Two-time defending champs? A place where the head coach has a long-term commitment from administration? Good pay? The top conference in the sport? What’s not to like about Texas softball?
Nothing, as far as Arizona hitting coach Amber Freeman is concerned. Softball America is reporting that Freeman will be the next assistant coach for the Longhorns.
Ask any Wildcat hitter why she has so much success in the box and you’ll get the same answer: “Coach Ber.”
Sydney Stewart went from a player with seven home runs in two seasons at Washington to one who hit 20 a year in two seasons at Arizona. The current member of the Portland Cascade said that she thought she might eventually be an all-conference type of player, but it was never in her dreams that she would be a conference player of the year. With the help of Freeman, she became the second straight Big 12 Player of the Year from Arizona.
Stewart was also a strong defensive catcher under the tutelage of the former Arizona State backstop. She had 8.57 defensive runs saved, 5.67 framing runs saved, and 2.63 blocking runs saved in 2026.
Tele Jennings came to Arizona as a career .239 hitter at San Diego. She sat for the first couple of months as a Wildcat. Then, she got her chance and made the most of it.
Jennings ended the season with a .333 average and .910 OPS. She was an All-Big 12 second teamer this year. She’s currently hitting the cover off the ball for the Madison Night Mares in the Northwoods Softball League.
When asked how Freeman helped her, Jennings didn’t hesitate.
“Coach Ber is amazing,” Jennings said in late April. “The amount of work she puts into her job is insane.”
Just two of the success stories under Freeman’s tutelage are why anyone who talked to the players or spent time around the team knew she would be a hot commodity. Whether it was a head coaching position or an assistant at a higher profile program, she was going to have offers. There’s no program with a higher profile than Texas right now.
Freeman played for Arizona State from 2012-15 and was the 2013 Pac-12 Player of the Year. She earned NFCA All-American honors three times as a Sun Devil. After her playing career, she coached at Vanguard, California, and Georgia. She was hired at Arizona in Aug. 2024 to guide the offense and the catchers.
During her first year at Arizona, the Wildcats had the best offense in the Big 12 with a .348 batting average and 557 hits. They led the conference in home runs (82), on-base percentage (.437), RBI (388), scoring (7.10), slugging percentage (.571), total runs (433), and triples (19). Three players hit double-digit home runs. The 19 triples were the sixth-best in program history and the most since 1992. The team’s .571 slugging percentage ranked ninth in program history. For the first time since 2004, three players hit .400 or better.
In 2026, UA hit .340 as a team, which ranks 10th in program history. Arizona’s leadoff and two-hole hitters hit .451 and .409, respectively. Stewart was both the Big 12 Player of the Year and the league’s batting champion with a batting average of .490 in conference play. Overall, Stewart had a .390 average with 20 home runs, 76 RBI, a .919 slugging percentage, 42 walks, and a .534 on base percentage. The slugging percentage ranks fourth in Arizona history.