The Last Inning (Jan. 14, 2020): Is It High School Softball Season Yet? We Talk Mater Dei Monarchs & More!

Get on board with Extra Inning Softball’s regular feature, The Last Inning.

We are scouring the Internet and Social Media and keeping our ears to the street for the latest going on in the softball community.

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Here’s our TLI for Tuesday, January 14, 2020…

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MATER DEI HIGH MEDIA DAY

The high school softball season is about a month away and one of the teams TLI will be keeping a close eye on is Mater Dei High of Santa Ana, CA. The Monarchs are known for their high-profile football and basketball programs, who always wind up in the national rankings, but they also have one of the top softball programs in the nation.

Jessica Foley resigned after three seasons as head coach at Mater Dei and the Monarchs brought in Sean Brashear to take over. Brashear is one of the top club coaches in the country. Brashear led his Firecrackers-Brashear organization to a PGF 14U Platinum national title in 2017 and a PGF 16U Platinum national championship in 2016.

The Monarchs will be led by Arkansas-bound Marlene Friedman, Syracuse-bound Jolie Gustave, Cal State Monterey-signee Hannah Jacobsen, Harvard-committed Allison O’Heany and Georgia-bound Riley Orcutt, so Brashear will have some talented players to work with.

The Monarchs play in the Trinity League, which is one of the most competitive in So Cal. Mater Dei has won CIF-SS Division 1 championships in 1996, 1998 and 2016 and the Monarchs reached the finals in 1995, 1999 and 2000. Softball is a high priority at Mater Dei where athletic director Tia Meza led the Monarchs to CIF-SS Division 1 championships as a player and coach.

So TLI will be on Mater Dei’s campus for media day on Feb. 7. We’ll get the scoop on the 2020 Monarchs.

“We are excited to hire a coach with Sean’s pedigree,” Meza, a former Gatorade National Player of the Year, who coached the Monarchs to a CIF-SS Division 1 championship in 2016, told Extra Inning Softball in August.

“Mater Dei Softball has always been a premier program and we look forward to him (Brashear) continuing that legacy.”

*** To read the rest of today’s The Last Inning, scroll down below…

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