Author: jmcleod

The Mexican National team will be one of six squads stepping onto the softball diamond on the hunt for a gold medal in Tokyo during the 2020 Olympic Games, and Team Mexico officials have announced a list of exhibition games and events where fans can see the squad take the field prior to the Olympics’ official kick-off. From January through May, Team Mexico will play in four different countries and against a handful of college teams in the United States to prepare for their return to the Olympic Games. Exhibition tournaments include the Asia Pacific Cup in Sydney, Australia from…

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South Carolina-Aiken head coach Jerry Snyder has announced plans to retire following the 2020 season. Snyder, the only leader that the Pacers softball program has ever known, will coach his 34th and final season in 2020. He owns a 778-763-3 record during his career, and is the longest-tenured coach in the Peach Belt Conference. “Jerry Snyder has been synonymous with USC Aiken softball for over three decades,” athletic director Jim Herlihy said in a statement. “As the only coach in Pacer softball history, he has literally built the program from scratch and been an impactful figure for hundreds of student-athletes.”…

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It wasn’t that long ago that Saint Anselm was ‘just another Division II school.’ In 2016, the Hawks had a sub-.500 record. A year later, they finished two games above that .500 mark. But in the two years since, head coach Jill Gagnon has guided the program to previously-unseen heights. The 2018 season saw the Hawks post forty-four wins and reach the World Series championship series, before ultimately losing back-to-back games to finish the season as national runners-up. In 2019, looking to build off of that strong surge, the team again reached the 40-win mark, but some stumbles in the…

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Division II Missouri-St. Louis has announced program softball great Hannah Perryman as part of the school’s Hall of Fame induction class of 2020. Perryman is one of five student-athletes selected as part of the 2020 class, and will also be inducted along with her teammates from the 2015 Triton softball team. During her career at UMSL, which stretched from 2013-16, Perryman set a number of program records, and established herself as one of the all-time great pitchers in Division II. A four-time all-American selection, Perryman was the first athlete in program history to earn all-American honors in every season of…

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UT-El Paso (UTEP) has made a change at their head coaching position, parting ways with Tobin Echo-Hawk on Friday. News of Echo-Hawk’s dismissal was first reported by KTSM-9 Sports in El Paso; Echo-Hawk’s biography has since been removed from the team’s website. Echo-Hawk spent six seasons as the Miners’ head coach, collecting a 104-207 overall record during her tenure. The program never recorded a winning season under her guidance, with a 57-87 conference record, reaching the C-USA tournament twice. The Miners compiled a 17-33 overall record during the 2019 campaign, with a 10-14 record in conference play. The squad recorded…

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As they seek to defend their 2019 National Championship, the UCLA Bruins have bolstered their coaching staff with the addition of Don Slaught as a volunteer assistant coach. Slaught played for the UCLA baseball team from 1977-1980, posting a .342 batting average and eleven home runs during his career as a Bruin. He earned all-conference honors in 1979 and 1980, while his .428 batting average in 1979 stood as a program record for more than two decades. Following his Bruins career, Slaught spent sixteen years in Major League Baseball. During his career, he played in 1,327 games, including with the…

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Who is she? Casey Africano, a former utility player for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. What is she known for? Africano appeared in more than thirty games in each season of her four-year career in South Bend, starting sparingly and serving more as a role player for her team. In 2013, she led the Irish freshman in three different statistical categories, including slugging percentage and on-base percentage. She was also recognized with numerous academic honors during her career, including a trio of ACC Academic Honor Roll nominations and being named a Division I Scholar Athlete in 2016. Here’s something interesting……

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Newly-minted as an official member of the 2020 US Olympic team, Amanda Chidester and HitTrax have agreed to a partnership, the company announced. Chidester was named the National Pro Fastpitch Offensive Player of the Year during the professional league’s summer season. A former longtime member of Team USA, she was named to the USA squad after a weeklong tryout in October. “HitTrax is honored to bring aboard such a passionate and talented athlete like Chiddy,” said HitTrax Director of Softball Operations Elena Bowman. “Her dedication to the game and contagious attitude make her the perfect partner as we launch HitTrax…

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Photo: Matt Brown via CSF Athletics Cal State Fullerton currently rides a four-year streak of Big West conference championships, just the third time in conference history that a team has recorded a quartet of consecutive league titles. To call the team a perennial postseason contender would be an understatement. Head coach Kelly Ford enters 2020 in her eighth season leading the program; she signed a contract extension last summer that will keep her in Fullerton long-term. A victor of more than 700 career games, Ford earned her fourth consecutive conference Coach of the Year award during the 2019 season, also…

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Former Ball State standout pitcher Elizabeth Milian has been selected to the program’s Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019. The former Cardinals great is one of six individuals and one team that will be officially inducted in a ceremony on January 31st. Milian played for the Cardinals from 2007-10, earning a number of accolades and setting multiple program records during her career. She helped lead the program to their second-ever NCAA tournament appearance, with a berth in the Regional round in 2010. At her career’s end, Milian owned eleven career and single-season statistical records, and her…

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