The UCF softball team has announced the addition of Becca Mueller to its coaching staff as an assistant coach and the program’s recruiting coordinator ahead of the spring 2024 season.
Mueller joins the Knights coaching staff on the heels of three seasons with the California Golden Bears, working primarily with the team’s offense as the Golden Bears’ hitting coach. With her assistance, Cal compiled an 80-68-2 aggregate record throughout the past three seasons, including a 35-21-1 mark and a berth in the NCAA Norman Regional in 2023.
“I just think that what Bear [head coach Cindy Ball-Malone] is doing here is really amazing, and I’ve loved watching the growth of UCF over the years,” Mueller said. “Talking to Bear and the way she’s going with the team and the culture she’s creating, obviously it’s a winning program, but I just love the culture that she brings and the standard that she wants to set for the girls every single day.”
Mueller’s Golden Bears offense produced a .294 team average that ranked 54th in the nation this season, and the squad also hit 81 doubles in its 57 games, a mark that ranked second-most in the Pac-12 and 24th in the country, in addition to setting the program’s single-season doubles record. The team’s .498 slugging percentage ranked third-best in the Pac-12, as well as 24th nationally, and the Golden Bears’ 5.42 runs per game also represented the 38th-best mark in Division I softball.
“You can expect an offense that is well-rounded,” Mueller said of her philosophy. “In this day and age when you bring in a hitting coach, they think of the bombs, it’s just ‘home runs and die,’ which is not really how I am. I like when people are fast and they can drop bunts, but also when they can hit it over the fence. Last year at Cal, we set the doubles record, which I loved because we weren’t ‘home runs and die,’ but we were also second in home runs in school history. We had a really well-rounded offense.”
Prior to joining Cal, she served as an assistant coach at Ball State during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign, overseeing a Cardinals offense that led the MAC and ranked 54th in the country with a .304 team batting average.
Ball State also ranked first in the conference during the abbreviated season in doubles (53), on-base percentage (.405), runs per game (6.19), slugging percentage (.503) and walks (102). The Cardinals’ 53 doubles and 102 walks were good for top-10 ranks nationally, pulling in at third and eighth, respectfully.
Mueller joined Ball State the year after spending the 2019 season as a volunteer assistant coach with Georgia, helping guide the Bulldogs to a 42-19 record and an appearance in the NCAA Minneapolis Regional.
“At her previous institution, her hitters set a couple of records, and nationally had done a really good job against some high-level teams,” said Ball-Malone. “I followed along what she had done over the year with the hitters, and some of the pitchers she had, her hitters knocked out of games, it was really impressive. I’m really impressed with her game preparation and her gameplanning.”
With Georgia, Mueller helped produce a quartet of NFCA All-Southeast Region selections, including one NFCA Third Team All-American. The Bulldog offense as a whole ranked within the top six programs in the SEC in runs per game (6.03, 3rd), slugging percentage (.508, 3rd), home runs per game (1.26, 3rd), batting average (.296, T-5th) and on-base percentage (.390, 6th).
Mueller began her collegiate coaching career with Colgate in 2017 as an assistant coach before joining the staff at her alma mater, the College of Charleston, in 2018. With Colgate, she helped facilitate marked improvements to the team’s average (.222 to .273), slugging percentage (.312 to .417) and home run totals (15 to 29) from the squad’s 2016 season.
The team’s .417 slugging percentage represented the top mark in the conference, as did its 0.66 home runs per game. The following season in Charleston, Mueller oversaw an NFCA All-Mid-Atlantic Region First Team selection.
Mueller’s appointment at Charleston represented a homecoming after she spent the 2013-16 seasons as an outfielder with the Cougars, posting a batting average north of .340 in the final three seasons of her four-year career.
She was a two-time All-CAA Second Team selection and was also named to the NFCA All-Mid-Atlantic Region Third Team her senior year after hitting .367/.425/.483 (66-for-180) with 13 doubles, one triple, two home runs and 33 RBI.
Her 66 hits during her 2016 campaign ranked 10th-most in a single season in program history, and her .369 average represented the seventh-best mark in a single season in program history. During her junior 2015 slate, she represented the team leader in total hits (55), triples (4), RBI (41), total bases (85) and slugging percentage (.541).
“I love the coaching staff and I love who we have on. Being with them on a day-to-day basis, Bear and Jenn [Salling], I just love learning from them,” Mueller added. “I think that we’re all really big go-getters and we’re all really pushing forward. With where the program’s going into the Big 12, we’re the perfect people for it and I’m really excited to be with them every day.”