SB Position Preview: Infielders

As softball season approaches, North Texas will be looking to continue on what was a promising start to a prematurely ended 2020 campaign. The Mean Green were off to one of the best starts in program history when the COVID-19 pandemic brought an end to the season in March. After losing 10 players from the 2020 squad, the 2021 team will feature one more newcomer than returners and this is the second of a three-part series detailing who is back and who is new in each position group.

Infielders – 8 Returners, 6 Newcomers

North Texas is returning some key pieces on the infield this season including junior Tayla Evans and sophomore Candain Callahan. Evans enters her third season with 70 starts under her belt, the most amongst all returners. Through 24 games in 2020, Evans had already tied her career-high with five long balls and was hitting .314 with 19 runs driven in. The Collinsville native has a career batting average of .325 and boasts a career slugging percentage of .548. The corner infielder will see time at both first and third this season.

Callahan enters 2021 after having her mid-season momentum cut short due to the COVID-19 shutdown. The Canyon native was coming off a four-game stretch where she went 7-for-11 with her first career home run and three runs driven in when the season was cut short. The sophomore started all 24 games last year at shortstop and will be right back there when the season begins.

Also returning on the infield for the Mean Green are seniors Kourtney Williams, Miranda Holguin and Bri Valdez along with sophomores Saleen Donohoe and Meagan Youngman. Williams and Donohoe saw significant action for North Texas in 2020, appearing in 23 and 19 games respectively. Williams' highlight of the year came when she hit the game-winning home run as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning of the victory at No. 8 Louisiana on February 8. Donohoe tied Evans with five home runs and drove in 13 runs in her 19 appearances starting at third base.

Holguin, Valdez and Youngman all saw limited action a year ago with Holguin and Valdez appearing mainly as pinch runners. Utility player Amarys Miller-Godsey could also see time on the infield.

The newcomers are a group of freshmen with a quartet from Texas and a pair from Oklahoma. Mikayla Smith and Kailey Gamble have joined the Mean Green from north of the Red River, Smith was honored with the Michelle Smith Award as a senior, which honors the top player in Oklahoma and she will see playing time up the middle. Gamble is a left-handed first baseman who was named to the Premier Girls Fastpitch All-Southwest Region Team a year ago and won a pair of state championships in high school, one fastpitch and one slowpitch.

The quartet from Texas features Jaden Middlebrook, Rayna Lewis, Kalei Christensen and Maia Wark. Middlebrook joins the Mean Green after an impressive prep career at V.R. Eaton High School in Haslet which saw her earn three First Team All-District nods and Lewis joins the North Texas squad from Katy where she graduated from Paetow High School. When Lewis signed her letter of intent to join the Mean Green in the fall of 2019, she became the first student from her high school to sign to play at the next level. Middlebrook and Smith played Travel Ball together while Middlebrook played high school ball with catcher Ashlyn Walker. Fellow freshmen Kalei Christensen and Maia Wark could both also see time on the infield as utility players, Christensen will also catch and play the outfield while Wark will see the majority of her playing time in the outfield.

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Players Mentioned

Candain Callahan

Kalei Christensen

Saleen Donohoe

Tayla Evans

Kailey Gamble

Miranda Holguin

Rayna Lewis

Amarys Miller-Godsey

Mikayla Smith

Bri Valdez

Ashlyn Walker

Maia Wark

Kourtney Williams

Meagan Youngman

Upcoming Events

University of North Texas Athletics