FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Another Bulldog softball season gets underway Friday at Margie Wright Diamond. <\/p>\n
Fresno State welcomes in a new head coach, former Cal State Northridge coach Charlotte Morgan, and a new mantra: “Let’s Eat.”<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs’ first chance to chow down will be a double-header, against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE) at 3 p.m. and Idaho State at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Players are eager to learn from Morgan, once a 3-time All-American player at the University of Alabama and former No. 1 overall draft pick.<\/p>\n
“I just think feeding off her presence keeps us in the moment, keeps us playing good ball,” said senior pitcher Lauryn Carranco.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs’ new coach knows what it takes to be great. She knows the path there is long – “We’re not going to cut corners” – especially for her team.<\/p>\n
Fresno State must replace the 2025 Mountain West Pitcher of the Year, Serayah Neiss, but outfielder Alyssa Rebolledo is back, along with four more main starters – Alyssa Ramirez, Kealani Nitta, Natalie Elias and Emma Martinez. <\/p>\n
That’s every current Bulldog who played in at least half the team’s games last season, which ended in the Mountain West Championship title game.<\/p>\n
“We have a lot of change,” said Morgan. “We don’t have many returners or starters. My style of play is very different, very high-level. We’re going to have a lot of growing pains.”<\/p>\n
To ease those pains. Morgan brought over her ace pitcher from her previous program, Carranco. The 3-time All-Big West selection returns to the Valley after winning a Section championship at Clovis High School four years ago.<\/p>\n
“I was just ready to come home,” Carranco said. “I miss my family. I think it was no better way to end my college career, just in front of my family at Fresno State.”<\/p>\n
Buchanan HS grad Christal Lopez is also on the Bulldogs’ pitching staff after transferring out of Cal State Bakersfield. <\/p>\n
The softball season is four days away, and Morgan is staying late after practice, giving extra coaching, and making sure her ‘Dogs eat.<\/p>\n
“I was a little worried about culture, but we’ve come together so nicely as a team,” said Elias. “We’ve really bonded, and I think we’re going to carry that through the season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Another Bulldog softball season gets underway Friday at Margie Wright Diamond. Fresno State welcomes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-162832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}