Division II school Alderson Broaddus has been accepted into the Mountain East Conference and will begin competing in the league with the 2020-21 season. Alderson Broaddus currently competes as a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference; in joining the MEC, the Battlers will reunite with a number of teams with whom they formerly competed when all were members of the now-disbanded WVIAC. The approval for the school’s acceptance into the MEC was unanimously approved by the league’s Board of Directors, according to a conference press release. The addition of the Battlers’ program will give the Mountain East Conference twelve…
Author: jmcleod
Brian Boulac, a former Notre Dame student-athlete; coach; and administrator, passed away earlier this week. He was 79 years old. Boulac played football at Notre Dame from 1959-62, and joined the football staff following his graduation. Boulac helped coach the Fighting Irish to eight postseason bowl appearances, and he was on the staff that led the program to the national championship on the gridiron in 1973 and ’77. In 1983, Boulac moved into an administrative role at the school, serving as a sport administrator for a number of Fighting Irish teams. In 1989, he was named the inaugural head coach…
Former South Carolina infielder Jana Johns is transferring to Oklahoma, the school announced on Friday afternoon. A rising junior in 2021 thanks to the NCAA’s extended eligibility waiver, Johns has two years of eligibility remaining. Johns started every game that she played in over the last three seasons for South Carolina, totaling 146 appearances, and posted a batting average of .301 during her tenure in Columbia. She notched 25 career home runs and 98 RBIs, with a slugging percentage of .577. The Calhoun, Georgia native’s finest season came in 2019, when she hit .348 on the year, with fifteen home…
Molly Fichtner was a transplant. After beginning her career at UTSA, she transferred to Alabama prior to her junior season and spent the final two years of her career as the Crimson Tide’s starting catcher. In 2014, Fichtner was part of the Crimson Tide squad that returned to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since their 2012 national title. After losing to Florida in the WCWS championship series in 2014, the Tide returned to Oklahoma City again in 2015, this time with Fichtner on staff as the program’s volunteer assistant coach. Since that time, Fichtner has served…
Many of the game’s greatest pitchers have come through the circle in Oklahoma City. Legends like Lisa Fernandez and Michele Smith played on the dirt at the Women’s College World Series during their careers, but the eight participating teams in the 2008 edition of the WCWS might have fielded the greatest group of pitchers to ever play in the same championship tournament. PAC-12 mainstays UCLA and Arizona headlined the field that year, and each were led by a true ace in the circle. For the Bruins, it was Anjelica Selden leading the way. Selden set the Bruins’ program record for…
Former Arizona outfielder Jenna Kean is transferring to Louisiana-Lafayette, sources confirmed to JWOS late Tuesday evening. A rising junior in 2021 thanks to the NCAA’s extended eligibility waiver, Kean has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Kean batted .297 during three years in Tucson, including the abbreviated 2020 campaign. A speedy short-game player, Kean posted an on-base percentage of .357 as a Wildcat, with eighteen stolen bases to her credit and twenty career RBIs. During the 2020 season, Kean appeared in twelve games, with a .353 batting average and an even .400 on-base percentage. She drove in two runs; had an…
Wright State is is eliminating their softball program, the school announced on Wednesday afternoon. The cancellation marks the first for a Division I program due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The move comes as part of a cost-cutting measure for the Raiders’ athletic department. The school is also cutting their men’s and women’s tennis programs. With the move, Wright State will now sponsor just eleven sports; participation in Division I athletics requires sponsoring of at least fourteen sports. According to the school press release, a waiver will be pursued to allow the school to continue to compete at its current level. On…
From 1982-2004, the first twenty-three years of the NCAA Women’s College World Series, no team from east of the Mississippi River even played for the national title, but in 2005, the dam finally broke. The Michigan Wolverines – participants in seven previous Women’s College World Series tournaments up to that point – and their victory over the UCLA Bruins in the championship round made program, conference, and geographical history. Head coach Carol Hutchins first led the Wolverines to the World Series in 1995, a berth that began a streak of four consecutive appearances in Oklahoma City from 1995-98. The program…
The final team roster for the upcoming FGCL has been announced. Fastpitch U released their roster late last week. In the first year of sponsoring a softball summer league after previously beginning a similar baseball offering, the FGCL has previously announced an amended summer schedule, with the season set to begin on June 18th and stretch for five weeks. The league is comprised of seven teams, with players coming from rosters on a variety of collegiate levels. Fourteen players from twelve schools highlight the roster. Eight Division I schools; three Division II schools; and a Division III institution are represented…
Former Central Michigan head coach Margo Jonker will be inducted into the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame. Jonker is one of six individuals being inducted as part of the Class of 2020, and the only one of the six being enshrined for coaching success. The legendary Chippewa leader spent nearly four decades leading the program, collecting 1,245 wins, ten regular-season league championships, and ten MAC tournament titles before retiring following the 2019 season. She earned ten conference Coach of the Year awards and is the league’s all-time wins leader. Under Jonker’s leadership, the Chippewas played in the AIAW National Championship…