After Longhorns ace is injured, her teammates rallied for a come-from-behind victory on the road. It was a freak accident of a play; a simple matter of dead-ball defensive positioning. On an attempted sacrifice bunt, the Alabama batter stepped out of the batter’s box when making contact. Texas catcher Mary Iakopo either didn’t hear the umpire behind her or simply concentrated on getting the lead runner out at second base, picked up the ball, and fired a bullet toward second. Longhorns pitcher Miranda Elish, perhaps twenty or thirty feet away, happened to be standing directly in the path of the…
Author: jmcleod
The 2019 JWOS All-Freshman team has been announced. Consisting of nineteen of the finest first-year players in the nation, this team of rookie all-stars is the only one of its kind. Ties were not broken in the voting. The nineteen-member roster includes three pitchers, one catcher, five infielders, and three outfielders, all named to the team at their respective positions, as well as one utility player and six at-large selections, from any on-field position. The Big 10 and SEC led all conferences with four and three representatives on the all-freshman team, respectively, while the ACC, Pac 12, and Big 12…
When the ACC Network – a new, full-time venture backed by ESPN – rolls out in August, it is expected to deliver SEC Network-esque coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s sports, including softball. The 2020 season will be the network’s first with softball coverage and, as an ESPN property, could easily staff the league’s biggest games with some of the top broadcasting talent already on the network’s talent roster. With expanded coverage also comes expanded opportunities for broadcast talent to shine, both on the new network’s airwaves and filling roles in other games across the spectrum of ESPN’s softball coverage,…
UConn has declined to renew the contract of head coach Jen McIntyre. The school announced the move in a press release on Wednesday. McIntyre completed her fifth year at UConn with the 2019 season, and posted a 95-163 overall record during that tenure. Under McIntyre’s guidance, the Huskies posted a 24-68 mark against American Athletic Conference opponents during those same five years. In 2019, the Huskies went 21-29, with an 8-13 conference record. Both the overall and conference marks reflected the Huskies’ best performance during McIntyre’s tenure. Prior to taking the helm of the UConn program, McIntyre had been the associate head…
Longtime San Diego head coach Melissa McElvain has resigned from her position with the Toreros. McElvain’s tenure at San Diego came to an end as she stood just shy of the 400-win mark for her career. Entering the 2019 season, McElvain owned a 361-476 career record and led the Toreros to a 20-29 record during the regular season, including a 4-11 mark in West Coast Conference play. The Toreros’ 20-win campaign in 2019 was the team’s lowest number of victories since 2008, but did continue an 11-year streak of recording at least twenty wins; the last time that San Diego…
Boston College and head coach Ashley Obrest have parted ways, according to a university press release on Tuesday. Obrest spent eight years as the Eagles’ head coach, posting a 200-219 record during her tenure. The mark included a 66-113 record in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Under Obrest’s guidance, the Eagles posted a winning record in five straight seasons from 2014-18. During the 2019 season, Obrest led the Eagles to an 18-35 overall record, along with a 4-20 conference mark. The Eagles hit .249 as a team, while posting a team ERA of 5.22. In a university release, Boston College athletic director Martin Jarmond…
Auburn pitcher Ashlee Swindle has been diagnosed with a concussion, but has no broken bones after being struck in the face by a line drive. The injury happened during Friday’s NCAA tournament opener against Colorado State. Pitching against Colorado State slugger Ashley Ruiz in the fifth inning, Swindle was struck in the face by a line drive straight back up the middle. She immediately fell to the ground and was surrounded by teammates. After being tended to by athletic training staff in the center of the diamond, Swindle was taken off the field on a cart. In a statement issued…
Arkansas star pitcher Mary Haff has a torn ACL, Razorbacks head coach Courtney Deifel revealed on Friday. In a mid-game interview during the ESPN broadcast of her team’s game against BYU, Deifel said, “We’ve been holding our cards pretty close, but Mary tore her ACL this week.” The Hogs started Autumn Storms in back-to-back games, in what would be their only two games of the NCAA tournament, which prompted a question from color commentator Cheri Kempf in the interview about the reasoning therefore. At that time, Deifel revealed the injury. In two starts in the tournament, Storms threw 13.0 innings,…
Iowa State alum Brittany Gomez has been named the interim head coach at Division II Bemidji State for the 2020 season. Gomez has been on staff at Bemidji State since last summer, and served unofficially as the interim head coach for the latter part of the 2019 season. With Wednesday’s announcement, she will don the interim head coach title “effective immediately,” according to a university release. Gomez spent four years at Iowa State, graduating in 2016, where she earned all-Big 12 honors in each season of her career. She earned a nod to the all-conference first-team after batting .401 in…
Sacramento State star Suzy Brookshire has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, sources have informed Justin’s World of Softball. Brookshire was named the Big Sky Conference MVP in 2018 and was a unanimous all-conference selection that same year. The Hornets’ starting left fielder, Brookshire was the first player in Sacramento State history to earn all-region honors in the first two years of her career, as well as the first in the program’s Division I history to earn back-to-back all-region honors. During the 2019 season, Brookshire finished fifth on the team with a .296 batting average in the second-most at-bats on the…