Southern Utah already owns their highest single-season win total since 2018 – and they’ve only played twenty-two games in 2021.
The Thunderbirds won five games during the shortened season a year ago and recorded just six wins in a full season the year prior. The program hasn’t reached double digits in the win column since 2017, and head coach Don Don Williams – now in her second season leading Southern Utah – was the third head coach in three years upon her hiring in the summer of 2019.
A 7-15 overall record doesn’t seem like anything to write home about, especially when you count the eight run-rule losses and team ERA of nearly 8.00, but this Thunderbirds team is a much-improved squad from where they were just two years ago.
In 2019, the Thunderbirds won just two non-conference games and finished that season 6-34 overall. The team allowed opponents to score double-digit runs against them on thirteen different occasions and won just one true road game. Department administrators decided that another head coaching change was in store, and ventured up to North Idaho College, where they found a veteran coach in a comfortable position leading a perennially-contending team.
Before this current season, Williams recalled it best when she said, “I absolutely was not looking to leave” North Idaho. An offer that she couldn’t refuse and a chance to rebuild a Division 1 program proved to be a worthy opportunity, however, and thus the Thunderbirds secured their new leader.
You don’t have to look very far to see Williams and staff’s immediate impact on the Thunderbirds’ program. Former Minnesota benchwarmer Josey White – who was wasting away to the tune of a .200 batting average in two seasons as a Gopher – was one of three former-Power 5 transfers added to the SUU roster during this most recent offseason. While all three of those transfers have contributed, White’s hearty bat and game impact has been felt immediately, and her quick development lends credibility to the turnaround that Williams and Co. are attempting to engineer in Cedar City.
Earlier this season, White put together a tremendous performance in a game against Washington. Facing off against the high-ranked Huskies, White went 3-5 at the plate, hitting a pair of home runs and recording six RBIs. Later, in two games against Arizona, she recorded the Thunderbirds’ only hit in game 1 and in game 2, her RBI double produced the only run for her team in the pair of games.
After accounting for Week 6 games, White owns a .465 batting average this season, with ten home runs and thirty-two RBIs to her credit. A perfect 1.000 slugging percentage and a 1.481 OPS also highlight her stat line. She has started every game for the Thunderbirds, leads the team in hits; doubles; home runs; and RBIs, and is second on the squad in at-bats.
Southern Utah has just one more academic year in the Big Sky before moving to join the Western Athletic Conference for 2022 and beyond, according to an announcement in January. While that move may not have created much fanfare on the softball scene, if this program’s rebuild continues on its current path, the Thunderbirds could find themselves in legitimate contention sooner rather than later in their new conference home.
