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It may be months for the start of the new spring season, but the St. Bede softball and baseball teams turned a triple play on National Signing Day 2023 Wednesday at the Academy.
Two members of the St. Bede state champion softball team, Reagan Stoudt and Bella Pinter, signed off on their next chapters on the diamond. Stoudt signed to play for NCAA Division I Texas-San Antonio, while Pinter made her commitment official with Illinois Wesleyan University.
Nathan Husser signed to play baseball for College of Lake County.
It was love at first sight for Stoudt when she made the trip to San Antonio.
“If you’ve ever been to San Antonio, you know it’s a beautiful city. Having the ability to go somewhere to play my sport and have school at the same time, that’s all I really needed,” she said.
Stoudt, who was the co-BCR Player of the Year with teammate Ella Hermes and named first-team All-State and unanimous Three Rivers East All-Conference, said UTSA first reached out to her last winter. Although UTSA has made a change of coaches this summer, Stoudt said she has met new head coach Van Stuedeman and “loves her.”
A two-way star for St. Bede, Stoudt led the Bruins with a .505 average, six homers and 36 RBIs and spun a 2.70 ERA with 10-2 record and 138 strikeouts in the circle.
She is assuming the Roadrunners coaches will give her a look as both a pitcher and a position player to start and then “we’ll see what the workload looks like and how I perform.”
Stoudt plans to major in biology with a minor in Spanish with an eye on becoming an optometrist.
Like Stoudt, Pinter played a key role during the Bruins’ state championship run last spring. The Bruins catcher batted .309 with 21 RBIs, nine doubles and two home runs.
She hadn’t planned on playing in college, wanting to focus on her studies. A friend she met on her travel team, Casey Wissmiller of Stanford Olympia, who plays for Wesleyan, talked her into playing, and she found the Division III level just the right mix.
“After talking to coach [Tiffany] Frager and visiting the facilities and everything, it really did feel at home. I felt the chemistry on the team not even being on it yet,” Pinter said. “It just felt honestly just like St. Bede, which was something I was looking for. And I’ll be able to major in kinesiology there while not being super far away from home.”
“I’m super glad playing Division III. I get to play while having time for myself. I get to travel, and I get to have the competitiveness, but I get to be at a smaller level, which I think will be perfect for me.”
Husser, who caught, pitched and played outfield for the Bruins, batting .280 with 12 RBIs last spring, is excited to continue his baseball career for the College of Lake County, a Division II junior college in Grayslake.
“They have a wide variety of different facilities. They have a really good coach who knows what he’s talking about and how to move me on to the next level,” he said.
Undecided about a major, Husser will concentrate on baseball for now.
St. Bede softball coach Shawn Sons was pleased to see his girls get the opportunity to keep playing.
“I’m super excited for both of them and their families,” he said. “They’re all signed now, so I know they are going to be super focused on this upcoming season and trying to repeat as state champs.”