Rounding Third Softball

Idaho State has filled their head coaching position with Andrew Rich. He joins the Bengals after spending the last three seasons at Boise State. Rich helped the Broncos reach the NCAA Postseason in 2019. He also has worked on staffs at Sonoma State and Fresno State.

Georgia State has named Angie Nicholson their new head coach. Nicholson spent the past five years leading the program at Hampton compiling a record of 85-79 in four seasons (Hampton did not compete in 2021 due to the pandemic). The journeyman head coach has also had stops at Eastern Illinois, Cleveland State, Butler, Ursuline, and Cuyahoga Community College.

RTS has confirmed that Drexel will not renew head coach Carl Taylor’s contract. Taylor and his assistant coaches Ray and Michelle Hastings had been on administrative leave since the end of May pending an investigation into what the school termed “troubling allegations of misconduct” in the treatment of players. However, RTS has learned that the investigation still has not been concluded and only about 1/3 of the team has been interviewed about the supposed allegations. Taylor and his staff have also not received any official notice of allegations against them to this date. RTS has reached out to Drexel Officials for comment, but as of this posting had not received a response. Taylor’s current contract ran out on June 30. He lead the Dragons for seven seasons starting in 2015.

Italy won the Gold Medal clinching the European Championship Final on Sunday defeating the Netherlands 9-5. Italy now moves on to compete for the grandest Gold of all starting July 20 in Tokyo at the Olympic Games. While the Netherlands settled for the Silver, the Czech Republic rounded out the medals with a bronze defeating Israel 2-0. Guilia Longhi from Italy had the the highest batting average for the Euro Championship hitting .667 for the event. Erika Piancastelli from Italy also led the event in home runs with six. The Czech’s had some impressive showings in the circle as both Katerina Kindermannova and Veronika Peckova led the way with the lowest ERA (0.00 by Kindermannova) and most strikeouts (65 by Peckova).

In a highly unexpected move, Nevada has named Linda Garza head coach. Garza had recently resigned at Fresno State after 4 1/2 seasons coaching the Bulldogs with 161-82 record. She had been on leave from the program since April 9 and stepped down from her position in Fresno officially on June 15. Garza replaces Josh Taylor who departed the Wolf Pack to accept the head coaching position at Louisiana Tech.

RTS has learned that Fort Lewis College will name Otero Junior College coach Dwight Sanders their new head coach. Sanders has coached Otero since the 2015 season. He takes over a Fort Lewis squad that went 20-23 in the 2021 season. Former head coach Ashley Reeves resigned last month to accept the head coaching position at Harding.

The NCAA Softball Rules Committee in their recent meeting has proposed implementing video review and allowing coaches to have two video review challenges beginning in the 2021-22 academic year. A hot topic throughout the 2021 softball season, many conferences experimented with video review in their postseason championships including the SEC and ACC. Those experiments for the most part went well and were praised by coaches. All rule proposals must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel. The panel is scheduled to discuss softball recommendations August 12.

Oklahoma has added All-Pac 12 player Alyssa Brito to their roster. Brito spent last season at Oregon. As a freshman for the Ducks, Brito collected Second Team All-Pac 12, Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and Pac-12 All-Defense accolades and was named to the NFCA’s All-Pacific Region Second Team.

Fresno State has named Stacy May-Johnson their new head coach. May-Johnson spent the past two seasons at Utah Valley where she compiled a record of 36-35. She has also had coaching stops at Eastern Kentucky, Purdue, Louisville, and Iowa through her career.

In what can only be taken as a sad joke, total lack of concern for their student-athletes, and poor leadership in conducting an in-depth search by their athletic administration and Athletic Director Tim Hall, SIU-Edwardsville has named assistant baseball coach P.J. Finigan interim head coach. In one of the most active hiring seasons on recent record (and it only being July 2), Hall explained “With us just coming out of COVID, and other factors, the pool of candidates wasn’t as strong as I would have liked it to be, nor what this storied program deserves.” Finigan brings zero coaching or recruiting experience in the sport of softball having spent his whole coaching career in baseball.