The year of 2017 was a full one in the softball world. From January to December, there always seemed to be something happening. Here’s a look at our countdown of the top happenings, biggest storylines, and most memorable moments of 2017.
11. Kevin Blaskowski leaves West Texas A&M — This piece of news out of the Division II ranks was shocking. Blaskowski had enjoyed enormous success at WTAMU over twelve seasons as head coach, after restarting the softball program in the mid-2000s. The Lady Buffs won 467 games under Blaskowski’s leadership and had appeared in the NCAA postseason eight times. Blaskowski led his program to the 2014 NCAA Division II National Championship, one of two College World Series berths during his tenure.
10. Lisa Fernandez’s WCWS tirade — Softball legend and UCLA assistant coach Fernandez made headlines for her on-field endeavors during the Women’s College World Series, just like old times, but for drastically different actions. Instead of her mastery from the pitching circle, this time Fernandez was arguing with first one umpire, then another before ultimately making contact with one of the officials and being ejected. For making contact with the umpire, Fernandez drew a two-game suspension and saw Bruin fans – on just a few hours of notice – show up to the team’s next game wearing “Free the GOAT” [Greatest Of All Time] shirts that bore Fernandez’s picture.
9. Ole Miss breaks out — In a crowded SEC race, the conference title and tournament championship are always up for grabs. For the first time in history, the Ole Miss Rebels were the last team left standing and were crowned SEC tournament champions. It marked the latest achievement in an impressive turnaround by head coach Mike Smith, who took over a sub-.500 team and has not finished below .500 in his three year as the Rebels’ head coach. Smith’s club impressed enough to earn the #12 overall seed and host their first-ever Regional, which they won, and advanced to the Super Regional round, another program first.
8. Texas Charge leave NPF — The second-year Scrap Yard Dawgs taking home the NPF league championship narrowly missed our list, but the departure of their nearby compatriots from league competition has far larger and long-lasting implications on the state of the league. The Charge, who seemed to be one of the league’s more firmly-set and stable franchises regardless of on-field results, departed the league for a variety of reasons, none of which, in departure from previous similar history, had financial implications, according to reports.
7. Marathon 17-inning game starts WCWS championship series — The Women’s College World Series championship series between the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners was sure to be a classic. Some of the best pitchers in the nation, two of the top coaches, and some terrific offensive players had many predicting a back-and-forth series that would be remembered for a while. The two teams got off to a certainly-memorable start in game one, as they battled through a seventeen-inning affair that saw four lead changes and three pitchers who threw more than seven innings during the game. The Sooners ultimately emerged victorious by a score of 7-5. The game saw forty strikeouts and nearly 500 pitches thrown.
6. Minnesota misses out on national seed; endures coaching change — The Minnesota Golden Gophers have had quite year. The Golden Gophers enjoyed a top-ten ranking for much of the regular season, even vaulting into the top five for a portion of the year. The Big Ten regular-season and tournament champions, it seemed to many to be a foregone conclusion that the Gophers would earn the opportunity to host a regional, and likely earn a top-eight national seed. When the selection show rolled around, however, instead of hosting at least a regional, the Gophers found themselves placed as the #2 seed in the Tuscaloosa regional, where their season came to a surprisingly-quick end.
Following the season, head coach Jessica Allister left the Gophers to accept the head coaching position at Stanford, her alma mater. After a short search, the Gophers hired former Iowa State head coach Jamie Trachsel as their new head coach.
5. Clemson hires John Rittman as head coach — Clemson made their first big announcement since adding softball to their slate of varsity sports by announcing John Rittman as the program’s new head coach. Rittman had previously been the associate head coach at Kansas after a lengthy tenure as the Stanford head coach. The Tigers would go on to hire Kyle Jamieson as associate head coach, pulling him from the head coaching position at Furman, and receiving a quintet of commitments for the 2020 season.
4. NISC tournament founded, but ends in controversy — Triple Crown Sports announced in January that they would be sponsoring an NIT-style tournament called the “NISC”, an acronym for the National Invitational Softball Championship. Though the original plans for the tournament did not materialize, due to lesser participation numbers, the inaugural tournament hosted twenty-six teams. The tournament ended in controversy, as the Liberty Flames and Lamar Cardinals battled for the tournament championship. The Cardinals took a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth inning, but after rain halted the game with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, tournament organizers waited nineteen minutes before calling the game and announcing that the final score would revert to the last fully-completed inning, giving Liberty the 3-1 win and the tournament championship.
3. Oklahoma goes back-to-back — The Oklahoma Sooners entered 2017 as the favorites to repeat as national champions, and they ultimately fulfilled those expectations with relative ease; the Sooners won sixty-one games, took home the conference regular-season title with a 17-1 record, and lost just two games after April 1. The Sooners lost their first game of the regional round to North Dakota State by a score of 3-2 in nine innings, but outscored opponents 58-26 throughout the remainder of the postseason en route to their second consecutive title. Entering the postseason as the #10 overall seed, the Sooners dominated the competition in the Women’s College World Series and placed four players on the all-tournament team, including Shay Knighten, who was named Most Outstanding Player.
2. Louisiana-Lafayette erupts in controversy — The biggest continuing storyline of the fall, the firing of longtime head coach Michael Lotief amidst allegations of misconduct shook the softball world and split arguably the best time in mid-major softball. Lotief was suspended in early October, a story that broke weeks later, and was fired in November. Each move took the softball world by surprise and ultimately led to divided opinions on the issue across the board. The majority of Lotief’s players, however, past and present, made it clear on which side they fell, with messages of support on social media. Lotief himself began to take to social media to present parts of his “case” against the school and what he viewed as impropriety and favoritism for other Cajun athletics programs other than his own by the school’s administration.
Star players Aleah Craighton, DJ Sanders, and Alyssa Denham all elected to transfer away from the Cajuns following the firing of Lotief. The school initially refused to grant the players their releases to enable them to play immediately, but after the hiring of new head coach Gerry Glasco, one of his first acts was to grant each player their immediate release. Craighton and Denham found their new homes as Arizona Wildcats, while Sanders moved to the Oregon Ducks.
Glasco was hired as head coach in mid-November, and immediately built his staff to include pitching coach Ellen Renfroe-Reed, hitting coach Joe Guthrie, and former Bucknell head coach Courtnay Foster. The longtime SEC assistant and NPF head coach will use his first collegiate head coaching position to right the ship in Lafayette and keep the Cajuns on a winning track.
1. Turmoil surrounds Auburn — The Tigers began making headlines in March and never really left them, and unfortunately for the Auburn faithful, it had nothing to do with the team’s on-field play. Assistant coach Corey Myers “resigned” in May, and allegations of misconduct and improper contact with players came swiftly on his heels. The story only gathered steam from there, ultimately leading to Clint Myers’ abrupt retirement during the summer and an ESPN expose just days later that detailed Corey Myers’ misconduct and the perceived covering-up of his actions.
The Auburn athletic department failed to turn around the bad PR that the scandal brought to the program, which also ultimately contributing to the resignation and retirement of athletic director Jay Jacobs. A Title IX lawsuit was brought by former player Alexa Nemeth and an investigation was conducted by the school, the results of which included Corey Myers’ being prohibited from the Auburn campus.
Former James Madison head coach Mickey Dean was hired as Auburn’s new head coach and initially comprised his staff of hitting coach Gerry Glasco and former Georgia Southern head coach Annie Smith. Glasco left after just two months to accept the Louisiana-Lafayette head coaching position and Dean hired Eddy Ketelhut as his replacement, a hiring that JWOS broke and the school has yet to announce.
