Rounding Third Softball

The preseason Division I Top 25 has been released. As expected the back-to-back defending National Champion Oklahoma Sooners sit at the top. Checkout the complete Top 25 Preseason Poll from DISoftball.

Rank	Team	Final 2022 Record	Final 2022 Rank
1	Oklahoma	59-3	1
2	UCLA	51-10	2
3	Oklahoma State	48-14	3
4	Florida State	53-7	12
5	Florida	49-19	5
6	Alabama	44-13	18
7	Northwestern	45-13	6
8	Arkansas	48-11	8
9	Clemson	42-17	15
10	Georgia	43-18	23
11	Stanford	39-22	16
12	Tennessee	41-18	20
13	Virginia Tech	46-10	7
14	Texas	47-22-1	4
15	UCF	49-14	13
16	Kentucky	37-19	19
17	LSU	34-23	NR
18	Arizona	39-22	9
19	Auburn	40-17	NR
20	Louisiana	48-13	24
21	Washington	38-17	21
22	Duke	44-11	14
23	Oregon	33-19	NR
24	North Texas	38-15	NR
25	Ole Miss	41-19	NR

Former Oklahoma State Cowgirl, Texas Longhorn, and Oregon Duck Pitcher Miranda Elish has landed a new position. The multi-time collegiate award winner is joining the Batbusters-Indiana as Director of Player Development. She will oversee all the fundamental and skills instruction for the club. The Indiana native will also sit on the Board of Directors for the organization.

After 19 seasons and 354 wins, Leslie King has announced her retirement as head coach at Penn. King went 175-148-1 in the Ivy League winning four straight South Division titles from 2012-15. In 2013 the Quakers advanced to the program’s first NCAA Regional after wining the Ivy outright. Associate head coach Danielle Gonzales will serve as the program’s interim head coach this season.

East Mississippi Community College Head Coach Whitney Hawkins has departed the program to rejoin the coaching staff at DI North Alabama. She led the program at EMCC for the 2022 season. Hawkins trades one set of Lions for another where she achieved great success in her first tour from 2014-2016. UNA went 130-41 during that time winning the DII National Championship in 2016 as she directed the Lions pitching staff.

Ashley Obrest has joined the coaching staff at Northern Kentucky. The former Boston College Head Coach had been serving on the staff across town at Boston U the past three seasons. She will be responsible for the catching and infield corps for the Norse. Obrest collected 200 wins in her eight seasons leading BC. She also had stints on staff with programs at Colgate and Concordia.

Amherst College Head Coach Jessica Johnson has announced her retirement. Johnson coached the Mammoths for nine seasons amassing a 160-70 record while also making three NCAA Postseason appearances, including a fifth-place World Series finish in 2015.

The timing of the retirement has been called into question publicly including by some of Johnson’s former colleagues within Amherst’s Conference. Hall of Fame and Williams College Coach Kris Herman took to Social Media after the institutes official announcement. Herman has indicated there was some sort of institutional investigation which resulted in Johnson’s retirement and not a resignation. Herman said coaches within the NESCAC had made inquires, yet no information had been made available about the “mysterious” move.

RTS reached out to Amherst for official comment and details of any sort of investigation, and was only referenced to the official institutional press release.

RTS has learned that co-head coaches Adam and Annalyn Burch have departed LSU Alexandria. The Burch coaching duo spent five seasons leading the Generals amassing a 109-81 overall record and making one NAIA Postseason appearance.

Journeyman Coach Jake Schumann has been appointed the new head coach at DII Ferris State. He replaces Kristin Janes who resigned in September. Schumann has multiple head coaching stops rebuilding programs at Carl Albert State, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas A&M Kingsville and Florida International. He also served on staffs at Iowa and Ole Miss. Ferris State finished the 2022 season 19-32 and 9-17 in conference play.

RTS is saddened to report that Kansas City coaching icon Galen Struve has died. He passed on December 16 at the age of 75. Struve led programs at William Jewell College, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Avila University, and Rockhurst University all located in the Metro KC area. He was also one of the top clinicians in the area having taught and coached hundreds of pitchers through their careers in the circle.

Less than nine months after indicating they would add sports to their institutional offerings, Holy Patriot University has announced it is scrapping athletics. The announcement came after an outcry of complaints from student-athletes and parents on HPU not delivering on promises such as proper training and practice facilities, and lack of suitable competition sites. The pop-up/non-accredited institution in Beaumont, Texas that operates out of an old church had already started their 2022-23 sports season, hiring coaches and recruiting student-athletes last summer. Softball was to launch this spring. Having no affiliation with any collegiate sports organizations (NCAA, NAIA, NCCAA, or USCAA), the team’s games would have been counted as exhibitions against affiliated institutes. University President David Angeron cited “three-quarters of HPU students as being late and delinquent on tuition payments” as to the move to axe sports. Holy Patriot is not allowed to offer Federal Financial Aid due to their status of being non-accredited.