If you’ve watched any of the PGF National Championships the last decade on ESPN, you’ve heard the broadcasting team of Daron Sutton and Amanda Freed Katchka.
Sutton, son of MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, and Freed, an Olympic Gold Medalist and National Champion player at UCLA, not only have worked together for multiple years in the press booth at Bill Barber Park in Irvine, California calling PGF title games and the PGF All-American Games.
Here are Amanda and Daron in the booth for the 2019 PGF All-American Game:
Daron, who does the play-by-play while Amanda is the color analysts on the game broadcasts, now work together on a weekly SiriusXM show that brings in top guests at all levels of fastpitch softball.
The show, titled Perfect Game Softball with Daron Sutton and Amanda Freed streams each Tuesday at 11 pm EST and can be found on channel 84 on the Sirius platform.
Sutton is the Vice President and Executive Producer of Content and PerfectGame.TV for Perfect Game and actually oversees three shows on SiriusXM incorporating college, baseball and softball guests and coverage.
Freed Katchka has been on the show since March, when it initially focused primarily on college softball exclusively, but has evolved into covered all areas of softball including youth and amateur fastpitch.
The list of guests over the last eight months has been impressive including:
- current and former players like Monica Abbott, Sierra Romero, Kealani Ricketts, Natasha Watley, Sis Bates, Jessie Harper
- college coaches such as Dot Richardson (Liberty), Rachel Lawson (Kentucky), Chelsea Spencer (Cal), Deena Gumpf (Notre Dame)
- club coaches including Bill Conroy (Beverly Bandits), Tony Rico (Firecrackers), Bruce Richardson (So Cal A’s)
This week’s guests include:
- * Carol Bruggeman, the Executive Director of the NFCA.
- * Clemson pitcher Valerie Cagle,
- * Washington pitcher Sarah Willis
Here is a Tweet from Sutton yesterday previewing tonight’s show:
Tuesday 11p et @PG_Softball @PGFnetwork on @SXMCollege ch 84, the only global radio show devoted to amateur & college softball. @AmandaFreed7 & I can't wait to talk with:
–@NFCAorg Exec Dir @CoachBrugg
–@clemsonsoftball RHP/UT Valerie Cagle
–@UWSoftball RHP/OF Sarah Willis pic.twitter.com/dSf5R7l8Wf— Daron Sutton (@lifeisgreatsut) November 3, 2020
As Extra Inning Softball highlighted in our August 17, 2020 article titled Business News: Why PG Softball Will be a Game Changer in the Sport, Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) and Perfect Game created a PG Softball as a completely separate and new entity owned by Perfect Game Baseball and PGF, each with 50% ownership.
“Daron Sutton was the conduit between PGF and Perfect Game as he started full-time at PG on the media side after doing contract work in broadcasting—he’s the former voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks—while simultaneously becoming the voice of the PGF Nationals.”
“’I had done some SEC stuff in the 90’s,’” he explains, “and it was invigorating, the energy of the youth. Year after year as I kept doing PGF Nationals, I saw it grow from one week (of championships) to two and be launched on TV and digital streaming platforms.’”
“Sutton explains that in 2016 he started full-time in his role at Perfect Game and “got to understand their vision and direction.” As he saw what PGF and PG had going separately, he invited Dan Hay down to San Diego for the 2016 Perfect Game All-Star Game, where he was also an announcer, and introduced Hay to various Perfect Game leaders including founder Jerry Ford.”
The SiriusXM weekly show with Sutton and Freed Katchka will continue to highlight key luminaries in the softball space and help promote the game in general along with PG Softball projects in 2021 including events nationwide.
And, of course, the successful announcing duo will continue their decade-plus tandem in the booth to cover the next generation of softball greats who shine on the fields as part of the PGF Nationals and PGF All-American Games.
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
