Sure, Tim and Christine Wright will miss their daughter when she leaves their Sacramento-area home next year and goes all the way to the East Coast to attend Princeton University.
But the athlete’s mom and dad—plus big brother, Randy—are smiling this week in pride after Brielle Wright has returned from her visit to the Ivy League school and is raring to go next Summer for her new team, the LTG 18U – Henderson/Carda squad.
Brielle’s stock continues to go up: she was a Top 90 honoree in last year’s 2022 Extra Elite 100 and had a strong high school season this Spring playing for Rocklin High in the competitive Sierra Foothill League. As a junior, she had a 1.15 ERA with nearly two strikeouts per inning and in one game struck out 19. For the 2021 season, the lefty hurler limited the opposition to just a .150 batting average.
Brielle earned a slew of awards including 1st Team Sac Joaquin All-Section, 1st Team All-Sierra Foothill League wand was tabbed 1st Team All-Metro by the Sacramento Bee. She was having a strong summer of club ball too until the season was shortened due to a bone bruise.
Still, the pitcher and her All-American high school catcher Jayla Castro, who is committed to UCLA and was the Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Softball Player of the Year for 2021, helped their high school team go 18-2 and finish No. 12 in the Cal-Hi Sports final state high school rankings despite the season being truncated by the CIF-Sac-Joaqin Section which canceled the playoffs because of COVID.
After returning from her official trip to Princeton, New Jersey and checking the Ivy League school’s beautiful campus and meeting her Princeton Tigers college coaching staff led by Head Coach Lisa Van Ackeren, Brielle says she’s very much looking forward to next year and heading East.
“I just got back from my official at Princeton,” she told Extra Inning Softball late on Sunday, “and can’t wait to be a Tiger!”
We asked Brielle about heading to the prestigious university and she shares her thoughts on how it came to be…
… but, first, here’s a fun highlight video from 2020 that shows the lefty looking very impressive in the circle with a lot of strikeouts! You also gotta love Jayla Castro, her catcher, and her many “fiery hops” after a strikeout!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB9vYLknCUQ
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Let’s start by talking jersey numbers… you seem to like the #20, what does that number signify to you?
My older brother, Randy Wright, had worn #28 in football and Buster Posey (catcher for the San Francisco Giants) is #28. As a young travel player, I asked for #28. The closest number they had was #20 so I wore that and grew up with it. As a pitcher, you hear your number often, so it is familiar to me. For high school ball, we don’t have a #20 jersey, so I am #1.
How did Princeton first find you to start recruiting you?
I was fortunate to attend lots of college camps starting at age 12. Before September 1 of my junior year, I also attended On Deck tryouts and was invited to Jamborees and West Coast Elite Camps with the Allisters. As part of those camps, Nate Walker of Diamond Solutions brought his Rapsodo and recorded metrics from the pitchers. This information along with game footage (unedited and posted to YouTube) and Twitter was very helpful because my recruitment started during the middle of the COVID pandemic.
For Princeton specifically, we emailed periodic training videos and game footage to Coach Van Ackeren. She said it was super compelling to watch my progression, even during COVID, and how we utilized video to my benefit. I was so excited when I was finally able to perform live in front of her and Coach Murray and Coach Davis.
When did they actually offer you a scholarship?
On Friday September 1, 2020, I received a call from Coach Van Ackeren at Princeton and was very excited to meet her and learn more about Princeton University and Princeton softball. After several phone and Zoom conversations building a relationship throughout September, Coach Van Ackeren set up a Zoom call with Coach Murray, me and my parents on October 2, 2020. At that time, she asked if I would like to be a Princeton Tiger.
*** Scroll down to read more about Brielle’s recruiting process and how she ultimately committed to Princeton Head Coach Van Ackeren…
