Charlotte Softball Gear Up To Open Season At Tiger Classic

Charlotte, NC – Charlotte Softball starts her 2025 season Friday afternoon in Baton Rouge, LA. At Tiger Classic 2025. During the three-day tournament, Niners will face LSU, southeastern Louisiana and Central Arkansas.

Charlotte starts the weekend with a matchup from 7 p.m. 12 noon against southeastern Louisiana on Friday, followed by a 7 p.m. 17.00 -match against No. 10 LSU. Saturday looks very similar where the nines take on both Lions and Tigers again, where Game One is played at. 12.00 and Game Two, which will take place at. 14:30 after the end of Game One. The weekend ends on Sunday morning with a 11:00 match against Central Arkansas.

A new era
Charlotte is coming in this season under new leadership after departing the former head coach Ashley Chastain. First -year head coach, Courtney Breault is now leading Niners together with a new set of assistants.

Breault, who joined the program in June 2024, comes to Charlotte most recently from Clemson, where she served as assistant coach and recruits coordinator for five seasons. While at Clemson, Breault helped guide the program, which began in 2020, to the NCAA-Regional appearances in each of their four full seasons in existence and back-to-back Super Regional Berths in 2022 and 2023.

Participation in Breault on the coaching staff are assistants Alyssa Bilodeau and Jake Combs.

Bilodeau was brought over from Clemson with Breault and acts as Charlotte’s Pitching Coach. Before Charlotte, she served as a candidate assistant for Clemson from 2022-23 before being raised to the director of the player development in 2024. Working with Breault, she helped with opponent’s scout, player analysis and technology and student development.

Combs comes to Charlotte after three years working at the College of Charleston and serves as the team’s outfield trainer and helps hit and base tuning, in addition to being camp and clinic coordinator. Combs also has ties to Breault, dating back to 2020-21, where he served as a candidate assistant for the initial Clemson team.

The loyal six
Charlotte will only return six players from last year’s AAC Championship title and NCAA Regional Team.

Christina Wellen // of // r-sr.
Wellen joined Niners in the fall of 2023 after playing two seasons in Florida. Tampa -natives performed in 50 matches in 2024 for Niners primarily as a knife runner and defensive specialist. Wellen scored 10 races and placed a .333 batting average across three bats.

Brooke bowling // rhp // r-jr.
Bowling joined the program in the fall of 2021 after the program from South Granville High School. By 2024, Bowling appeared 21 performances, including nine starts, before her season was shortened due to injury. In these 21 performances, she registered a 5-1 record while sending a 4.07 era across 43.0 laps.

London Dirks // of // Jr.
Dirks joined the program in the fall of 2022 after graduation from Davie County High School. In 2024, Dirks played in 48 games with 20 starts, primarily in the right field. On the record, she released a .220 batting average 11 races, four doubles and 13 RBI. Dirks also went 9 for 10 on stolen basic trials.

Savanna Nguyen // Inf // Jr.
Nguyen joined the team in the fall of 2022 also after graduating from Indian Land High School in Lancaster, SC in 2024, Nguyen played in 40 games while starting 14 starts on shortstop. On the record she recorded 5 RBI and scored 14 races.

Teagan Ritchie // Inf // SO.
Ritchie joined the program in the fall of 2023 after graduating from West Stanly High School in Oakboro, NC in 2024, Ritchie played in 49 games with 44 starts, all on shortstop. On the record she made up 20 races, 20 hits, a home drive and 11 RBI. She was also six for seven on stolen basic trials.

Olivia Williams // of // so.
Williams joined the program in the fall of 2022 also after graduation from Wake Forest High School in Wake Forest, NC in 2024, played Williams in 53 games with 29 starting at all three outfield positions. On the record, she fought on a .267 clip with 18 races, seven doubles, a Homer and 19 RBI. She also led the team with 10 stolen bases and was not caught and stole. Her impressive rookie campaign led her to be appointed 2024 American Athletic Conference All-Rockie Team.

Fresh faces
Charlotte added 15 new players to join the six recurring to her list this season. The 15 newcomers include nine transfers and six beginner. The main transfers include infielders Kari Shedrick and Jenna Lord as well as pitchers Abby Gawlinski.

Shedrick, a 6’1 first Baseman, most recently transferred from Radford, where she played for two years. Shedrick’s season 2024 included a .328 batting average and 12 home runs.

Lord joins the team from Texas Tech, where she was red -shirted last season, but has experience in SEC on both Ole Miss and Alabama before. As a beginner, Lord started in 30 games for Crimson Tide while recording 26 hits in 90 bats.

Gawlinksi joins the team recently from Gaston College, where she served as the primary starting pot and earned a 23-6 record. By 2024, the right -handed pitcher threw 20 complete games and six shutouts including a perfect game of 55 seats in April 2024.

Scout the opponents
Southeastern Louisiana comes in this season off the heels of their first NCAA tournament look in the program history. Last season, Lions went 47-15, which was their third 40-plus victory season in a row. SLU is one of 13 Division I schools that currently have three plus consecutive 40-win seasons. Southeastern Louisiana was also chosen first in the Southland Conference Preseason Poll. The most important players for Lions include Junior Infielder and two-time all-Louisiana Honoree, Maria Detillier and 2024 Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year and Lamar Transfer Shenita Tucker in Outfield.

LSU comes into the 2025 season from their recent performance in NCAA Super Regional, where they fell to Stanford in three games. The Tigers published a total record of 44-17 in 2024, which included 16 wins over a ranked opponent. LSU made it up to as high as number 4 in the nation last season and starts this season at number 10. Key players for Tigers include two-time Allamerican pitcher Sydney Berzon, who was named both US Softball Top 53 WatchList and D1softball Forsy season All-Aamican And infielder Danieca Coffey, who was also named US Softball Top 53 Watchlist and has a career .358 average on the record.

Central Arkansas finished last season with a total record of 26-27-1, which included a trip to the Asun Conference Tournament semi-finals. The bears were picked fourth in the vote by Asun Preseason. The most important players for UCA include Asun Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, Infielder Madi Young and Forsy Season Committee of All-Conference and former Asun Defensive Player of the Year Kylie Griffin.

Follow the action
Charlotte’s game against LSU will be television through SEC Network+. Follow the team on social media @Charlottesb on X (formerly Twitter) and @Charlottesoftball on Instagram and Facebook.