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We continue our list of the Top 15 Softball Stories of 2018, which will run through December 31st when we’ll present our No. 1 story of the year.
We’ve surveyed the softball community and talked internally as well to come up with what were the most impactful and relevant stories in 2018 pertaining to the world of fastpitch softball.
Here are the previous stories:
- #15… Alexia Carrasquillo: The Shot Heard Round the Recruiting World (Dec. 17, 2018)
- #14… Ashley Rogers Overcomes Tragedy to Become National Player of the Year
- #13… High School Senior Sydney Supple Approaching $100K To Build Hometown Field of Dreams
- #12… NFCA’s StrikeOut Cancer Initiative Provides Unity & Half Million-Plus For Research
- #11… There’s Rage in Them Cajuns…. Michael Lotief Firing at ULL Sparks Pushback from Coach & Players
- #10… Controversy at TC/USA Nationals As Championship Team Disqualified
- #9… Mike Stith Wins Club Title & Pro Championship In Same Season
- #8… Team USA Looks Unstoppable Heading Towards 2020 Olympics
- #7… The South Shall Rise Again (Is The West No Longer The Dominant Region?)
- #6… On-Campus Shootings; The Softball World Also Affected
- #5… MSU’s Alex Wilcox Cancer Death Sparks Movement of Support
- #4… Jesse Warren-Led Florida State Makes National Splash
Today is #3 and speaks to the eye-opening number of DI college transfers that have happened since the rules went into effect allowing players to put their name in the transfer portal and move schools immediately… when a half dozen All-Americans move schools, you know something significant is happening in the sport.
To provide comments, insights or thoughts, email: [email protected].
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Entering the 2018 Women’s College World Series, the Oregon Ducks were the #1 seed and you’d think that the team would be a favorite heading into 2019, but it’ll be hard to tell.
The team that takes the field next summer will be significantly different than the one in 2018 for one major reason: transfers.
Oregon lost four players including two All-American pitchers in Megan Kleist (Louisiana-Lafayette) and Miranda Elish (Texas) to the Longhorns who followed former Head Coach Mike White to the Big 12 school.
Just last week All-Pac 12 Conference catcher Mary Iakopo became the latest Oregon-to-Texas move and joins Shannon Rhodes and Lauren Burke who’ve also moved schools to play for Coach White.
Also leaving Melyssa Lombardi’s program was freshman outfielder Alyssa Pinto who is headed to Ole Miss.
But the Ducks also picked up two standout pitchers to replace Kleist and Elish in Jordan Dail from Virginia Tech and Maddie MacGrandle from Texas A&M.
And thus it’s been in the off-season once players, who realized they could put their name in the NCAA transfer portal and leave pretty much immediately once released from their previous school.
When there are a half dozen All-Americans leaving Power 5 Conference programs in conferences like the Pac-12 and Big Ten, then you know there’s something big that’s transpiring.
It’s not that everyone is happy with this–legislation is underway to make it so that players who transfer in the fall won’t be able to play right away the next spring.
Still, the Pandora’s Box of transferring is open and it remains to be seen how this will be curbed, if at all, in the future.
One ramification it could have, some feel, is on recruiting club-aged players.
Why, one coach told us, should colleges take a risk on young high-school aged players who’ve yet to prove themselves at the next level when they, the college coaches, can simply wait for transfers to become available that will fit their needs?
Whether that happens is questionable, but one thing is for sure: you’ll see a lot of familiar faces in new uniforms in 2019.
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
Below are some of the major articles done this year on Extra Inning Softball involving some of the high-profile transfers…
