HS & Club Softball

FAB 50 High School Preseason Rankings (2/23)

Mission Viejo Softball

Welcome to a continuation of the FAB 50 national softball rankings that were compiled for more than 15 years through Student Sports and ESPN.

When the FAB 50 concluded for the 2014 season, it was written at the time that No. 1 Mission Viejo of California clearly had enough returning firepower to stay in that position for the start of 2015 and that is definitely the case.

Diablos’ senior pitcher Taylor McQuillin was the Gatorade National Player of the Year and comes back after going 25-1 with 316 strikeouts in 173 2/3 innings. The University of Arizona recruit also had four no-hitters, two perfect games and batted .323 at the plate.

The only reason McQuillin was not the State Sophomore of the Year for 2013 is that her Mission Viejo teammate, Alyssa Palomino, had an even better season. Palomino didn’t exactly slide off the radar screen last season, either. She’s also going to Arizona and hit 17 homers as a junior (one off her total of 18 from the season before) with a .506 average, 34 RBI and 36 runs scored.

Mission Viejo does need to replace a couple of top position players, especially all-state second team infielder Alysha Everett, but there’s more than enough other players coming back to make the team an easy choice to start out 2015 with the nation’s No. 1 ranking.

Get the rankings at Full Count Softball here…

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