The 2020 JWOS All-Freshman team has been announced. Consisting of eighteen of the finest first-year players in the nation, this team of rookie all-stars is the only one of its kind. Players were selected for the team based on their performances during the 2020 season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The eighteen-member roster was not selected by position, and includes seven pitchers, one catcher, six infielders, two outfielders, and two utility players. The SEC led all conferences with six representatives on the JWOS All-Freshman Team, while the PAC-12 (3) and Patriot League (2) were the other leagues…
Author: jmcleod
Softball School is exactly what it sounds like: An educational offering for young athletes and their parents, coaches, and others around them, offered digitally and running the gamut on topics and categories. The latest offering to come from the Packaged Deal umbrella, Softball School went from a concept to a produced venture in under a week’s time. The speed of the venture’s creation was not accidental, according to Amanda Scarborough, an ESPN analyst and The Packaged Deal co-founder. “When everything got cancelled in the softball world, Jen [Schroeder, Packaged Deal co-founder] texted us and said, ‘Hey, I have this crazy idea. Let’s…
George Mason pitcher Marina Vitalich has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, sources confirmed to JWOS on Wednesday. Vitalich was a redshirt senior during the 2020 campaign that was abbreviated due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, and would be eligible for the extended eligibility that was approved by the NCAA’s D1 Council on Monday night. During her time at George Mason, Vitalich established herself as the all-time strikeout leader in program history, surpassing the 500-strikeout plateau during the 2019 season. She was a 3-time All-Atlantic 10 honoree, and was the league’s Co-Pitcher of the Year in 2017. The San Pedro,…
UPDATE 03/31/20: We asked the NCAA for clarification on a few topics following the D1 Council’s decision on Monday night. Through a spokesman, the NCAA confirmed that the increase in scholarship limits only applies to the 2020-21 season and only for seniors who would have exhausted their eligibility with the 2020 season. If a would-be senior chooses to transfer to play their final season with the extended eligibility, they are permitted to do so, but any financial aid that they receive counts against their new school’s regular annual scholarship limit. UPDATE 03/30/20: The NCAA released an official statement, minutes after the news…
Ole Miss pitcher Molly Jacobsen has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, JWOS confirmed on Wednesday. A former junior college transfer, Jacobsen competed as a senior in 2020 and is expected to play in 2021 under the potential NCAA eligibility extension that is expected to be ratified next week. Jacobsen earned second-team All-SEC and All-Region honors in 2019, finishing the season with a 14-8 overall record in 166.1 innings of work. She ended the year with a 2.15 ERA and finished sixth in the SEC with 166 strikeouts from the circle; her innings count ranked seventh in the conference. During the…
(Editor’s Note: During the COVID-19 global pandemic, we’ve decided to make all new content on JWOS free to all readers. If you’re so inclined, you can subscribe to and support JWOS by clicking here.) The JWOS Spring Road Trip is officially in the books. Though the COVID-19 pandemic brought an earlier-than-expected end to my travels, I was still able to see dozens of teams, visit twelve states, and my 2020 game count ended well into the triple-digits. I’ve been in a bit of a writing funk over the last week or so, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. So…
The Loyola Marymount Lions were not far from home, participating in the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, California. On paper, the matchup against top-5 LSU looked like a lopsided affair. Over the last few seasons, the Lions have vaulted themselves into a higher echelon of non-Power 5 teams that can never be counted out of a game, even against top-level opponents. In 2019, the Lions earned a hard-fought victory over eventual Super Regional participant Northwestern, but had yet to take on a ranked opponent in 2020 prior to facing off against the Bayou Bengals. Junior Linnay Wilson, the team’s defacto…
Hi Softball World, WOW, it has been a crazy couple of weeks! It has been a whirlwind of emotions. My heart is still heavy as this season abruptly came to an end. One minute, my team and I are gearing up for spring break. The next, I am packing up my stuff to go home, not to return to school or return to play for the rest of the season. It saddens me that one minute I am having the best time of life, playing the game I love, playing with my teammates, being around great coaches, and playing in…
Dartmouth infielder Micah Schroder has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, JWOS has learned. Schroder appeared in the portal on Wednesday morning, sources confirmed. The Houston, Texas native – who was a 4th-year senior during the abbreviated 2020 campaign – is transferring as a graduate student. The 2019 Ivy League Player of the Year, Schroder batted .473 that season, the best single-season batting average in program history. She recorded seven home runs and forty RBIs, the latter number also a single-season program record. In her addition to her Player of the Year nod, Schroder was a unanimous all-Ivy League selection, the…
The softball world was already in a state of turmoil. Earlier in the day, the Southeastern Conference had cancelled the upcoming men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and suspended all spring sport activities through the end of March. It was all in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus. LSU’s softball team – 21-3 on the year and riding a six-game winning streak – already had practice scheduled for the afternoon, and the Tiger coaches had decided that the day would be a light-hearted one. “We felt like they were in a bit of a bad…