ORLANDO – Former Oklahoma star pitcher and current Athletes Unlimited softball professional Shannon Saile will join the UCF softball team as its next Graduate Assistant, joining the staff for the 2022-23 season.
"We are very excited to have Shannon join our coaching staff for the upcoming year," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "She was dominant in the circle everywhere she has been and we are looking forward to her sharing her championship mentality within our program. Shannon has competed and won in Oklahoma City and we are eager to have her help us achieve our goal of playing in the Women's College World Series."
Saile is currently playing as a member of the Athletes Unlimited softball league, which is just getting started this week on the ESPN family of networks.
She most recently served as a Graduate Assistant for the Oklahoma softball program, winning back-to-back national championships, earning one as a staff member this past season and the other as a player in 2021. Her final collegiate campaign saw her appear in 30 games and post a 17-1 record with a 1.33 ERA. Saile posted a 35-5 record with an ERA of 1.49 over her career as a Sooner, punching out 347 batters and holding them to a .172 batting average.
Prior to her final three years at Oklahoma, Saile spent her first two seasons of collegiate softball playing for FIU. She posted back-to-back seasons with sub 2.00 ERAs with 240 strikeouts or more in each campaign with the Panthers.
Saile earned plenty of awards during her playing days, landing on the NFCA First Team All-Central Region, All-Big 12 First Team, Big 12 All-Tournament Team and Big 12 All-Academic Second Team during her final season. Prior to that she was a 2019 All-Big 12 Second Team selection, earned back-to-back All-Conference USA First Team nods and was the 2017 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
Saile is a native of Land O'Lakes, Fla. Prior to her time as a college student-athlete, she earned NFCA High School All-America honors and was named Tampa Bay Pitcher of the Year after her senior year at Land O'Lakes High School.
The Knights now have two ties to Land O'Lakes High as incoming freshman middle-infielder Nehanda Lewis just finished up her four seasons there.
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