Washington legendary pitcher Danielle Lawrie will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2018, it was announced on Thursday. The two-time National Player of the Year, Lawrie earned the award in 2009 and 2010, her junior and senior seasons, after taking off the 2008 season to play for Team Canada in the Beijing Olympics. Lawrie earned three all-American awards during her career, being named to the first team in 2007, 2009, and 2010. Her trophy case also includes a pair of Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year awards, as well as three all-conference first-team selections.…
Author: jmcleod
Rutgers has named Kristen Butler as the Scarlett Knights’ new head coach. Butler spent the last four seasons as the head coach at Toledo, engineering a program rebuild that culminated with the Rockets sharing the MAC West regular-season division title and reaching the 30-win plateau for the first time in more than two decades. Butler was named the Mid-American Conference’s Coach of the Year in 2018. A winner of 104 games during her tenure with the Rockets, the first head coaching position of her career, Butler’s coaching resume includes previous assistant coaching stints at Charleston Southern, Mississippi Valley State, and…
Renee Luers-Gillispie has been named the new head coach at Iowa, the school announced on Friday. Most recently the head coach at Central Florida, Gillispie spent eighteen years as the Knights’ leader, collecting a record of 625-403-1. Gillispie led UCF to five conference titles and seven NCAA regional berths during her tenure, most recently in 2016. In addition to her nearly two-decade-long tenure at UCF, Gillispie had also been the head coach at Texas Tech and Bradley, among other positions. An Iowa native, Gillispie played collegiately at Kirkwood Community College in the state before finishing her playing career at West…
Louisville head coach Sandy Pearsall has announced her retirement, effective immediately, according to a release from the school on Tuesday. Pearsall had led Louisville for nineteen seasons, earning 718 wins during her tenure and appearing in thirteen NCAA tournaments. Pearsall began the softball program at Louisville and finishes her career there with six conference championships under her belt and a full record of 718-371 during her time with the Cardinals. Louisville finished the 2018 season 33-20, with a 10-12 record in conference play. The Cardinals last made the NCAA postseason in 2016, when they went 0-2 in the NCAA tournament’s regional round.…
Eight teams entered Oklahoma City, and now just two remain to compete for the National Championship. The Washington Huskies and the Florida State Seminoles will go head-to-head in a best of three series to determine the champion. As the teams get ready to kick off game one of the championship series on Monday night, let’s take a look at how the teams stack up position by position. Pitcher Florida State: Meghan King, RSJR & Kylee Hanson, RSSR – King has pitched in each of her team’s games in the World Series, starting three of them. The duo make a hearty 1-2 punch…
Florida State hosted one of the toughest regionals in the nation when they brought in a field that included the SEC’s Auburn, as well as conference champions Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State. The Seminoles met up with Auburn in the winner’s bracket game and the game was a pitcher’s duel, with each starting pitcher giving up one run in seven innings. With a tie ball game, extra innings were on tap, with both teams looking for a victory that would give them a much easier road to earning a Super regional berth. Enter Carsyn Gordon. The Seminoles’ junior first baseman…
Jennifer Patrick-Swift was not a name that many people knew in 2011. That was when the former Methodist College first baseman was hired to be the head coach at the second-smallest school at the Division 1 level, Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. An institution with undergraduate enrollment at roughly 1,700, the Red Flash had won just ten games in 2011. On the hunt for a new head coach who could turn their program around, the focus centered on Patrick-Swift. Then the head coach at Division II school Seton Hill, Patrick-Swift agreed to take the reins of the Red Flash…
NCAA Secretary Rules-Editor Vickie Van Kleeck answered questions from a pool reporter on Friday night after the UCLA/Florida game, specifically clarifying the circumstances surrounding the ejection of Florida head coach Tim Walton. “He was ejected because he came and was questioning the strike zone, and he received a warning and he continued to argue and threw his clipboard down. He was ejected for Rule 13.8.4, which is part of the verbal misconduct rule, which is questioning the strike zone,” Van Kleeck told the pool reporter. Whether a mistake in speech on the part of Van Kleeck or something else, that explanation…
By Megan Turk Game one between #8 Arizona State and #1 Oregon started the WCWS with a mighty bang. With a total of 17 runs scored between the two teams, it seemed as though the Sun Devils started off a bit tight on the defensive end. Several booted balls and miscommunications on the infield led to early Duck runs. The long ball did the majority of the damage, as ASU began the game with a 2-run shot off the bat of freshman DeNae Chatman, but with immediate responses from Oregon’s best offensive WCWS performance to date, the Ducks took the…
Oregon’s offensive explosion After putting together an eleven-run outburst to finish off Kentucky in the Super regional, some wondered what lay in store for the Duck bats against familiar foe Arizona State. The Ducks did not wait long to answer that very question. After a two-run home run in the top of the 1st inning by Arizona State, Oregon answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the frame and proceeded to put together their second consecutive 11-run game to take the win over the Sun Devils. Just two starting position players went hitless in the game,…