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Here’s our TLI for Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023:
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EXTRA ELITE SPOTLIGHT: DANIKA SPINOGATTI
C/1B Danika Spinogatti, #41 in the 2025 Extra Elite 100, recently talked to Extra Inning Softball about Virginia Unity 2025-Meadows/Spinogatti, hitting with Nikki Rombaugh-Bennett, PGF Nationals, PGF Show Me The Money, Unity-Johnson/Ross, future college, sports psychologist, Dean Spinogatti, Soulja Boy, “Friends” and world-record throwing.
EXTRA ELITE SPOTLIGHT Q&A
Name: Danika Spinogatti
Hometown: Winter Garden, FL
High School: Montverde Academy
Club Team: Virginia Unity 2025-Meadows/Spinogatti
Graduation Year: 2025
Height: 5-foot-9
Position: C/1B
Nickname: Dani
Twitter: @DSpinogatti2025
Honors: #41 in the 2025 Extra Elite 100; #20 Catcher in the Class of 2025; USSSA Select 30 All-Star (2021 & 2022); and USA Softball HPP All-American (2022).
Travel Ball Highlights/Fall Stats: .400 AVG, .475 OBP, 1.138 OPS, 25 RBIs and 50% caught stealing.
High School Highlights/Stats: All-State Florida Class 3A (2022); .400 AVG, .516 OBP, 1.140 OPS, 30 hits and 15 BBs.
Tell us about your travel team/organization and how you became involved with them? I have been playing for my dad (Dean Spinogatti) ever since I picked up a bat at the age of 5. Our Unity team had been fortunate enough to attract most of the top 2025 talent in Florida and that allowed us to stay an “all-Florida” team until this past season when we had pitchers from Tennessee and Georgia join. We compete nationally with the best 16U talent in the country and in front of all the major Power 5 coaches. Playing with and against the best talent in the country will prepare me for the next level and hopefully be able to contribute as a freshman eventually.
Do you have any suggestions for training methods or apps and why? I have been hitting with Nikki Rombaugh-Bennett for six years and contribute a lot of my success to her methods. She uses the HitTrax system in her facility, which is great to track my progress. We focus on opposite-field hitting and line drives all day. “Short to it and long through it” is my motto.
Can you tell us about your experience at PGF Nationals this past summer? PGF Nationals was such a fun experience. The cool breeze in Huntington Beach made every game so enjoyable. Our team played well but lost a heartbreaker in our third bracket game. We than won three straight the next day, but eventually ran out of gas in our fourth game. We wound up tied for 9th, which was great, but it showed us there is very little margin for error when you’re playing the best teams in the country.
What was your favorite fall tournament/event and why? The fall PGF Show Me the Money was definitely one to remember! We lost our first bracket game and than won six games in a row on Saturday with the last one being a walk-off HR in ITB after midnight! We got about four hours of sleep since we had to be back on field for an 8 a.m. game. We beat the team that sent us into the loser bracket on ANOTHER walk-off in ITB and then lost to Unity-Johnson/Ross in the finals. We played eight games in a 24-hour period that weekend!
Which player/team was your toughest opponent and why? Unity-Johnson/Ross is an amazing team loaded with Power 5 talent and we battled them twice in the fall. Not only do they have stud pitchers, but they have tons of speed and power at the plate.
What are you looking for in a future college? I am looking for a team that has that “family feel.” I want coaches that I can look to as mentors and teammates that feel like sisters. In terms of a school, I like ones that have nice campuses with a strong academic curriculum. Schools that have tradition also interest me.
What areas are you interested in future occupations and why? I’m interested in being a sports psychologist. Mental health is a big part of all sports. I am interested in this because I myself have struggled with mental health in sports and wished I had someone to help me. And I wish to be that person that helps other people when they’re struggling and help them become the best version of themselves.
Who is your sports hero and why? I would say my Dad (Dean Spinogatti). He played basketball, but never started a game in high school. He kept working on his game and walked onto a D3 college team in NJ. He wound up breaking three career school records and was a D3 All-American his senior year. I know some people are just late bloomers, but it proves you can achieve anything if you put the work in.
What’s the best hype song and why? “Pretty Boy Swag” by Soulja Boy … because it has a great beat and the energy from the song always gets me hyped.
What’s your favorite TV show to binge and why? “Friends” because it has a great storyline and it’s really funny.
Do you have a secret talent/skill? I threw a baseball 79 mph recently. Guinness World Records shows 69 mph is the official record … so technically do I now hold that record? LOL
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