Hallie Wilson has been considered one of the top leadoff hitters in California/Photo submitted by Hallie Wilson to USA Softball
Here are three more reasons why the future of Mike Candrea‘s Arizona softball program is bright: Hallie Wilson, Chelsea Goodacre and Shelby Pendley.
Those three players — who each will be high school seniors this fall and have committed to sign with the Wildcats, according to multiple reports — were selected Tuesday to the 17-member U.S. Junior National team. Forty-one players took part in the tryout camp in Chula Vista, Calif.
Wilson is a outfielder from North Tustin, Calif. She hit .432 as a junior at Foothill High School — the school that produced UA All-American Caitlin Lowe — after batting .526 as a sophomore.
Goodacre, a power-hitting catcher from Temecula, Calif., missed about six weeks of her junior season because of injury, but hit .507 in 21 games.
Pendley, from Rio Rancho, N.M., is a power-hitting shortstop/third baseman who hit .586 last season with 12 home runs — both marks ranked second in the New Mexico’s 5A classification. She also did some pitching for Rio Rancho High.
Wilson, Goodacre and Pendley will arrive at Arizona for the 2011-12 school year. In the meantime, Arizona has signed two players for next season — pitcher Shelby Babcock and shortstop Chelsea Suitos, who fill the roster spots of departed pitcher Sarah Akamine and shortstop K’Lee Arredondo.
The Wildcats have two known commitments from players who just completed their sophomore seasons — pitcher Nancy Bowling from Royal High in Simi Valley, Calif. (you can see a photo of her here at the Orange County Register) and shortstop Amanda Perez from Whittier (Calif.) Christian.
“It’s like a dream come true. It’s the school I always wanted to attend,” Perez told the Whittier Daily News last week. “As soon as they offered me, I didn’t have to wait.”
Bowling was at the tryout camp for the Junior National Team, but did not make the cut.
The U.S. Junior National team will compete at the III Pan American Softball Championship (18-and-under) from Aug. 6-15, in Bogota, Colombia. That event is a qualifier for the International Softball Federation IX Junior Women’s World Championship (19-and-under), which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from Dec. 6-17, 2011.
Stacy Iveson, the head coach at Yavapai College in Prescott, is an assistant coach for the Junior National team. Iveson is a Catalina High graduate, a former UA player and assistant coach, and the former head coach at Pima Community College.
