Joey Lye is stepping down as the head coach at Bucknell in order to continue playing for the Canadian national team. Lye, who finished her third year leading the program with the end of the 2020 season, was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year in 2019 after leading her squad to a 28-24 overall record and a 14-3 conference showing that year. A member of the Canadian National team since 2010, Lye helped lead the Canadian squad to a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games. She spent a significant portion of the 2020 spring season away…
Author: jmcleod
Laura Matthews has been named the head coach at Belmont. Matthews spent the last three years as the head coach at Wright State, and was set to continue leading the Raiders’ program before it was eliminated by the school due to budgetary reasons. In her three years at Wright State, Matthews owned a 50-76 record and a 19-23 conference mark. Prior to taking the helm at Wright State, Matthews spent five years as the head coach at Wittenberg University, a Division III school in Ohio. She collected 128 wins and a .691 winning percentage during her time at Wittenberg, and…
Early in July, Shelby Shelton was officially named as the new head coach at Paris Junior College. After a single season coaching at the Division I level, she returns to junior college softball, the place where she began both her playing and coaching careers. A product of Howard College before finishing her playing career at UT-Tyler, Shelton has long been seen as something of a rising star in the coaching profession; in 2018, she was named the NFCA’s National Junior College Assistant Coach of the Year. After spending four years on staff at Howard, her alma mater, Shelton spent the…
Shannon Saile, Madison McPherson, and Ashley Blessin – otherwise known as the Bradenton Slice pitching staff – have been named the JWOS Co-Players of the Week after a stellar week in the circle. In three games on the week, the staff combined to allow just 1 run in 22 innings of work and posted a perfect 3-0 record. The trio allowed seven hits and six walks, and collected 38 strikeouts. Thanks to FGCL broadcaster Gray Robertson for the statistical assistance, those numbers equate to a 0.32 staff ERA and an average of 1.7 strikeouts per inning on the week. McPherson…
The inaugural Florida Gulf Coast League Home Run Derby saw impressive power shows from several players, and Wisconsin catcher Taylor Johnson emerged as the Derby champion. Originally scheduled to take place on Saturday evening, the Home Run Derby and league All-Star Game were moved to Saturday morning in an attempt to get ahead of some expected harsh weather. Johnson hit 12 home runs in the opening round, one of two players to reach double digits in the opening round, and was the first player to clinch her spot in the Derby semifinals. Four home runs in the second round were…
Tobin Echo-Hawk has been promoted to a full-time assistant coaching position at New Mexico State. Echo-Hawk spent the 2020 season as the volunteer assistant for the Aggies, joining the club in January. Prior to signing on at NMSU, she spent six seasons as the head coach at UTEP. During her tenure at UTEP, Echo-Hawk led the Miners to a pair of appearances in the Conference USA tournament. In the 2018 season, the Miners’ .286 team batting average ranked second in Conference USA, while the squad recorded just 58 fielding errors – a program record – that same year. Prior to her…
Former National Player of the Year Lacey Waldrop has been named an assistant coach at Houston. Waldrop spent the last two years as a coach for Softball Rebellion, following a 2-year stint as an assistant coach on the inaugural coaching staff at Duke. She spent the 2017 season as a graduate manager on staff at Oklahoma, earning a championship ring following the Sooners’ second-consecutive national title. During her playing career at Florida State, Waldrop was a 3-time All-American and was named the ACC Pitcher of the Year in both 2014 and 2015. After helping lead the Seminoles to the 2014…
The Tokyo Organizing Committee on Friday announced the game schedule for the postponed 2020 Olympics that are set to take place in 2021. Softball will be the first sport to be played at the postponed 2020 Games, and will kick off on July 21st with a matchup between Australia and host nation Japan. By the time that the Olympic Opening Ceremonies officially take place on July 23rd, the softball slate of games will already be 40% completed. Preliminary round games are set to take place from July 21-26, with no games on the 23rd due to the opening ceremony. The…
St. Thomas has received approval to reclassify to Division I, the school announced on Wednesday. A longtime Division III stalwart, the Tommies are the first Division III athletics program to move straight from D3 to Division I under the modern NCAA rules. The process required a special waiver from the NCAA. Without the waiver from the NCAA, a reclassification from D3 to D1 usually requires more than a decade’s time and a stop in Division II along the way. In the spring of 2019, St. Thomas was involuntarily removed from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a move that the conference…
The Lipscomb Bisons have added a pair of arms to their roster via the transfer portal. UNLV transfer Breanna Burke and former Appalachian State transfer Maddie Siemer were each announced as new members of the Lipscomb roster on Wednesday; both are right-handed pitchers. Burke, who will be a graduate senior in 2021, spent four years on the pitching staff at UNLV. She led the Rebels in ERA as both a freshman and a junior and sported an undefeated 4-0 record on the 2020 season when the campaign abruptly ended. For her career in Las Vegas, Burke notched a 2.47 ERA…