Perryville-based Stars Elite 18U look to shine at USA Select World Fastpitch Championships

Jared Hotop and Chris Schemel founded the Perryville Stars Fastpitch softball program in 2009 with simple intentions -- providing a competitive environment for high school girls to continue playing softball in the summer.

But since then, it's evolved into something so much more.

A fledgling was spawned four years ago known as the Stars Elite, a college showcase program geared toward catering to the needs and resources of players with dreams of playing in college.

The program had its first college signee in 2014 when Hotop's daughter, Isabel, signed to play with Fontbonne University in St. Louis, and three more headed off to compete at the college level in 2015. That number took a big leap this year, as eight of the 11 players on the Stars Elite 18U squad will play softball at the next level.

Now with more talent than ever before, the 18U team has amassed a 38-8 record this summer and will take part in the USA Select World Fastpitch Championships, a national tournament that's expected to draw scouts from more than 50 Division-I schools beginning today and running through the weekend in Kansas City, Missouri.

Stars Elite coach Jared Hotop talks with players during practice last week. Hotop co-founded the Perryville Stars program in 2009.

"We're really excited about it," said Hotop, who's president of the organization and manager of the 18U squad. "We're excited about competing against the best travel programs in the country -- Texas Glory, [Orange County] Batbusters, the Firecrackers from out in California.

"It's funny when you look at the list of teams. It lists the city they're from, and if you go down the list -- it's so and so from Anaheim, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Tucson, Arizona; Phoenix, Arizona; New York City; Dallas, Texas -- all these big cities, and then crammed right in the middle there is Perryville, Missouri."

Loaded with talent

Although the team is based out of Perryville, Hotop has managed to attract some of the best players from across Southeast Missouri.

It starts in the circle with two-time reigning Semoball Awards Softball Player of the Year Taylor Tiffany, who recently graduated from Portageville after breaking her own single-season state record in strikeouts. Jackson standout Sophie Wunderlich and former Semoball Awards Softball Player of the Year Alexis Dock, a Kelly graduate, also provide pitching for the Stars Elite.

Together, the pitching staff has a team ERA of 2.79 with 216 strikeouts and 101 walks in 220 innings of work.

The infield features Saxony Lutheran graduate Grace Mirly, who rotates between second and third with Park Hills graduate Mady Hart, Perryville graduate Emma Nelson at shortstop and utility player Ashlynn Collier, a Saxony graduate who plays catcher and first. Perryville graduate Lilly Pecaut also plays catcher.

Farmington graduate Randi Scruggs starts in center field, Notre Dame star Abby Rollet plays in right and Cape Girardeau Central standout Sydney Tollison starts in left.

"It is a very talented group," Hotop said. "What makes the group exciting is they're a bunch of quality kids off the field as well, and we look for that. But on the field, we told them at the beginning of the season, 'If you can get into this lineup, you're doing a heck of a job,' because it is a stacked lineup.

"We can do a lot of different things. We can go out and hit for power. We've done that. If we're struggling, we can do a lot of the small-ball stuff. ... There's speed up and down the lineup. It's the best team we've ever had in our program from a pure talent standpoint, so it's been exciting."

The combination of speed and power has been a great asset for the Stars Elite this summer. The team has a combined .403 batting average with 17 home runs and 321 runs scored in 46 games.

"We've got some true athletes, and then they all have a love for softball," said Rollet, a Perryville native who, along with Nelson and Pecaut, has been with the program since it started in 2009. "Whenever you have that combination, you're just going to excel, in my opinion."

"All of our infielders can play every infield position, and if we have to go to the outfield, we can go to the outfield," Nelson said. "... Our hitting is extremely versatile as well. We've got slap hitters up and down the lineup. Everybody can lay down a bunt if need be, and then we've got crazy power hitters, too."

Hotop said he and his coaching staff are constantly tracking his players' at-bats to find strengths and weaknesses in approach. They examine line-drive rates and hard-contact rates to determine who's producing the most.

He's ultimately seeking out the perfect lineup, but it's less of a challenge than many might presume.

"It's a challenge because you want to put the right lineup out there every game, but when you really step back and look at it, it's really not a challenge," Hotop said. "There's just not many wrong decisions with a group that talented."

Scruggs' speed has settled her into the team's leadoff spot, while Tollison and Rollet will typically fall second and third, respectively. Mirly normally bats cleanup, followed by Dock in the five-hole. Outside of that, the rest of the lineup has been a mixed bag, according to Hotop.

"Everybody else is interchangeable at the bottom. ... Emma Nelson's the prime example," he said. "She started out and was kind of banged up early in the season and had some thigh issues coming from soccer. She really struggled early on, but she's really picked it up and has been hitting the cover off the ball. She's been all over our lineup."

Road to KC

The Stars Elite originally were scheduled to play in a tournament that offered an automatic berth to qualify for the ASA Gold Nationals in Oklahoma City, but after the tournament was stripped of its berth, Hotop was left scrambling for options.

That's when he exercised his resources and got in touch with a travel team based out of Warrenton, Missouri, which recommended an 11-team USA Elite Select tournament on June 10-12 at the Louisville Slugger Complex in Peoria, Illinois.

"They said, 'Well, we're going to this tournament in Peoria. It's a qualifier for this huge deal in Kansas City,'" Hotop said. "At the last minute, we got into this tournament, and we were just hoping to be competitive and put a good foot forward."

After finishing the first day's pool play with a 1-1 record, the Stars Elite opened the double-elimination bracket play with an 8-0 win before dropping a 7-2 decision against the St. Louis Chaos in the quarterfinals. They ran the table in the loser's bracket with five straight wins, including four on the final day to reach a championship rematch against the Chaos.

"That Sunday was crazy," Nelson said. "We got up at 8 a.m. and were like, 'OK, we're going to play until we lose, and who knows how long it's going to take us.' ... I don't think any of us would've predicted that we'd be one of the last two teams there."

The Stars Elite were unable to avenge their previous loss, as the Chaos posted a 7-1 victory, but both teams locked up automatic berths for the national tournament in Kansas City.

Collier was the only available catcher the final day of the tournament, during which the Stars Elite showed up to the park at 7 a.m. and didn't leave until about 5:30 p.m.

"I told the girls, 'You guys put in a legit 10-hour day,'" Hotop said. "It was a good time, no doubt. It was fun. We just had outstanding pitching from Taylor, and Sophie was just fantastic as always. We had some timely hitting. We weren't launching the ball anywhere. We were just doing some things with small ball and different things to get the job done.

"... The game prior to the championship game, we were down to our last strike. Emma Nelson singled and went to second on a wild pitch. Mady Hart was down to her last strike, and she drilled one up the middle to tie the game. We ended up winning it in extra innings, so there were a lot of things to overcome there that day. It was a great tournament."

The inaugural USA Select World Fastpitch Championships offers more than an opportunity to compete in front of college scouts. There will be education seminars for parents, coaches and players, as well as community service projects for teams. Meanwhile, the championship games are scheduled to air live Sunday on CBS Sports Network.

"Coach is doing a really awesome job. He's trying to make it a pre-college experience for us," Rollet said. "We're going to have an itinerary. We're going to be rooming together. It's going to be a life-changing experience, in my opinion. There are going to be talks from huge softball players, and I'm excited about that. We can build on that as a team as well.

"We can come out of this more connected than ever, and that's what I'm looking forward to."

Under the direction of Chaffee assistant coach Joe Hendrix, the Stars Elite 16U team just wrapped up its first season. They'll hold tryouts for next year's squad July 31 and August 7 in Perryville. More details are available at www.stars-fastpitch.com.

"There are kids in Southeast Missouri that are just as talented as the kids you see playing on ESPN in the College World Series," Hotop said. "Those kind of kids live in Southeast Missouri, and that's kind of been the vision of our program -- to provide a venue or a way for them to get seen. That's starting to happen. Kids are starting to sign. I think we'll start to see kids signing at larger programs, but our kids are plenty good enough.

"It's just a matter of getting them in the right place in front of the right people at the right time, and things will happen from there."