From left, Arizona freshmen Chelsea Goodacre, Shelby Pendley and Hallie Wilson were teammates on the U.S. junior national team. Photo from ASA Softball

Two Arizona Wildcats softball players helped the United States win the Junior Women’s World Championship on Saturday.

The U.S. team defeated Japan 4-1 in the gold medal game in Cape Town, South Africa.

Arizona freshman Hallie Wilson played centerfield and hit leadoff for Team USA — roles she is expected to fill this season for the Wildcats — and hit .440 for the event (12 of 25).

Wilson had a double, a triple, two home runs and stole two bases. She also walked eight times, giving her an on-base percentage of .571.

Cather Chelsea Goodacre mostly played in reserve. She was 4 of 10 with a home run, scoring four runs. She also stole a base.

Arizona freshman shortstop Shelby Pendley, who also made the U.S. junior team (19 and under), could not play because of an ACL injury suffered while playing in an exhibition game in the summer.

Team USA went 7-0 in pool play before defeating Australia 7-4 in the quarterfinal round. The U.S. team lost to Japan 9-0 in the semifinals, but worked its way to the gold medal game by beating Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal game.

The Americans were powered in the final game by a grand slam by Cheyanne Tarango (University of Tennessee) and the complete game of Lauren Haeger (Glendale Deer Valley High School, University of Florida).

Arizona State sophomore pitcher Dallas Escobedo went 4-0 in the tournament with a 2.37 ERA.

Hallie Wilson/Photo submitted by Hallie Wilson to USA Softball

Arizona Wildcats softball coach Mike Candrea signed four players to national letters-of-intent this week, including a trio who play for the U.S. Junior Women’s National Team.

Those three are outfielder/first baseman Hallie Wilson, shortstop Shelby Pendley and catcher Chelsea Goodacre. They helped Team USA win the 18-under Pan American championship in August.

Candrea also added third baseman/outfielder Samantha Davis from Scottsdale Chaparral High School.

Wilson, from North Tustin, Calif., hit .432 as a junior at Foothill High School — the school that produced former UA All-American Caitlin Lowe — after batting .526 as a sophomore. The left-handed hitter has a well-rounded offensive game, with the ability to bunt, slap and take the ball out of the yard.

“She is definitely prepared to make an impact at this level,” Candrea said.

Pendley is a left-handed power hitter who hit .586 last season with 12 home runs at Rio Rancho (N.M.) High School — both marks ranked second in the New Mexico’s 5A classification. “She’s a big, strong hitter,” Candrea said. “She is definitely the best player out of Albuquerque in a long time.”

Goodacre, is another left-handed hitter with some pop. Goodacre, from Temecula, Calif., missed about six weeks of her junior season because of injury, but hit .507 in 21 games. “She has a strong arm and is very active vocally,” Candrea said. “She really enjoys playing the game. If she was a basketball player, they’d say she was a gym rat.”

Arizona has to replace four seniors after the 2011 season, including outfielder Brittany Lastrapes, outfielder Lauren Schutzler and catcher Stacie Chambers.

In addition to bringing in another excellent class, Candrea said he and his coaching staff already have filled their next recruiting class. The early commitment has become a recent trend in college softball.

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” he said.

“It can be good if you get the right people and they continue to grow and develop, but it can be bad if you get a kid who bottoms out and doesn’t get any better. This is fairly new to the softball world.

“I feel good that the kids that we have are in the upper pyramid. For the bottom to fall out, they would really have to crash hard.”

Candrea can’t talk about the players in the next recruiting class, but among those committed are pitcher Nancy Bowling from Royal High in Simi Valley, Calif., and shortstop Amanda Perez from Whittier (Calif.) Christian.

Arizona also has a known commitment from a high school sophomore — shortstop Alexis “Mo” Mercado, who is from Temecula, Calif.

Fabbians Ebbele, from Chicago, should be one of the new building blocks for the offensive line/Photo by Brad Allis, WildcatSportsReport.com

You might not have been able to tell from the kind of vocabulary offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh was using during Monday’s practice, but he seems to really like his young offensive linemen.

It’s this group of four true freshmen, combined with three redshirt freshman offensive linemen from the class of 2009, that will be the future foundation of everything the Wildcats want to do on offense.

For now, the true freshmen might give up a speed rush to Brooks Reed coming off the edge in practice. They might not go hard every time from snap to whistle. That’s OK. It’s early. What is encouraging is they look the part.

Mickey Baucus, Fabbians Ebbele, Carter Lees and Trent Spurgeon are part of what appears to be Mike Stoops’ most physically impressive freshman class.

“These guys, there are all in the 6-6 to 6-8 range, and they all have long arms, and they are all 290 to 300 pounds. They’re athletes,” Bedenbaugh, also the co-offensive coordinator, said of his linemen.

“But the biggest thing is, just mentally picking up the game. They’re getting a lot of reps right now, but it’s going to take some time.”

With six seniors and one junior (guard Vaughn Dotsy) in the two-deep, Arizona doesn’t have much margin or error with injuries. The experience drops off quickly. Redshirt freshman Eric Bender-Ramsay is listed as a possible backup at left tackle. Chris Putton is a second-stringer at left guard.

The opportunity could be there for a true freshman.

“We’ve got to have one of them develop in case we get into a situation where we need them,” Bedenbaugh said.

* * *

When Lindy’s National College Basketball magazine hits the newsstands in a few weeks, Arizona will be picked to finish second in the Pac-10 behind certain-unanimous pick Washington.

Lindy’s won’t have the Wildcats in its preseason Top 25, but UA will be right on the fringes, which sounds about right as Sean Miller‘s team looks to climb after a 16-15 season.

I wrote the Arizona preview for the magazine (although I did not have any input in the rankings). While interviewing Miller for the magazine, I asked him if he had learned in his first year which buttons to push with senior-to-be forward Jamelle Horne.

“I think one things players always respect is honesty. I thought I was very honest in coaching Jamelle last year, as was our staff, and we had some very direct conversations this spring,” Miller said.

“The only thing I can judge Jamelle on is what he does past those conversations.”

Since the end of last semester, Horne stayed in Tucson and attended summer pre-session classes and both regular summer sessions. “He didn’t have to do that,” Miller said.

And he was devoted to his workouts.

“He has done a great job in the classroom,” Miller said. “Physically, he has probably has made as much improvement as anybody on our team. He’s much stronger, heavier. I think he is in a good place.”

Now, Horne just needs to devote himself to having a full-time rebounding mentality.

* * *

Various reports in the past few weeks have said that Kentucky shortstop/third baseman Andy Burns will be transferring to Arizona. Burns hit .271 as a sophomore last season, starting 44 of the team’s 56 games. He hit 11 home runs, one off the team lead.

Burns was a two-time state player of the year at Rocky Mountain High in Colorado Springs, Colo., and was the 38th-best prospect in the nation after his senior season, according to Baseball America. The Colorado Rockies selected him in the 25th round in the 2008 draft.

* * *

Former Arizona Wildcat Chris Gronkowski, an undrafted rookie fullback, has been catching the eye of Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips in training camp. The Cowboys opened the exhibition season over the weekend against the Cincinnati Bengals. In his evaluation a day later, Phillips said about Gronkowski, “For a rookie, I thought he played well.” If Gronkowski makes the team, it will be in no small part because of his coachability and work ethic … and his ability to help on special teams helps, too.

* * *

Hallie Wilson/Photo submitted by Hallie Wilson to USA Softball

Three Arizona softball recruits — each of whom will be entering their senior seasons of high school — are playing with the U.S. junior women’s national team at the 18-under Pan Am Championships in Bogota, Columbia. The trio of outfielder Hallie Wilson, catcher Chelsea Goodacre and shortstop Shelby Pendley were a combined 5-of-7 with four RBIs and four stolen bases in the first two games, each won by the United States via no-hitters. …

More softball: Arizona senior-to-be outfielder Brittany Lastrapes should have been with the U.S. Futures team at the Japan Cup in Sendai City last week. But she was in Tucson, still feeling the effects of the mononucleosis that she fought through at the Women’s College World Series in early June. Team USA, helped by ex-Cat third baseman Jenae Leles, won that event with a 5-0 victory against Japan on Sunday.

* * *

Arizona outfielder Steve Selsky, who will be a junior next season (assuming he doesn’t sign before Aug. 15 after being a 34th-round pick of the Colorado Rockies), has homered in three consecutive games in the Cape Cod League playoffs. Selsky and UA teammate Kyle Simon are playing for the Orleans (Mass.) Firebirds in the East Division Finals. Simon had a 0.92 ERA in seven regular-season starts in the summer league, spanning 39 innings.

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.

The Wildcats have commitments from arguably the two best sophomore pitchers in the state of California – Nancy Bowling of Royal High in Simi, and Bri Matthews from Mater Dei in Santa Ana.

If all goes well, they will arrive at Arizona for the 2013 season, when Fowler will be a senior and signee Shelby Babcock will be a junior.

Just like in men’s basketball, softball players are committing earlier and earlier. Arizona is one of the teams that is leading the trend.

Why? Mostly, because Candrea and his staff can.

Offering scholarships to players who are so young can be dicey and be something that backfires, but the Wildcats are dealing with elite recruits — the kind who are easier to evaluate and are usually highly motivated to continue to improve.

Candrea can’t talk about specific recruits, but I asked him Monday about the pros and cons of early commitments.

“You wonder how a kid who is a sophomore in high school really knows what they want to do and where they want to be,” Candrea said.

“But fortunately there are some kids who do their homework and they know. The fortunate thing about it is that it helps us because of the tradition we have. We feel pretty good about the future and some verbals we have gotten from kids.”

Matthews “is supposed to be the best 14-year-old pitching prospect in the state,” according to a story last summer in the Los Angeles Times.

Bowling was selected the softball freshman of the year by CalHiSports.com after a season in which she posted a 0.43 ERA, striking out 301 and walking just 44, in 180.1 innings.

Even at such a young age, both pitched last summer in the 18-and-under ASA Gold Championships — the top tournament for travel ball teams — for the Orange County Batbusters. The Batbusters are one of the storied teams in club softball and have long been a pipeline of talent for Arizona.

Arizona has two known commitments from high school juniors — outfielder Hallie Wilson from Foothill High in Orange County and power-hitting catcher Chelsea Goodacre of Temecula Valley (Calif.) High School.

“Right now, it’s kind of nice to look at your roster and say that we’re done with 2010 (recruiting) and we’re done with 2011 and almost done with 2012,” Candrea said. “That kind of sets you up for a while.

“On the other hand, you don’t know if that kid is going to continue to grow. A lot of questions on that.”