OKLAHOMA CITY — If you’re a fan of Arizona softball, you should have a new favorite fastpitch team this summer.
Now-departed pitcher Taryne Mowatt and catcher Callista Balko will be teammates and roommates this summer for the Washington (D.C.) Glory of the National Pro Fastpitch league.
They will soon join the team, whose season started last week.
“I’m just glad my pitcher is coming with me because we’re such a good team and it’s not like I have to get used to someone else,” said Balko, after Arizona was eliminated from the Women’s College Series on Saturday.
“I think we work pretty well together. I understand her more than most catchers, and I think our bond has really developed lately.”
The Glory’s star pitcher is Monica Abbott, but she is on the Olympic team, which will drain talent from the NPF this summer, making Mowatt one of the league’s most recognizable players.
Mowatt, who toured ESPN’s production trucks last week in Oklahoma City, said she has been inquiring about job opportunities with the cable giant. She told reporters last week that she would love to have Erin Andrews’ job as a sideline reporter.
“I’ve been pitching the idea that there should be an Erin and Taryne duo,” she told The Oklahoman newspaper.
Balko, a history major, said she has a year left of school, and is deciding between pursuing sports broadcasting and a career in personal training.
“There are two completely different routes I could take,” she said. “We’ll see which doors are opening.”
Mowatt, a communications major, said she has a semester left of college.
Ex-Cat shortstop Kristie Fox, who served as a UA undergraduate assistant this season, will return to the Chicago Bandits of the NPF. She hit .310 last season.