Bailey Warren, the catcher and utility player for Winthrop’s softball team, has secured a spot as a power hitter on the team.
Warren began playing baseball in her hometown of Kennewick, Washington at the age of 3 and then later was officially introduced to softball at 6 years old.
“I grew up around the ball fields, so I fell in love with the game,” Warren said. “From a young age I started making a lot of sacrifices in my life to be able to be where I am at today. I knew at a young age I wanted to play college ball and it was a dream of mine.”
Warren would travel to Seattle, Washington to take hitting lessons from Eve Gaw, a former pitcher at the University of Washington in 1996-1999. Gaw was known for breaking several pitching records.
“I think I fell in love with softball because of how difficult it is to actually play and how the game is so much more than just skills but the mental toughness and the team aspect it has,” Warren said.
Warren met current Winthrop softball head coach Windy Thees when she coached at Utah State. After seeing her recruiting in California and knowing Thees was coaching at Winthrop, Warren decided to email her to get more information about the Winthrop softball program.
“I wanted to go somewhere far from home where I could experience new things in the world and Winthrop has given me that opportunity,” Warren said. “Academically it worked out well as well. Now living in South Carolina has been a change from Washington but I am loving the adventure.”
This season, Warren has excelled in performance in comparison to the 2020-2021 season.
“I have already doubled my homeruns and currently have the most home runs hit on the team,” Warren said. “My job this season is to drive the ball to the fence to score the runners. I’ve never been a big power hitter but after a dedicated summer of getting stronger I have fallen into that role.”
Unfortunately, this season Warren is playing with a hip injury that happened in Utah during the preseason while she was catching.
Even though the season did not start the way the team expected, they are starting to come together as a team. Warren said the team has a close family environment and knows they all only want the best for each other.
“We were tired of losing and playing the way we were, so we all came together and decided that we were going to work harder to be better because we love to play,” Warren said.
As the season goes on, Warren looks forward to seeing the team fight as a team as they go through conference play and making memories as they play and travel together.
The Winthrop softball team will be playing at Terry Field against Charleston Southern University on April 9 and 10.
