USC-Upstate alum Shellie Robinson will be inducted into the program’s athletics Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2020, the school announced late last week. Robinson enjoyed a stellar career during her playing days at Upstate, accumulating program records including career batting average (.389), runs scored (218), hits (264), home runs (70), and RBIs (198), among among eight total all-time statistical bests. Robinson was a two-time ASun conference Player of the Year and earned an All-American nod in 2014. Now an assistant coach at Stetson, Robinson’s career at USC-Upstate also saw the program reach three consecutive NCAA tournaments…
Author: jmcleod
A look back at 2019 Tennessee finished the 2019 season with a 43-17 overall record, ending the year with a 14-10 conference record. The Lady Vols went 20-5 at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium in Knoxville, and collected a 10-6 record on the road. In non-conference play to start the season, the Lady Vols began the year on a 7-0 run, including a victory over eventual WCWS participant Minnesota. Wins over Utah, Louisville, and North Carolina highlighted the remaining non-conference schedule, with losses to James Madison and Florida State and a two-game split against Texas. Upon reaching SEC play, the Lady…
A look back at 2019 The Wildcats finished the 2019 season with a 36-24 overall record, which included a 14-10 conference mark. The Cats finished positively at home, with a 13-6 showing at John Cropp Stadium, but went just 11-11 in road games. The ’19 season started rather sluggishly for the Wildcats, with three losses in the season-opening tournament. The squad dropped a number of games to top teams at the St. Pete/Clearwater Invitational, as well as the Mary Nutter Classic, but also posted victories over James Madison and Oregon. Later in the year, the Wildcats dropped a single game…
Ole Miss interim head coach Ruben Felix has filled out his coaching staff for the 2020 season, adding Damon Haecker as an assistant coach. Haecker had been the head coach of the Grand Lake Mariners, a collegiate summer league team based in Celina, Ohio. He previously was a high school assistant coach at Lee Scott Academy in Auburn, Alabama, and coached an Alabama-based travel baseball team in 2018. During his collegiate baseball career at Auburn, Haecker started at six different field positions throughout his four years on the Plains. Boasting a career .258 average and a .399 on-base percentage, Haecker…
Alicia Abbott wasn’t actively looking for a new job. Having just completed her fifth season as the associate head coach at Northern Illinois, she was content in her status quo. When the head coaching position at Loyola Chicago opened, however, things changed. A native of the Chicago suburbs – as is her husband – several members of Abbott’s family still live in and around Chicago. Applying for the job made too much sense. “I went into it hoping for an interview, and came out with a job,” she said. The hiring process took “most of the whole summer,” Abbott noted,…
The Chattanooga Mocs have filled out their coaching staff for the 2020 season, promoting one staff member and hiring a second. Assistant coach Scottie Kilgore has been promoted to the title of Associate Head Coach, as he enters his sixth season on staff with the Mocs. Since joining the program’s staff in 2015, Kilgore works with the team’s offense and helped shepherd the team to a pair of conference titles, in 2015 and ’19. “We’ve seen vast improvements on the field because of Scottie’s contributions to the program,” head coach Frank Reed said in a statement. “[The promotion is] well…
I. 2019 Recap North Texas and Louisiana Tech shared the Conference USA regular-season title, with a tiebreaker giving the Mean Green the top seed in the conference tournament. The Lady Techsters, though, ran through the tournament undefeated, en route to the conference crown and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. While Louisiana Tech was the only C-USA school to be selected for the NCAA tournament, Middle Tennessee and Marshall did additionally participate in the NISC postseason tournament. A total of twelve conference schools sponsor softball, including Charlotte; Florida Atlantic; Florida International; Louisiana Tech; Marshall; Middle Tennessee; North Texas; Southern…
A look back at 2019 The Dukes reached the 50-win plateau during the 2019 season, finishing the year with a 51-10 overall record. The squad went 20-1 in Colonial Athletic Association play, lost just one game at home, and posted a 13-3 record in true road matchups. During the non-conference portion of the season, the Dukes opened the year with a loss to Cal, but later recorded victories over Oregon and Tennessee in the same weekend. The remainder of the early-season schedule included victories over Michigan, Rutgers, Duke, Virginia, and Liberty; losses to Minnesota, Arizona, and Arizona State; and a…
It was not that long ago that the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were a postseason mainstay. From 2002-12, the program did not miss an NCAA tournament. Since that 2012 season, though, Georgia Tech has only barely even sniffed the postseason. After the 2017 campaign, program alum Aileen Morales “came home” as the program’s new head coach, with one clear objective: Right the ship. Even in just a pair of seasons back in Atlanta, Morales has already begun to turn the program around. In 2018, her first season at the helm of her alma mater, the Yellow Jackets reached the conference…
After two years in operation, the American Softball Association (ASBA) has announced the suspension of league operations in February 2020. “Acting in the best interest of our players and the entire sport of softball has always been our top priority,” the ASBA said in a statement. “The ASBA was created as a model designed to prove concept, generate revenue, and demonstrate that a self-reliant financial ecosystem is possible for a women’s sports organization. We remain fully committed to our belief that this is possible; however, the company has been unable to attract sufficient investment capital to move forward.” Headquartered in…