UCSB Softball Bolsters Lineup with 11 Freshmen and Two Pac-12 Transfers

The standard honeymoon period may have elapsed for UCSB women’s softball coach Jo Evans, but she does enter her second season on Friday with plenty of positive relationships:

Her roster is bolstered by something old, something new, and something borrowed donning Gaucho blue.

The something old includes 11 veterans led by a trio of star seniors: shortstop Madelyn McNally, catcher Ashley Donaldson and pitcher Camryn Snyder.

The something new consists of seven freshmen, headlined by star pitching recruit Ainsley Waddell.

And the something borrowed features two Pac-12 transfers with the College World Series on their resumés: outfielders Alana Snow from UCLA and Erin Mendoza from Oregon State.

“I’m really excited about this year’s team,” Evans told Noozhawk on the eve of this weekend’s San Diego State Season Kickoff Tournament. “It’ll be a team with a lot more depth and will be a lot more athletic than last year’s team.

“The freshmen give us so many options. We’ve had almost everybody working in at least a couple of different positions.

“We’ll be able to move them around a little bit during the preseason and get a feel for who can do what.”

She’s challenging the Gauchos with one of their most difficult preconference schedules in memory.

They will open the San Diego Tournament on Friday with games against No. 25 Kentucky at 10 a.m. and against Minnesota at 3 p.m. They will face Minnesota again on Saturday at 2 p.m. before playing No. 24 San Diego State in a 7 p.m. nightcap.

UCSB will complete the tournament on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. against No. 3 Stanford.

The Gauchos will play in the UNLV Desert Classic the following weekend and make their home debut on Feb. 22 in their three-day UCSB Tournament.

“Right out of the gates, we’re playing four teams that were all in the postseason last year,” Evans said. “Two of them (San Diego State and Stanford) made it to the (NCAA) Super Regionals and Stanford went to the College World Series.

“We didn’t see any postseason teams last year until we played Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton in conference.”

Fullerton and Long Beach were chosen 1-2 by the coaches in this year’s Big West Conference preseason poll. Cal State Northridge was picked for third and UCSB was ranked fourth in the 10-team poll.

The Gauchos finished last season with records of 26-22 overall and 13-14 in the Big West. That was a dramatic improvement from the previous season when Evans’ predecessor went 15-39 overall and finished ninth in league at 6-21.

“I definitely feel like we made good strides last year,” Evans said. “We didn’t play a really strong schedule, although I don’t know if it was any stronger years prior.

“But to see our kids have some success, I think they felt good about themselves, and that’s half the battle. ‘Can they win? Do they know how to win? Can they manage the setbacks?’

“I thought our kids did a good job with that.”

She has two strong leaders in McNally, who’s been selected to the All-Big West First Team in each of her first three seasons at UCSB, and Snyder, who has won 20 games in 251 1/3 innings in her first three years.

“They’re both really hard workers,” Evans said. “Maddie is a blue-collar player. She gets banged up and she plays through it.

“I’ve been really pleased to see how they’ve managed themselves and also managed the team. When somebody needs to speak up, those two are willing to do it.”

Here is the roster breakdown:

Pitchers

Snyder led last year’s staff with a record of 12-9, 95 strikeouts and an earned run average of 2.89. Also back are sophomore Malaya Johnson (5-8, 3.68) and junior Ava Bradford (4-4, 4.91).

But Evans has also recruited four freshmen to her pitching circle. Waddell is coming off a stellar senior season at Redwood City’s Sequoia High School in which she won 17 games and led the CIF-Central Section in strikeouts with 254 in 159 1/3 innings.

“She’s about 5-foot-11, throws 63-64 mph and she’s a lefty,” Evans said. “She also hits (.595 batting average with four home runs last year) and will likely be in the middle of our lineup as a freshman.

“She has the potential to be a huge impact on our program.”

Evans envisions fellow freshmen Emily McCoskey from Diamond Ranch High and Sam Stoll from Sacramento’s Inderkum High to fill relief roles on her pitching staff.

Catchers

The Gauchos had a good tandem last year. Donaldson made the All-Big West First Team after batting .361 with a team-best five homers and 36 RBI. Junior Daryn Siegel (.270, 24 RBI) received all-league honorable mention.

Siegel will redshirt this season, however, after undergoing hip surgery. That opens the door for sophomore Elicia Acosta, who sat out essentially all of last year after getting injured in the season opener.

“Ashely hit lights-out for us,” Evans said. “She was great hitting behind McNally, with McNally’s speed. She’s also going to get the opportunity to play first base for us because we’re going to try to make sure we get our bats into the lineup.

“Acosta really has the most power of anybody on our team. If we can get her rolling offensively, you’ll see her catching, you’ll see her DPing, and you’ll see her play some first base, too.”

Infielders

McNally is the gold standard at shortstop. Her .415 batting average last year was the third-highest in Gaucho history and her career average of .395 puts her on pace to break the school record of .379 set in 2017 by Kristen Clark.

“She’s really been coachable,” Evans said. “She leads off and just makes us go.

“We also have a freshman, Tehya Banks (Ayala High), who’s really smooth at short and is going to get some time there, too, when we need to give Maddie’s body a break. I can’t imagine ever having her out of the batting lineup, though.”

The Gauchos return steady sophomores Jazzy Santos (.286) at second and Bella Fuentes (.250) at third. Freshman Emily Carr (Roosevelt High) will get a look at both corner infield positions while classmate Kaylin Garcia (Chino Hills High) is an option for both second and third, and as a pinch-runner.

Katie Terrazas (Norco High), another freshman, is the first baseman of the future who should see time as a defensive replacement.

Outfielders

Junior Alexa Sams earned All-Big West honorable mention last year after batting .288. She’ll be sharing left field with sophomore Makayla Newsom (.203).

Snow, who played for UCLA’s National Championship team of 2019, will play right field along with junior Lucy Mogan (.211). She’s entering UCSB as a graduate student.

“Her mom (Cindy Gilbert) was an Olympic track athlete and her dad (Russ Snow, a former professional fast-pitch star) still plays softball in his 60s,” Evans said. “It’s a pretty impressive family.”

Mendoza, a junior who started 35 games in two seasons at Oregon State, will patrol centerfield for Gauchos.

“They went to the College World Series her freshman year,” Evans pointed out. “She’s going to give us a lot of experience and range in center.”

Senior outfielder Chloe Stewart, who batted .313 last year in 22 starts, missed most of the fall training season with an injury and has been dealing with a recent hamstring injury.

“She’ll see playing time, but maybe not until she’s really comfortable with not reinjuring herself,” Evans pointed out.

Coaching Staff

UCSB batted a solid .292 as a team last year. Evans expects Rachel Huggins, who joins Amy Hayes and Joy Jackson as her assistant coaches, to keep the Gauchos on track as their new hitting instructor.

“She played for Amy Hayes at Bradley and then coached with her,” Evans said. “When Hayes took the job here as our pitching coach, Rachel went to Eastern Illinois and helped them go to the postseason for the first time in the history of their program.

“She really knows hitting and she’s a grinder. She gets out there and recruits, day in and out, all summer long. She pours over film.

“Every staff has to have someone like that. It’s a great staff and we all work well together.”

Evans, who is entering her 39 th season as a head coach, ranks 11 th on the NCAA’s all-time list for coaching wins with 1,326 in stints at Colorado State, Utah, Texas A&M and now UCSB. She took Texas A&M to the NCAA Tournament 22 times during her 27 seasons at the school, with three trips to the College World Series.

But she’s also relished her time so far at UCSB.

“I’ve really been enjoying coaching this group, from Day One,” Evans said. “They’ve been really coachable. They want to be good. They want to get better.

“They know they’re not as good as they need to be or want to be, so that’s helpful. We’re all just enjoying each other.

“If you can do that and work as hard as we’re working, it can turn out pretty cool.”