind are "versatile" and "multi-faceted." Because of her ability to put the ball in play and drive it hard to all fields, she will quickly pick up the college game and be a contributor earlier than later in her Duck career.

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