Rounding Third Softball

New staff contributor Kris Caldwell brings her Legends of the Game interview segment to RTS. She recently sat down with members of the first Olympic Softball Team. The squad captured Gold at the first games to feature softball in Atlanta in 1996.

LOTG presents the 1996 Olympic Softball TeamLegends of the Game (LOTG) host Kris Caldwell chats with the 1996 Olympic Softball Team – catch up with where they are now, there favorite memories, how they…youtu.be

The Yellow Jackets had a perfect 5-0 opening weekend at their home event and was impressive in all facets of the game. The offense hit .421 as a team and looked like a squad that could not only work base-to-base in producing runs, but can play quick strike and the long ball having 10 homers through five games. Junior Kennedy Cowden stood out in a team full of offensive standouts hitting .545 on the weekend with a whopping 14 RBI and 3 home runs. The youngster, freshmen Emma Kauf, led the team hitting .692 and an equally impressive 4 doubles and 7 RBI. Even more impressive than the offense is the pitching staff.

Tech pitchers left the weekend with a 0.50 ERA and held opposing hitters to a meager .115 average. The staff was lead by what could be one of the best young pitchers in the country, Blake Neleman. The freshmen was 3-0 herself against the Buzz Classic Field with a 0.40 ERA and 29 strikeouts. New Georgia Tech pitching coach Marty McDaniel has his fingerprints all over this potential stud. The longtime Tennessee pitching coach seems to finally be doing (and being allowed) to do what he does best, making young pitchers into potential All-Americans. The Lady Vols loss seems to be the Yellow Jackets and Head Coach Aileen Morales’s gain and could prove to be a huge a factor on the programs upswing nationally.

Although the competition opening weekend can’t be a good long-term measurement on how a full season will go; the preseason pick of a ninth place finish in the ACC could prove to be a underwhelming prediction if this team continues to develop.

Desiree Ybarra has joined the coaching staff at George Mason for the 2021 season. Ybarra most recently worked as the pitching coach at Bradley. After her playing days at Cal State Fullerton she played professionally in Australia and Italy and was also on the Venezuelan National Team.

Oklahoma playing catch up on the mostly missed 2020 season and setting the tone for 2021. The Sooners demolish UTEP on opening day in El Paso 29-0 in five innings shattering a few records including 13 home runs in one game.

Division I Opening Weekend is upon us and RTS will kick off it’s 2021 coverage tomorrow in Atlanta at the Buzz Classic. We will be on-site as Georgia Tech hosts Boise State, Radford, and Georgia State through the weekend. We will have live in game coverage on Twitter. Follow RTS @Rounding3rdSB.

Miami University Hamilton found out yesterday that they would be joining a growing list of softball programs canceling their 2021 season due to “safety” concerns of student-athletes due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. What’s puzzling however is while the Miami-Hamilton program seems to be shutdown, the same safety concerns don’t seem to be an issue at Miami University’s main campus in Oxford. The Flagship’s Division I Softball Squad opens their season this Saturday on the road in Starkville, Mississippi. University and Athletic Administrators either are oblivious on how to make one department and their COVID protocols/testing work while another does, or it is simply economics/want-to that has shut the softball program down at Miami-Hamilton for the 2021 season. While the small independent athletic department at Hamilton doesn’t hold the clout the large DI Department in Oxford does; can treatment of the athletes be dwindled down to simply the haves and have nots during this challenging time for athletics in general? Is safety of student-athletes at one campus so much more important than those at another in the same university system? Probably not. But it is more likely that financially one set of student-athletes are more important than another set.

Former US National Team member Megan Kleist has joined the coaching staff at NAIA Bushnell University in Oregon. The two-time All-American and 2018 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year spent three seasons at Oregon before finishing her last year of eligibility at Louisiana in the shortened 2020 season.

RTS is saddened to share the passing of Vern Stephens. One of the most well liked individuals and personalities in all of softball, Stephens was a club coach and recruiting specialist with the Lil’ Rebels Organization that helped train and place a plethora of Prospective Student-Athletes at collegiate programs throughout the country. The Las Vegas Native had a short but hard fought battle with cancer that was diagnosed early last fall.

Cal State Northridge has rounded out their coaching staff adding Greg Bergeron as an assistant coach. Bergeron has over 20 years experience in collegiate baseball as he makes his first incursion into the sport of softball. He has worked on staffs at Washington State, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, and Tennessee among the stops during his career.

Rounding Third Softball is pleased to announce the staff addition of longtime softball coach/instructor, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Kris Caldwell. Caldwell will join the RTS Staff as a correspondent, content contributor, and will also bring her “Legends of the Game” Podcast where she features interviews with the top names in the sport to the RTS platform.