D1 Softball - Year in Review - 2022 in Reflection - EIS

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College Softball Year in Review: 2022 in Reflection

BY JUSTIN MCLEOD DECEMBER 30, 2022 7:00 AM

Monumental Moments

- February 25th: Michigan coach Carol Hutchins records her 1,675th career win to set a new NCAA all-time record.
- Hutchins previously held the all-time wins record, but was surpassed by Mike Candrea in 2021. She took back the mark from Candrea in 2022.
- Hutchins, who retired in August, finished her coaching career with 1,707 career victories.
- March 11th: Oklahoma slugger Jocelyn Alo hits her 96th career home run to set a new NCAA softball record.
- Alo ended her collegiate career with 122 home runs, the only softball player to ever cross the 100-home run mark.
- Alo also became the all-time diamond sports home run record holder when she passed college baseball record holder Pete Incaviglia’s 100 career longballs

Champions

- Oklahoma won the Women’s College World Series, their 6th national title in program history. The Sooners lost three games through the entire year and set numerous offensive records along the way.
- Rogers State, out of Oklahoma, won the Division II national title. It was the first championship in program history and saw the 5th-seeded Hillcats finish a season that included a 58-10 overall record.
- Christopher Newport took home the Division III championship. The Captains lost just one time in 48 games on the year en route to their first national title. The Captains ended the year on a 24-game winning streak.

Arrivals

- Oklahoma pitcher Jordy Bahl lived up to expectations in her first collegiate season. The Sooners’ freshman pitcher posted a 1.09 ERA, a 22-1 record, and 205 strikeouts in just over 141 innings of work.
- Wofford College announced their new softball program in 2021, with aim to begin play with the 2024 season, but the Terriers made strides in, completing construction on a new stadium and hiring Chelsea Butler as head coach.
- Four teams made their first-ever NCAA tournament appearances at the Division 1 level. Murray State, North Texas, UNC Wilmington, and Grand Canyon all made their postseason debuts in 2022, all reaching the NCAA tournament after winning their respective conference tournament championships. Murray State and Grand Canyon also won their respective leagues’ regular-season titles.
- Stepping outside of college softball specifically for a moment, the Women’s Pro Fastpitch (WPF) league played their first “season” in 2022, a barnstorming-style circuit that included two teams playing in a variety of venues. The league has since announced the addition of two new franchises that are expected to begin play in 2023.

Departures

- Michigan head coach Carol Hutchins retired in August after 38 season leading the Wolverines.
- Illinois State head coach Melinda Fischer retired, also in August, after 37 seasons at ISU and 39 years in total as a college head coach. She finished her career with a 1,118-842-4 record at ISU.
- Once-again stepping out of the college softball realm momentarily, two veteran professional players said goodbye to the sport this summer. Slugger Amanda Chidester – a silver medalist for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 – and pitcher Danielle O’Toole both chose to end their professional careers after the summer’s Athletes Unlimited season.
- Softball great Monica Abbott remains part of the Team USA roster, but announced her retirement from playing professionally in Japan after more than a decade overseas in the Japanese professional league.

Remembering

- In March, longtime Florida Atlantic coach and softball legend Joan Joyce passed away. Joyce was a star multi-sport athlete in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s and famously once struck out MLB slugger Ted Williams in an exhibition.
- James Madison catcher Lauren Bernett died in late April. Announced one day after she earned conference Player of the Week honors, Bernett’s death sparked a nationwide conversation on student-athletes’ mental health.
- Hall of Fame Salisbury head coach Margie Knight passed away at the beginning of August. Knight retired after the 2020 season following a multi-sport playing and coaching career that included more than 800 wins and nearly two-dozen NCAA tournament appearances strictly as a softball coach.

Realigned

- Seventeen Division I schools changed conferences this summer, the largest realignment in recent memory. An additional five schools moved up from the Division II ranks to begin the official, 4-year reclassification process to D1.
- Rock Valley College, a perennial junior college national champion, realigned from NJCAA D3 to NJCAA D2, allowing the school to now offer scholarships to student-athletes.
- UCLA, as well as non-softball-playing USC, announced plans to leave the PAC-12 Conference and join the Big 10. That move has since cleared multiple hurdles, including a contentious governmental process, and the way now appears to be cleared for the move to be completed.

The Eternal Portal

- The biggest names to enter the transfer portal and choose a new home this summer: Alex Storako; Haley Lee; Sharlize Palacios; Cydney Sanders; Rachel Becker; Lexi Kilfoyl
- Oklahoma added four players via transfer, three of them All-Americans and all four all-region players.
- UCLA also added four players via transfer, all of them from within the PAC-12. Two of the new Bruins came from archrival Arizona, while the other two came from conference foe Oregon.
- Schools including Arizona State and Alabama saw mass exoduses via the transfer portal; both schools tallied at least six players entering the portal in the summer and early fall.
- Oklahoma State added the biggest transfer class in Division 1, with seven new players arriving in Stillwater via the portal.
- The Mid-American Conference (MAC) was decimated by transfers, including seeing their reigning Player and Pitcher of the Year both transfer to new homes.

Coaching Moves

- The final Division 1 tallies: 43 head coaching moves, 160 assistant coaching moves.
- Five Power 5 head coaching positions opened this summer, including Texas A&M; Arizona State; Michigan; Texas Tech; and Michigan State.
- The 2022 coaching carousel included the most head coaching moves in any year since 2018.

Postseason Parity

- College softball and college baseball mirrored each other this year, as teams who were among the final four programs included in the NCAA tournament field ultimately made their way to the respective College World Series. Oregon State accomplished the feat on the softball side.
- Only the Power 5 and the American conferences placed multiple teams in the NCAA tournament; every other league was a single-bid affair, represented by only their conference or conference tournament champion.
- The Big 12 only placed three teams in the tournament, but all three ultimately reached the Women’s College World Series and the national semifinals.
- Five regional hosts were eliminated in the opening round, including top-8 seeds Florida State and Alabama.
- Two Super Regionals were hosted by unseeded teams, with a total of three unseeded (non-top-16) teams ultimately reaching the WCWS.
- Three Super Regionals went to a winner-take-all Game 3.