RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
One reason the Arkansas Razorbacks (33-5) have made it into the Top 10 of the NCAA DI rankings this year is the great pitching depth that Head Coach Courtney Deifel has assembled which includes Mary Haff (18-3, 1.31), Jenna Bloom (7-1, 3.28), Lauren Howell (2-0, 4.59) and our spotlight player for today, Autumn Storms (6-1, 1.29).
Autumn suffered her first loss of the season on Sunday as Top 5-ranked Alabama beat the Razorbacks 2-0 behind Montana Fouts’ two-hit shutout, but on Saturday Autumn did the same to Arkansas’s SEC foe, throwing a two-hit gem in a 4-0 blanking of the Crimson Tide at Bogle Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Possessing the best name I can remember in college softball (Precious Birdsong who played at Middle Tennessee State was a pretty cool name too!), Autumn Storms struck out a season-high 10 batters on Saturday and it was the second straight complete game shutout she had thrown to that point after beating then #25-ranked Auburn 3-0 on Easter Weekend.
.@18stormy = 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙏𝙃𝙔#WPS🐗 pic.twitter.com/dSDwTp0AWV
— Arkansas Razorback Softball (@RazorbackSB) April 3, 2021
Coach Deifel said after the Saturday win over Alabama:
“I thought Autumn was outstanding today, I thought she had had her best stuff. She had really good command of her pitches, I thought she mixed it well, her break was great… that’s old Stormy, she looked strong throughout, was controlling her zone and I was really proud of how she fought for us today.”
On the season, the redshirt senior pitcher has thrown 53 strikeouts in 65 innings but the key to her success lies in her allowing opponents just a .174 batting average.
On and off the field, Autumn, in my opinion, is everything that’s right in college softball.
She got her Bachelor of Arts in Communications last year but jumped at the chance to return for another season of softball in the SEC.
This girl just graduated with a Bachelors in Communications. We couldn’t be more proud of her. Best part is we get to watch her play ONE MORE YEAR! #superseniorseason ❤️🐗🥎🎓
Officially Graduated 💪🏻❤️
Class of 2020 University of Arkansas pic.twitter.com/NsrdzUlttR— Heather Storms (@heffstorms) May 8, 2020
Autumn has been an All-American on the field where her ERA has dropped every year for the last four seasons: a 3.43 in 2018, a 1.86 in ’19, a 1.49 in last year’s truncated COVID-impacted campaign and her team best 1.29 so far this year.
Junior @18stormy is many things ⤵️
Dedicated
Competitive
Motivated
Committed
Intense
Strong
Hard workingAnd after the best season of her career ➡️ All-American
📰 https://t.co/hEMWSmhsNA pic.twitter.com/THDkiRttHW— Arkansas Razorback Softball (@RazorbackSB) May 29, 2019
She’s 52-37 in her five years in Fayetteville and whatever she does post-college she’ll be successful in, but I will always remember Autumn for her great sense of humor!
It continues today…. check out this funny, self-deprecating note she made about her, umm, athleticism on a play made this season:
There’s a reason grace isn’t my middle name🤦🏻♀️ https://t.co/4Uo5mKNpVM
— Autumn Storms (@18stormy) April 2, 2021
Autumn was very accomplished in high school where she was twice a 1st Team All-CIF honoree at Great Oaks (California) where she also played with current Razorback Kayla Green, a current Arkansas redshirt junior.
I had her ranked in the top 100 of the Class of 2016 when released in the Fall of 2015 and, in a class that including such standouts as Sis Bates (Washington), Jessica Harper (Arizona), Miranda Elish (Texas/Oregon), Bubba Nickles (UCLA), Bailey Hemphill (Alabama), Dejah Mulipola (Arizona) and dozens more, here’s what I wrote about Autumn back then:
Autumn has emerged as the leader of the So Cal Athletics pitching staff and was a key cog for the team that finished 2nd at PGF 18U Nationals this summer. She’s battled through a little tendinitis but has a clean bill of health and just keeps getting better and better. Autumn keeps the ball down with a good drop along with a change and has developed into an all-around pitcher. Coaches, however, say her best asset is her competitive fire.
One of the highlights for Autumn with her time on Bruce Richardson’s So Cal A’s (she originally played for Mike Stith’s OC Batbuster program prior to joining the Athletics) was in the Summer of 2015 when her A’s team won the Boulder IDT 18U title.
There’s a great photo of Autumn that was published by the Boulder Daily Camera when the A’s won it all at the prestigious Boulder tournament and you can see again Autumn’s personality and energy shining through:
We also got to see that in a spotlight feature we did more than seven years ago when the young athlete was a sophomore in high school and I was overseeing Student Sports Softball.
Here’s that profile which I published on March 12, 2014 shortly after Autumn had committed to Arkansas, which was then coached by Mike Larabee (Coach Deifel took over the Hog reins in 2016).
*****
RECRUITING SPOTLIGHT
Originally published March 12, 2014 on Student Sports Softball
Name: AUTUMN STORMS
Grad Year: 2016
Pos: Pitcher
High School: Great Oak (Temecula, Calif.)
Club: OC Batbusters-Smith
College: University of Arkansas
*****
You’ve been in a lot of high-profile events, like the Surf City tournaments, the OnDeck National Elite Camp, the D9 Sun Classic… where was it that Arkansas first saw you and began the recruiting process?
The Arkansas coaches first saw me in November at the Arizona Hotshots Thanksgiving Shootout Tournament. Coach Adkins, the Pitching Coach, had the radar out behind the plate and was taking video of me pitching in the game and as I was warming up.
*** Scroll down to read about the recruiting process for Autumn and why and how Arkansas won her over… as we reported on seven years ago!