Rounding Third Softball

Bianca Duran has been named the new head coach at Colorado State University Pueblo. Duran spent last season as interim head coach at her alma mater Louisiana Tech, but was not retained for the permanent position. She was with the Lady Techsters for four seasons as the pitching coach before taking over the interim spot in her fifth season in 2021. La Tech was 22-30 in her lone season as a head coach.

RTS has received word from multiple sources that Georgia has parted ways with assistant coach Rachel Fico. Associate head coach Tony Baldwin was promoted to head coach to replace the legendary Lu Harris-Champer on a Monday, and has seemingly wasted little time starting to make moves to mold his first coaching staff. Fico served six seasons as the pitching coach for the Bulldogs.

Galveston College has promoted Maria Winn-Ratliff to head coach while also naming her Athletic Director. She joined the Whitecaps for the 2021 season as an assistant after serving the 2020 pandemic shortened season as head coach at Louisiana Tech. Winn is best known for her extraordinary success on the junior college level at Western Nebraska and Tyler. She has compiled a career coaching record of 707-276-1.

Arizona has hired former U.S. Olympian and Stanford All-American Lauren Lappin to fill their open assistant coach position. Lappin joins new head coach Caitlin Lowe’s staff after serving the last five years as an assistant coach at DII Missouri-St. Louis, and two years as head coach of the Chicago Bandits professional team.

All-American and ACC Pitcher of the Year Keely Rochard has announced that she will return to play a fifth year for Virginia Tech next season. Having already played four seasons for the Hokies, she will use the extra year of eligibility granted to spring sport athletes after the 2020 season was cancelled by the pandemic. Rochard pitched 244 of the Hokies’ 339.2 innings in 2021 with 348 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.38. Virginia Tech made the Los Angeles Super Regional round forcing three games before falling to UCLA.

MidAmerica Nazarene University has named Jordon Jones their new head coach. Jones joins the Pioneers after four highly successful seasons at Central Baptist College. She compiled a record of 125-54 while also winning the 2018 NCCAA National Championship coaching CBC.

Tony Baldwin has been named the new head coach at Georgia. Baldwin has served the last seven seasons on the Bulldog Staff, being named associate head coach after the 2016 season. He also served on the staff previously as a volunteer assistant coach 2011-12.

Southwest Baptist University has named Carly Thomas their new head coach. The relatively young coach comes to the Bearcats after her first posting as an assistant at Bowling Green State. In her two seasons with the Falcons the program went 38-33 finishing 5th in the MAC in 2021. Thomas graduated from Illinois in 2018 after playing four seasons with the Illini.

Seton Hall has named Angie Churchill their new head coach. Churchill joins the Pirates after four seasons at Hartford where she compiled a record of 42-80. She also had head coaching stops at Wagner and D’Youville College. Churchill departs Hartford after an announcement that the athletic program would be dropping from Division I to Division III by 2025.

Chelsea Cohen will join new head coach Josh Taylor’s staff at Louisiana Tech. She will serve as pitching coach with the Lady Techsters. Cohen worked at Nevada as volunteer assistant from 2014-2015. The former Arkansas pitching standout is best known for her international playing and coaching experience having made stops in Argentina, Austria, South Africa, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Australia and Italy.