MonticelloLive

Arkansas-Monticello athletic director and head softball coach Alvy Early has finalized his early-signing period list with six players signing letters of intent to be a Cotton Blossom.

Kayla Jackson (RHP/IB, Hallsville, Texas) will join the Blossoms after completing her senior season at Hallsville High School, where she has created an impressive resume. Jackson earned the East Texas Pitcher of the Year honor in 2006, after recording a 27-8-2 overall pitching record. Contributing to that record, Jackson tossed three no-hitters, four one-hitters and 18 shutouts. Jackson is also an offensive threat. At the plate, she finished last season with a .573 batting average including two home runs, 15 doubles, five triples and 26 RBI.

Meagan Wilson (3B, Longview, Texas) will play her final season at Pine Tree High School after missing last season due to a knee injury. Wilson, who also has lettered in basketball at PTHS, will play third base for the Blossoms, where she finished the 2006 season with a .928 fielding percentage. Offensively in that same season, Wilson hit .271 with one home run, five doubles and 15 RBI. Those numbers led to All-East Texas and first team All-District 12-4A.

Randa Perry (LHP, Collierville, Tennessee) is the next high school player to join the Blossoms. Perry will finish her prep career at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis before playing in the Gulf South Conference. Perry is the first Briarcrest student-athlete to ever receive a softball scholarship at the collegiate level. In her only two seasons at Briarcrest, Perry has earned All-State, All-Region and All-Metro honors each year. Perry currently holds the Briarcrest record for strikeouts in a season (305) and a career (568). Perry is also the single season record holder for ERA (1.19), complete games pitched (34), no-hitters (5) and triples (6). Perry has helped lead the Lady Saints to the TSSAA state championship each season she has played.

The other high school player to join UAM in 2009 is Amanda Nordberg, who will join the Blossom pitching staff. Nordberg, a right-handed pitcher from San Antonio, Texas, will play her final season at Tom C. Clark High School, where she has kept a 4.0 grade point average.

Early also went into the junior college ranks and signed two position players in Emilie Hobbs and Bethany Falcon.

Hobbs (2B, Nacogdoches, Texas) will transfer from Paris Junior College in Paris, Texas to UAM for the 2009 season. Hobbs was a member of a Lady Dragon team that went 41-19 overall and 20-10 in conference play, which led to a regional playoff tournament first round victory over Bossier Parish (La.) before being defeated by Texarkana College and Galveston to end the season.

Falcon (CF, Zwolle, La.) will transfer from Bossier Parish Junior College after being a member of a Lady Cavalier team that went 40-18 in the 2006-07 season, that included at one time being ranked in the National Junior College Top 20.

“I’m confident that this is a very talented group with the potential to maintain the level that the UAM program has risen to,” said Coach Early. “This program has really risen to the top of the GSC, and its young ladies like these that really contribute to the success of a program.”

All six of these players will join the Cotton Blossom softball team in the 2009 season. As of right now, the 2008 season is set to start in a tournament at Tampa, Fla. when UAM will play Tampa, Florida Southern and Saint Leo.