Siena has promoted assistant coach Casey Bump to the role of head coach, the school announced on Monday. Bump spent the last seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Saints. During her time on the coaching staff, Bump worked with the program’s pitching staff and helped guide a pair of program greats, including 2018 graduate Lauren Butts, who ranks in the top three in program history in both wins and strikeouts. Prior to joining the Siena program, Bump spent several years on the coaching staff at Rensselaer Polytechnic (RPI), as well as time in the high school and private…
Author: jmcleod
The 1992 Women’s College World Series saw the debut of the UMass Minutewomen in Oklahoma City. Led by the legendary head coach Elaine Sortino, the Minutewomen went 2-2 in the tournament, losing twice to eventual National Champions UCLA. On that impressive UMass squad was a first baseman by the name of Rachel Lawson. The sophomore infielder posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage during the World Series, and led all defensive players in putouts and fielding chances during the event. Now the head coach at Kentucky, Lawson returned to Oklahoma City in 2014, this time leading her Wildcats to the game’s…
The coaching staff at Softball University is a decorated one. Headlined by former college coaches and national champions, the Seattle-based company has no shortage of qualified experts in their stable. Former Washington catcher Shawna Wright serves as the organization’s program director, while former Arizona State star Annie Lockwood is the program manager; Lockwood joined the instructional staff after a stint as a Division I assistant coach at South Dakota. Other staff members include former college coaches and alumni from some top-level NCAA programs. SU instructors work out of a variety of locations in Washington state, and the brand has recently…
You can’t have a conversation about the all-time softball greats without mentioning Courtney Blades. The right-hander ranks second all-time with 151 career wins from the pitching circle, and finished her career with a minuscule 0.97 ERA. Blades began her collegiate playing career at Nicholls State, earning the Southland Conference’s Newcomer of the Year award in 1997 and the league’s Player and Pitcher of the Year awards in 1998. Blades’ 1.03 ERA during her two years at Nicholls still ranks 3rd all-time in the program’s record book; her .320 batting average is the 12th-best mark in program history. Prior to the…
During the 1983 Women’s College World Series, the Missouri Tigers were led by pitcher Teresa Wilson. Despite the Tigers’ playing in just two games of the tournament, Wilson finished among the top hurlers in the World Series, sporting a 0.40 ERA, while opposing batters hit just .167 against her. An All-American selection that same year, Wilson finished her playing career with more than 100 career wins and fifty-five career shutouts from the circle. She would go on to be the first softball player to be inducted into the Mizzou Hall of Fame. Just six years after her WCWS debut in…
Nikki Gentile has been named the new head coach at the Academy of Art, the school announced on Friday. Gentile spent three years as the head coach at Solano Community College, and led the team to a conference championship and undefeated league record during both the 2018 and 2019 seasons. She was named the Bay Valley Conference Coach of the Year in ’18, and additionally worked in the athletic department in a non-coaching role. Prior to her tenure at Solano CC, Gentile coached at the high school level, and served stints on staff at Northwest Missouri State and Coe College,…
Former Monmouth standout Kayla Rosado is transferring to Coastal Carolina, the school announced on Friday. Rosado spent four years at Monmouth, including the abbreviated 2020 season. She will join the Chanticleers as a graduate transfer with a single season of eligibility remaining. During her career at Monmouth, Rosado was twice bestowed with all-conference honors, earning a first-team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference nod in 2019 and a second-team selection in 2018. She posted a career batting average of .322 with twelve home runs and 100 RBIs. Prior to the abrupt end to the 2020 campaign, Rosado was leading the Monmouth offense…
As a freshman pitcher in 2010, Kenzie Fowler led the Arizona Wildcats to the Women’s College World Series for the 22nd time in program history. Despite being just a first-year hurler, Fowler led the WCWS field with 36.2 innings pitched and 49 strikeouts. Ten years removed from the first and only WCWS appearance of her career, Fowler shares some of her memories of Oklahoma City. On the feeling of qualifying for the WCWS… “I was so young that, for a lot of that postseason run, I was just kind of numb. You know, you’re in shock because you’ve been dreaming of…
In 1988, the Pac-10 Conference was in just its second year of sponsoring softball. Three-time national champions UCLA were the obvious headliners for the league on the softball diamond, and Arizona State had joined the Bruins in representing the conference at the Women’s College World Series a year earlier, in 1987. Down in Tucson, Arizona, a young man named Mike Candrea was in his third season at the helm of the Arizona Wildcats’ softball team. The ‘Cats had hired Candrea away from Central Arizona College prior to the 1986 season, when they still competed in the Pacific West Conference, and…
It was the rubber game of the 2020 conference-opening series against Texas A&M. The Kentucky Wildcats had opened a healthy lead in the game after two early grand slams, but putting a W in the books and cementing a positive start to SEC play was imperative for the squad. During a middle-inning break, four youngsters took their places at the right field foul pole. Each of them carried an oversized cutout of one of the Wildcats’ four senior student-athletes. At the call of “Go!”, the quartet took off across the warning track, aiming to be the first to reach the…