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With the kickoff of the Early Signing Period for the Class of 2021 on Wednesday, the weekend approaches and that means championship softball will be played in the Lone Star State starting Friday and running through title games on Sunday.
The Heart of America Fall Fastpitch League (HFL) is holding its first-ever HFL Fall Championships in College Station involving close to 50 top club teams in the age divisions of 18U, 16U and 14U and from states ranging from Oklahoma to Missouri and Iowa and Illinois.
The HFL is the first major qualifying event for the inaugural Alliance Fastpitch Championship Series (AFCS). The AFCS was announced last month with the 10U/12U being hosted by TCS in Southern California, the 14U being hosted by USSSA in Florida, and the 16U and 18U being hosted by USA Softball in Oklahoma City.
The top four teams in each age division will earn a berth to the AFCS and will get to represent the HFL on a National level.
The player talent is strong as well with the top seed in the 18U division, Iowa Premier Gold, featuring three players in the Top 50 of the 2021 Extra Elite 100: catcher Jessie Blaine, who signed with Auburn on Wednesday and was ranked #14 overall, along with infielders Margaret Tobias, a Kentucky signee ranked #41, and Ella McVey, a Michigan signee rated #44.
The #2-seed at 18U is Aces Fastpitch coached by HFL Commissioner Ryan Taylor and featuring an impressive five seniors in the Top 15 of the 2021 Extra Elite 100 led by #2 ranked middle infielder Kinsey Fielder (Washington-bound) and followed by pitcher Mac Morgan (Arizona State, #4 overall), outfielder Ashton Maloney (Texas, #7), pitcher Tatum Clopton (Oklahoma State, #10) and infielder Alexx Waitman (Oklahoma, #11).
The #3 seed is Scotty Smith’s Epic 18U National team which also is deep with experience across the board and Evan Beatty’s St. Louis Chaos will field three Extra Elite 100 players including Julia Crenshaw, a #2-overated infielder headed to Missouri.
The 16U and 14U age divisions also have talented Aces and Iowa Premier teams with some strong, young teams from Oklahoma fielded by the Oklahoma A’s, Tulsa Elite and Exclusive Premier trying to take the title trophies back to the Sooner State.
Along with the team and player talent, Taylor and the HFL staff have made sure that the weekend event will be a great event for not just those in College Station, but also for college coaches who will be watching from afar.
The HFL Championship will have a high-level broadcast production with live streaming featuring play-by-play commentary for every game and with an impressive five camera format for the semis and championships.
“We’re a player-centric league,” explains Taylor, “and this is a good way for us to give back to them. The college coaches will get to watch the games for free and be able to get good evaluations. One key is we wanted to provide the college coaches a good product to display the players’ talents and help both sides for recruiting.”
Games begin Friday at 6 pm CST and run through Saturday with the Sunday championship games having softball standout Tori Vidales, the former two-time Texas A&M All-American and NFP star, calling the action.
The final games will be Sunday at 2:45 pm at Davis Diamond(18U) and 5:00 pm (16U) as well as 3:15 pm at Old Aggie Field (14U).
The action will be streamed live and embedded on the HFL main page with the entire event offered to the public for free.
*** Click HERE to follow the teams game-by-game over the weekend
Taylor is excited for all that the event will offer over the next three days.
“We’re playing at top-notch facilities—perhaps the best college field in the country—and the weather won’t be a problem even though we’re playing later in the season after the high school games in the fall. The championship games will be on stadium fields with a stadium atmosphere.”
Another unique factor of the HFL Championship is that teams are matched against each other based on their “body of work” over time.
Teams playing in HFL or Alliance-affiliated events earned points for wins, losses, and ties. In addition, teams earn points for bracket wins in those events.
The HFL utilized existing events from USA, USSSA, and Triple Crown as well as non-sanctioned events to provide teams with ample opportunities to earn points and to embody our core value of unity working in collaboration with these major associations.
“Our league structure helps level the playing field allowing teams the opportunity to earn points through various events that seeded them into our League Championship. This weekend every team has an opportunity to earn their National berth by their performance on the field,” added the HFL Commissioner.
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Extra Inning Softball will be at the championship and will be featuring coverage each day. Below are the list of teams and links on how to follow them.
HFL FALL CHAMPIONSHIPS 14U – 18U College Station TX
November 13-15, 2020
College Station, Texas
14U
16U
18U