Rounding Third Softball

Lynn University has announced that head coach Jill Moore has stepped down. Moore served nine seasons with the program and will be replaced in the interim by assistant coach Cassi Pickett. The relatively young newcomer to collegiate coaching joined the Fighting Knights last January after coming from the staff at Union College in Kentucky.

Palm Beach Atlantic has named veteran coach Ty Singleton to lead their program. Singleton has made his rounds leading programs at Northwestern State, Missouri, and New Mexico. He also worked on coaching staffs at Texas and Army. Mostly recently Singleton had served as associate head baseball coach at Clark College in Washington since 2018.

Maria Winn-Ratliff has been named the new head coach at Trinity Valley Community College. Winn-Ratliff comes to the Cardinals after serving as Director of Athletics and head coach at Galveston College. She also had head coaching stops at Louisiana Tech, Tyler Junior College and Western Nebraska Community College. Winn-Ratliff owns a 717-312-1 career coaching record.

Olivet College has named Michaela Hamilton their new head coach. Hamilton joins the Comets after serving as an assistant at West Virginia Wesleyan. She also served as pitching coach at Spring Hill College during the 2018 season.

Nikki Nuzum has been named the new head coach at Alderson Broaddus. Nuzum takes over the DII program after one season leading the squad at Franciscan College where they finished 10-22. She also had stops on staffs at WVU Potomac State, Youngstown State, Washington and Jefferson College, and Penn State Fayette.

Central Washington has hired Joe DiPietro to lead their program. DiPietro recently finished a four year stint as head coach at Incarnate Word where he compiled a 47-117 record. He has also had stints directing programs at LaSalle, Temple, and Hampton universities.

A WCWS run in 2021, to no postseason in 2022? That could be the fate for the James Madison Dukes if the Colonial Athletic Conference stands by their edict.

On Wednesday the CAA told JMU it will not be able to compete for championships if the school moves to leave the conference. It was previously reported the Dukes were seriously exploring the option of making the move to the Sun Belt Conference. The move would obviously not happen this 2021-22 sports season. That could throw a wrench in JMU earning the CAA’s automatic NCAA berth that comes from the conferences tournament championship. JMU is currently scheduled to host that championship in Spring 2022. The Dukes could however still make the NCAA Postseason by virtue of an at-large bid with their strength of schedule based on the RPI.

James Madison is coming off a historic season where the program made their first Women’s College World Series appearance while finishing 41-4 and ranked fourth nationally.

RTS has learned that Mississippi Valley State will name Jimmy Buckner head coach. The Tennessee native has worked on coaching staffs at Florida A&M and was a longtime aid at Volunteer State Community College. Buckner takes over for Lee Smith who retired as coach of the Devilettes after 19 seasons.

Division II Albany State has named Jason Bryant head coach. Bryant joins the Lady Rams after leading the program at conference rival Fort Valley State the past four seasons. The veteran coach has amassed over 400 career victories in his time at FVSU and previously with NAIA Brewton-Parker.

USA Softball has announced their Hall of Fame Class to be inducted in 2022. It includes a pair of pitching greats in Debbie Doom and Cat Osterman. Doom was an All-American at UCLA between 1982-1985. She also had a standout career professionally playing in the now defunct WPSL with the Orlando Wahoos, and was a mainstay on the USA National Team in the pre-Olympic era years. Osterman had a standout All-American career collegiately at Texas, and went on to play professionally in multiple leagues. She helped Team USA to a Gold Medal and two Silver Medals in three Olympic Games, including coming out of retirement this past summer to pitch in the Tokyo Games.