The UCF softball all-time pitching wins leader has continued racking them up even after the conclusion of her time on the field.
Alea White set the program record with 99 wins in the circle during her five years in Orlando as a right-handed pitcher from 2017-21, and had also sprinkled her name throughout a plethora of other UCF all-time record lists by the time she hung up the cleats. As a graduate student assistant, she helped push the 2022 Knights through their historic 49-win season that culminated in the first NCAA Super Regional appearance in program history.
Now in her first season as a full-time assistant coach, she can stake her name to a national title-winning team, as White and the No. 2 North Georgia Nighthawks toppled No. 8 Grand Valley State by a 3-0 final score Wednesday afternoon, clinching the second NCAA Division II National Championship in the team's history, and the first since 2015.
"I love Alea. We are besties," Nighthawks junior pitcher/infielder Sophie Mooney said with a smile following the Nighthawks' 6-3 second-round win over No. 4 Central Oklahoma May 26. "It's so easy to throw with her and talk to her. She comes and talks to us after every inning and tells us what a great job we're doing, what we can do better. She's just so easy to communicate with, it's just so easy to work with her."
The 64-7 Nighthawks tore through the 2023 campaign with White's help, recording a program-record 64 wins that surpassed the previous 62-win mark North Georgia set in 2018. Under White's watchful eye, the Nighthawks pitching staff helped propel the team to its historic season, posting a 1.98 ERA that represented the best mark in the Peach Belt Conference and ranked 22nd in Division II softball as of May 28.
The team also produced a conference-best 23 shutout wins through play May 28, a mark that ranked third-most in the nation, and its 1.03 WHIP paced the Peach Belt and ranked 12th-best in the nation in that span as well.
"It's been awesome," Nighthawks junior right-hander Kristen Davis said of working with White following the team's 2-0 win over UT Tyler May 28 to advance to the championship series. "She's great on the mental and physical aspects. She's very positive, and she's very forward. She's able to help us in anything that she can, and she's just awesome."
The Land O' Lakes, Florida, native earned much of the experience and knowledge that would prove integral to her current position throughout her six years in Orlando, the first five of which as a player and the sixth as the Knights' graduate assistant.
In addition to her program-record 99 wins, White ranks among UCF's all-time career leaders in innings pitched (969.1, 1st), complete games (103, 1st), appearances (180, 1st), starts (139, 1st), shutouts (26, 3rd), strikeouts (688, 4th), batting average-against (.189, 4th), saves (7, 4th), strikeouts per seven innings pitched (4.96, 8th) and ERA (2.23, 10th).
She became the first player in program history to be named to the NFCA's First Team All-Region in three consecutive seasons (2018, 2019 and 2021) and was twice named to the American Athletic Conference First Team All-Conference. She was also named to The American's All-Conference Second Team during the first two seasons of her collegiate career in 2017 and 2018.
In the 2021 NCAA Tallahassee Regional, she threw 13.2 innings of one-run ball spanning three appearances against Auburn, Kennesaw State and then-No. 8 Florida State, including a seven-inning complete-game shutout against the Owls May 22 to send the Knights to the Regional Final against the Seminoles.
It was the season she didn't get to play, though, that further fueled her desire to finish her college career even stronger than she started.
"Because of [the COVID-19 pandemic], I got to coach her for three years," said UCF head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "In that last year, she was very determined because of the season we had in 2020 when it got canceled, we were ranked the highest that UCF softball has ever been ranked at seven [in the national RPI rankings].
"Knowing that when she came back, she was determined to accomplish everything that she set out to accomplish. Every year she wanted to get better, every year she added something to her pitching repertoire to make her who she was. She challenged everyone around her to be the best versions of themselves and she also had such grace and positivity while doing that."
White continued to impart her wisdom as UCF's volunteer graduate assistant in 2022, aiding the Knights' dominant tandem of Gianna Mancha and Kama Woodall in the circle, both of whom finished with ERAs south of 2.00 in over 130 innings pitched, while also helping in the development of current UCF pitchers Grace Jewell, Angelina DeVoe and Kaitlyn Felton.
"Everything that we did at practice prepared us for Super Regionals and for any game," Jewell said. "If I had a question about a pitch, she would always know what to do to fix it, which was really helpful for me. She would pitch at practice and it wouldn't look any different than when she was pitching when we were on the team together. She's been in my shoes and she's been through it all, every single experience. If I ever needed help with something I knew I could go and talk to her about it."
Now with North Georgia, the Knights legend can add one more honor to an already extensive resume: National Champion.
"We talk about here that you leave anything better than you found it, and she carried that on," Ball-Malone continued. "She definitely left us better than she found us, and then to continue to give after she was done playing. Knowing that, the time and effort she put into our team, she's getting rewarded for everything she's put into it."
