BATON ROUGE, La. – After two days of tryouts, LSU freshman outfielder Emily Griggs and pitcher Allie Walljasper were selected for the 2015 USA Softball Junior Women’s National Team it was announced today by USA Softball and the Amateur Softball Association.
The Tiger duo were among the 17 collegiate underclassmen and high-school athletes selected for the team, as the squad will compete in the International Softball Federation Junior Women’s World Championship August 9-15 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as well as the World Cup of Softball X in California in July. The team was chosen by the USA Softball Women’s National Team Committee, the same group that will also select the senior national team group.
“We have a good mix of speed and power and I’m very excited to see what we can do defensively,” JWNT head coach Tairia Flowers said. “Overall, we have a good group of girls and will head into the summer with some experience with athletes having a full college season under their belt. We’ve also got a few young ones who will just be finishing up their high school careers. The staff and I are looking forward to the summer and we know that these girls will be ready to go when we head to Oklahoma City for the ISF World Championships.”
Flowers, currently the head coach at Cal State Northridge, is joined by Kristie Fox, head coach at UT-Arlington and Tim Walton, head coach at Florida who will serve as assistant coaches in the JWNT program.
“We are so proud that these two young women will be representing LSU at the international level,” LSU head coach Beth Torina said. “It is a great honor to compete for their country, and it is a privilege they have earned through their hard work and effort. While we are so excited to watch these two begin their career in Purple and Gold, we are even more excited to watch them compete in the Red, White and Blue.”
Griggs, a native of Wichita, Kansas, and Walljasper, a Manteca, California, native will join the Tigers for preseason camp beginning this week in Baton Rouge, in preparation of the season opener Feb. 6 against the University of Memphis to open the 2015 Tiger Classic.
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