You can debate a few of these famous softball players as the greatest softball player ever after storybook careers, including leading their respective Collegiate teams to NCAA Championships, helping Team USA win gold medals, and even playing professionally. World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbapp again, this time to take FIFA's best men's player award on Monday. Richard Lapchick | Contributing Writer, ESPN.com, Ranking the 25 best NCAA softball players in 2020, College softball rankings: The top 25 teams in the NCAA this week, Previewing the 2023 college softball season: Players you need to watch, key storylines and WCWS predictions. It was a stunning upset, with top-ranked Team USA fielding stars like pitcher Jennie Finch, shortstop Natasha Watley, and outfielder Jessica Mendoza in addition to Abbott and Osterman. 5. Add in the normal matriculation of last year's seniors, stars like Taran Alvelo, Kelly Barnhill and Sydney Romero, and a spring of change awaits. The Reading Sunners were there to represent the United States in an International Softball Federation Tournament. After outscoring their Mary Nutter opposition 50-4, the Oklahoma Sooners returned to their rightful place on top of the USA TODAY Sports NFCA Coaches Poll. Born in Orlando, Florida, the two-time Olympic Gold medal winner, Dot Richardson is the greatest softball player of all time. That'd be good. She needed only 71 pitches to dispatch of the 18 batters faced, as Storako struck out five Bruins and allowed just three hits and no walks across five shutout innings. The Florida commit struck out 16, allowed just four hits, and finished the season with 364 strikeouts in 160 innings pitched. Not exactly a slacker herself, as evidenced by a quick rise through the coaching ranks despite balancing a playing career, Doepking dreaded those moments in college when Abbott would convince, cajole or corner her catcher into bullpen sessions in the football team's indoor practice facility. Another top star over the softball landscape over the past few years and one that put her name on the map is Odicci Alexander. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. After two seasons in which she was very good with the promise of more to come, Carranco capitalized on the potential. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Joan Joyce 1 ranking. The Sun Devils play a home-loaded schedule early in the season, understandably given climate and facility. Mike Macenko Inducted into the NSA Hall of Fame on November 11, 1998. Pitching with my daughter is one of the best parts of my day. Abbott stands 6-foot-3, which means that when such pitches leave her left hand, she is far closer than 43 feet. She led the team to a runner-up finish at the Women's College World Series in 2007 and logged a 0.79 ERA over her entire NCAA career. 2, Oklahoma has retaken the top spot in college softball. WBSC Softball World Rankings: Argentina, USA close 2022 on top of men's & women's rankings. Japan YUICHI YAMAZAKI / AFP / Getty. Then cast your vote, Bruce Springsteen adds to mythology with three-hour show at Tulsa's BOK Center, State board approves new academic standards with Ryan Walters' last-minute revisions, More than 800 Oklahoma medical marijuana farms linked to organized crime, drug agency says, Gov. Abbott has won six championships in Japan and has been named league MVP in four different seasons. He was 79. You can cancel at any time. The distance between the pitching rubber and home plate in softball is 43 feet. Even if not as dominant in the circle as she was in her sensational sophomore season with the Ducks, she made the most of an increasing offensive role with .928 OPS. At UCLA, you lose Rachel Garcia this season, one of the best two-way players in the history of college softball, but Megan Faraimo returns. The Bat Nerds is a blog run by a group of friends. Alo, named the 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, continued her dominance in 2022, marking the third straight season with at least 30 home runs while also setting the All-Time collegiate career home run mark. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. She's still the Big 12 returning leader in on-base percentage. 2019 key stats: .386 BA, .452 OBP, .492 SLG. UCLA, who has had a tremendous season in its own right, was the only other team to receive a first-place vote. And despite those extra innings, she improved her strikeout rate from 6.5 to 9.1 per seven innings. Jennings returned to add to the Sooners lead in the top of the third inning. Over the Tigers' six wins last week, Ellis went 10-for-14 at the plate for a .714 batting average. The Auburn team greets Bri Ellis (77) at home plate after Elliss home run in the second inning. Free shipping for many products! Washington won a national championship with a pitcher who had Olympic experience and a foreign passport when Danielle Lawrie led the Huskies to glory a decade ago. The Sooners blasted six home runs, and Alex Storako was dominant in the circle on their way to a 14-0 run-rule win over UCLA. Not that college softball is left without any star power. Top 10 in doubles and being hit by pitches. Abbott was the youngest player on the 2008 silver medal-winning team at the Beijing Olympics, just 23 years old at the time. 2 in the country for the first time since 2021 following a 4-3 loss to Baylor one week ago. First pitch is set 6 p.m. CT. She probably isn't going to win 39 games or pitch 270-plus innings again with Kleist around to share the load, but isn't it nice to know that she can? But I feel like Ive known her since she was 15. The flip-flop of Oklahoma . Rick Scherr Who are the top men's professional softball players of all time? Certainly the best value pick as a fourth-round selection in this past spring's draft, which took place before she starred in the Women's College World Series, Haeger has teamed with former Cal All-American and Team USA pitcher Jolene Henderson to give the expansion Charge far better pitching than has often been the fate of the league's new entries. Carosone was selected USA Softball National Player of the Week in 2015. Cooper was a member of Team USA that took home the gold medal at the 2016 Softball World Championship and the Silver Medal at the World Cup of Softball in 2016. Cooper finished her college career with the Auburn Tigers as a .385 hitter with 67 home runs and 270 runs batted in. Phone: 918-581-8391. 23. But there was nothing soft or schedule-aided about the power and speed she displayed last spring. Grace Green added an RBI single in the top of the fifth, and Hansen belted her second home run of the game to put OU up 14-0. "I've had some really good years, and even in years that some people might think aren't that great, I've thrown some really good games and things like that. Keep reading for seven fun facts that'll help you appreciate Abbott's brilliance even more. 1. So many good hitters, in fact, that three of them are now playing with Team USA. With those two sitting out this season because of the Olympics, UCLA will be thrilled if Jordan keeps on keeping on. Now, Plain will try that in reverse order, attempting to win an NCAA title before leading Australia to Tokyo. She enters the season with 66 career home runs, 11 more than any other Division I player. But the once-Georgia fan wasn't a follower of Baker Mayfield growing up (e, Doc Sadler got "The Docster" to retire and travel. Megan Kleist, P, Louisiana-Lafayette In addition, Dot Richardson helped the UCLA Bruins win their first NCAA Championship during the 1982 NCAA Softball Season. How Monica Abbott, One Of Softball's Best Pitchers, Just Gets Better Chicago's Monica Abbott enters the NPF postseason with a 13-1 record and 0.31 ERA in 90 1/3 innings. She isn't likely to catch Moulton in wins or Groenewegen in strikeouts, but she's the one who pitched the Gophers to Oklahoma City with a 31-9 record, 1.27 ERA and 346 strikeouts a season ago. Helping the United States to a WBSC Under-19 world title last summer was a good start. As you look around the game of softball, many great famous softball players come to mind. No, Alo didn't hit 30 home runs or lead major conference players with a slugging percentage close to 1.000, both things she did as a freshman in 2018. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. A dozen players had at least three at-bats over the weekend. 2019 key stats: .330 BA, .463 OBP, .614 SLG. 13. Shelbi Sunseri, P/Utility, LSU 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Her numbers in Pac-12 play a season ago were even essentially identical to her numbers out of conference. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Rawlings baseball glove Rawlings Softball Pitcher for Infielders at the best online prices at eBay! Carosone was selected USA Softball National Player of the Week in 2015. Danielle LawrieWashington 2006-07, 2009-10. After a 26-6 record and 1.22 ERA as a sophomore at Arizona State, she went 28-4 with a 1.39 ERA a season ago. All of which meant she went from 33 career at-bats in those first two years to Big Ten Player of the year in her third year. Drawing four walks, Ellis posted a .788 on-base percentage. "We could have made that statement years ago, that she is arguably the best pitcher," said Shannon Doepking, now the head coach at Dartmouth but formerly Abbott's catcher at both Tennessee and with the Bandits and other teams in NPF. Two games into Tokyo, she did just that, pitching a complete-game, one-hit shutout against No. It's no wonder no one wanted to throw to her with 37 extra-base hits. 2019 key stats: 39-6, 1.11 ERA, 0.76 WHIP. Only a few weeks beyond her 30th birthday, she declined to discuss her future plans beyond a year-by-year approach. Like the other groundbreaking women on our list, Dot Richardson has had a long career in softball. (To fit all the games in, the softball competition kicked off before the Opening Ceremony on July 23.) Well, that was worth the wait. One softball player who rocked the 00 is former UCLA Bruins star, Rachel Garcia. Lucky number 13 lands as one famous softball players jersey number while also being worn by many other great softball players over the years. While the offense was firing on all cylinders, Oklahoma pitcher Alex Storako stayed cool in the circle. Abbott became a bona fide star when she pitched for Tennessee from 2004 to 2007, throwing an incredible 23 no-hitters and six perfect games during her time as a Vol. Lawrie struck out 1860 batters . The Sooners lost 4-3 at Baylor on Feb. 19. The home runs set an Alabama single-season record, no small feat when Kelly Kretschman is an alum, and matched the SEC single-season record. Mia Davidson, C, Mississippi State Oklahomas absence atop the college softball world didnt last long. The College World Series Home Run Queen Jocelyn Alo rocks the number 78 for her Oklahoma Sooners National Championship and is possibly the best softball player to wear the 78. She had a freshman season for the ages, yet saw that effort overshadowed by Jocelyn Alo's record-setting debut for Oklahoma. I don't know the answers. . When you are preparing against that, thats really exciting. The Tigers left no doubt about it. "I don't know whether we're just going through a cycle or we're just not developing pitchers any longer, I have no idea, but I do know there is a different climate in today's game than there was even 10 years ago," said University of Arizona and former Team USA coach Mike Candrea this spring. 2 min read. The only other run against her, and the only loss she incurred, came in a relief appearance in which extra-inning procedures placed a runner on second base to begin an inning. Here is a list of some of the most famous softball players jersey numbers. Its so awesome.. But she still ranks among the top 20 returnees in Power 5 conferences in slugging percentage. Along with Fa Leilua, Davidson is a run producer with the potential to provide a lot of job security. "I think it kind of puts things in perspective for your average athletes like myself. 2019 key stats: 18-10, 1.81 ERA, 0.91 WHIP; .315 BA, .388 OBP, .540 SLG. Tiare Jennings and Jayda Coleman hit a pair of homers over the weekend. "We stick together," Luu said. What began by moving the mound from 40 to 43 feet and replacing a white ball with a yellow ball easier for a hitter's eye to pick up continues almost unabated. Ellis was selected the Plainsman Invite All-Tournament team and was tabbed SEC Player of the Week on Monday. The Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year the last we saw her at Oregon in 2018, Kleist sat out last season after joining the exodus from Oregon following Mike White's departure. Finch is beautiful and one of the best softball players to play the game of softball. Also provides a more comfortable option for . Please subscribe to keep reading. While Jennie Finch is possibly the most famous softball player, Dot Richardson has the resume to be considered the Greatest Softball Player ever. OUs 20 hits were the most since a 20-hit performance at Wichita State on May 23, 2021. It's her misfortune that one of the few seasons it didn't match was her own record-breaking freshman campaign. "I think what has changed is just her being a smarter pitcher. With Braxton Burnside, Danielle Gibson, Mary Haff and the impeccably named Autumn Storms around, this could be a special season in Fayetteville. Outside candidates. Sooner third baseman Alyssa Brito fouled the ball away three times, battling through a full count before launching Oklahomas first home run of the day. Even in college softball, only four Division I players ever saved more than 11 games in a season. 2019 key stats: .459 BA, .582 OBP, .859 SLG. Fresh off helping her Oklahoma Sooners win back-to-back National Championships, it is easy to understand why Jocelyn Alo is one of the most famous softball players. We'll get to them because, as these things go, they are remarkable. Jordy Bahl is a pitcher with the Oklahoma softball program. Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza, OF, Arizona She made 12 starts in the regular season and recorded 11 complete-game shutouts. Who Is the Best Softball Player in the World? But that came alongside the sheer star wattage emitted by Rachel Garcia and even Bubba Nickles. These guys are the best of the best, she said. Which 16 teams should you buy or fade ahead of March Madness? Megan Good almost didn't become one of the best softball pitchers in the world. Jordy Bahl, P/UT, Oklahoma. Nicole DeWitt (BS '18), infielder: One of the best clutch players ever at Florida, whose 196 runs are the 6th most all-time. The Oklahoma athletics director, in his first public comments since his schools announcement of a 2024 move to the Southeastern Conference, d, Jackson Arnold is now a member of OU's rich quarterback fraternity. The rock-solid defensive . Watching someone come so close to perfecting a part of the game is all the more notable because when Osterman retires at the conclusion of the playoffs, Abbott may well be the last of her kind. UCLA outfielder Bubba Nickles and Arizona catcher Dejah Mulipola join her, putting their college achievements on hold for the upcoming season. According to former Team USA teammate Jessica Mendoza, now an NBC commentator at the Tokyo Olympics (and a baseball analyst for ESPN), Abbott is "one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the entire game." 7. Over the years, many great female softball players have dominated the sport while making big statements at the collegiate level and during play in the Summer Olympics. Four more pitchers to watch in the NPF playoffs: Lauren Haeger, Dallas Charge: You may remember her from such roles as Most Outstanding Player of the Women's College World Series or USA Softball Player of the Year. The pitcher has quite a bit of experience playing in Japan, having pitched professionally for the Toyota Motor Corporation in the Japan Softball League for 12 seasons. If she's a few spots lower than she was a season ago, it's mostly an indication of how fine the margins are in trying to separate players who don't have many flaws. Bailey Hemphill, 1B/DP, Alabama On Tuesday, the Sooners returned to No. Earlier this month, Storako said working out against the OU offense in preseason practices prepared her. She had help from the likes of Sarah Cornell, who didn't miss this list by all that much. That's a sophomore slump that most players would love to suffer. 2019 key stats: .383 BA, .467 OBP, .711 SLG. We know there will be a new player of the year in college softball, even if her hold on the honor is even more fleeting than usual. No other pitcher with at . 2019 key stats: .359 BA, .442 OBP, .712 SLG. After a one-week stint at No. Kayla Konwent, 1B/DP, Wisconsin The team started by traveling around the United States, Canada, and Mexico to play local softball teams. In addition, the Sooners star took home three First-Team All-American honors and back-to-back USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Awards. Amazon.com : Mizuno GPE1200F1 Mizuno Prime Elite Pitcher Fastpitch Softball Glove 12", Left Hand Throw : Sports & Outdoors . For comparison, a 72 mph pitch in softball is about the equivalent of a blistering 101 mph pitch in baseball. It's a new era for Mississippi State, as Samantha Ricketts steps into the head coaching role. Watley put together a fantastic college career, including finishing her career to have at least a .400 batting average with at least 200 runs scored, 100 stolen bases, and 300 total hits. "By the time she releases it, she's like already halfway to you," said Natasha Watley, now a foe with the top-seeded USSSA Pride but also a teammate in Japan's professional league and formerly with Team USA. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. I see opportunities for other athletes, for the college girls coming in [to the league], for the college freshmen, for the 12-year-olds. Kinzie Hansen and Rylie Boone were both retired in the top of the second inning to quickly register the first two outs, but then a home run derby broke out. Every one of OUs first 10 hits came with no outs, as the lineup piled pressure on the UCLA pitching staff throughout. In her first season of 2022, she dominated her freshman campaign going 22-1 with a 1.09 ERA and 205 strikeouts in 33 appearances. All records listed on our website are current and up-to-date. So it's more so, I think, just that this year I have evolved as a pitcher and just continuing to grow in my specialty.". Auburn gymnastics is back on the climb. Jennie Finch Arizona Wildcats & Team USA, Cat Osterman Texas Longhorns & Team USA, Nicole Sis Bates AKA Sis Bates Washington Huskies, Sierra Romero Michigan Wolverines & Team USA, Jessica Mendoza- Stanford Cardinals & Team USA, Odicci Alexander James Madison University, 8 & 38 Cat Osterman (Texas Longhorns & Team USA). Gabbie Plain, P, Washington We looked at some of the most famous softball players of all time and the best softball players of all time be sure that the list will continue to grow as the next wave of softball players build their softball resumes. P/Utility, LSU 2023 Vox Media, LLC the best softball players come to.!, & quot ; we stick together, & quot ; Luu said a few weeks her... Pitches leave her left hand, she said we stick together, & quot we... Title before leading Australia to Tokyo a 1.39 ERA a season ago were essentially. 2019 key stats:.386 BA,.582 OBP,.540 SLG like the other women. 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