Miranda Elish to return for one final season at Texas

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — For Texas fans, the weeks spanning from March 13 on were ones to remember … or in some ways, to forget.

Headlining the news was not only the ever-spreading coronavirus pandemic, but also the effects it was having on America as a whole — among those, the cancelation of all spring NCAA championships. Soon enough, the Big 12 followed suit, putting an end to the seasons of baseball, softball, rowing, tennis, golf and track athletes on the Forty Acres and on the conference’s other campuses.

Yet in the midst of the chaos, frustration and sadness that surrounded the world of sports, a bit of excitement could be felt from [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]the fans of the burnt orange and white. The anchor of the softball team, All-America pitcher Miranda Elish, announced she would indeed be returning to the Forty Acres for the 2021 season, taking advantage the NCAA’s ruling to offer an extra season of eligibility to all spring sport student-athletes, a choice that will allow her to pursue her final chance to accomplish the goal she had set out to conquer back as a freshman in a place 2,000 miles from Austin.

Since she first stepped on to the diamond as a five-year-old, it was clear that Elish had extraordinary talent that surpassed the level of many of her teammates growing up in northwestern Indiana. Regularly, she would take on challenges, such as switching from hitting right-handed to the left side during the eighth grade. While talent clearly played a role, it was Elish’s work ethic that set her apart from an early age, especially as she notes that pitching did not come naturally, but rather, was something she worked at for years, finally becoming the pitcher fans see today, regularly striking out batters and picking up wins.

“Yeah, totally,” she said in an interview with the Longhorn Network when asked if she was frustrated early on while trying  to get the hang of pitching. “Both my parents were really tough on me, so it built me into being even more competitive.”

“You can not find a better all-around player in Indiana,” LaPorte high school coach Bob Severs told indystar.com about Elish, a player his team faced on more than one occasion during her high school years.

He was not kidding. While at Crown Point High, Elish played both basketball and softball, but it was clear that the diamond was where she felt most at home. A five-tool player who earned time at nearly every position, Elish posted a 0.41 earned run average while hitting .505 on her way to her third Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior.

Those accomplishments went far from unnoticed by coaches at the next level, especially when she was named FloSoftball’s No. 1 recruit in the 2016 class. By that point, though, her mind was already made up, as she held true to the commitment she had made as a high school freshman, and she signed to play for head coach Mike White and the Oregon Ducks. White eventually made his way to Texas in 2018.

In her freshman year, Elish played with the confidence of a senior, dominating in the circle for the Ducks with a perfect 12-0 record and 1.79 ERA. That was good for fifth-best in an always-challenging Pac-12 conference. However, the season concluded in uncelebratory fashion, with a devastating 4-2 loss to the eventual national champs: Oklahoma. Elish’s initial goal upon arriving in Eugene, to win a national championship, would have to wait for at least another season. 

In 2018, the highlight of her season was tossing Oregon’s first seven-inning perfect game with 16 strikeouts against Portland State. But the real story of her season was not what happened during her season, but rather the announcement she made afterward. A new transfer rule for softball was passed in October 2018 that allowed players to transfer to a new school and be eligible to play immediately. Elish, along with teammates Lauren Burke, Mary Iakopo and Shannon Rhodes became part of the “mass exodus” at Oregon, following White to the Forty Acres, where he had just taken over as the Longhorns’ head coach. As soon as he saw her name entered into the transfer portal, White knew that she was a player he needed on his team.

“At the time, I was looking for a pitcher, and another key player,” White said in February 2019. “Once I saw Elish’s name there, it was like, ‘Man, we can not pass up on this one. We have to try to get her and go after her really hard.’”

Moving to a new team, campus and city is never an easy transition, but Elish handled it with ease, settling into her role once again as White’s ace for the 2019 season. The success she found in Eugene was quickly brought to Austin, and was illustrated in the postseason accolades she received, including All-Big 12 First Team, NFCA All-American and NFCA National Player of the Week honors.

As much as honors and awards can improve a player’s scouting report, it boils down to the ability to lead that will truly make the biggest difference, especially in such a strong conference. From her first start in the circle, an 8-0 win over Boise State, her experience proved invaluable. It came in handy during the postseason, in which Texas won five games to win the Austin Regional, before going toe-to-toe in a three-game series with Alabama in the Super Regionals. While the Longhorns eventually fell, 8-5, in a decisive third game, that was not the biggest concern for White and his team as they headed back from Tuscaloosa. In that third game, with Elish in the circle in the top of the second inning, a weak grounder was hit, which was then promptly fielded by Iakopo, who was catching. But Iakopo, in her haste to try to gun down the runner heading from first to second, fired the ball right into Elish’s face, immediately sending Elish to the ground in pain, and sidelining her for the remainder of the contest.

While her injury did not require surgery, she did not get the finish off her first season as a Longhorn. It sent her into the offseason ready to work even harder, knowing that she would have just one more chance to make it to the Women’s College World Series and win it all.

“As a team, our expectations are to win a national championship,” Elish told LHN before the season. “We don’t want to fall short of that and we’re going to do whatever it takes to accomplish that.”

The Longhorns startedwell, rattling off 14 straight victories. After a frustrating 1-0 home loss to Duke in the Texas Invitational, the Horns bounced back to take down then-No. 1 UCLA and then-No. 2 Washington in consecutive games. Those two victories provided enough momentum for Texas to go on a tear, winning five of its last six games, including one in particular against New Mexico in which history was made. In that showdown against the Lobos, UT’s final game of the Longhorn Invitational, Elish threw the program’s first seven-inning perfect game since Cat Osterman tossed her first at Texas 2005.

It was truly a memorable performance as Elish struck out 10 and earned her 11th win of the season. The Longhorns had no idea at the time, but it would be their final game of the abbreviated 2020 season. It was not the storybook ending they had pictured, but for Elish and her team, there did not seem to be a better way to cap off a campaign that ended with a 24-3 record.

Softball America ranked Texas No. 1 in the final poll of the season, but for Elish and the other seniors on the team, finishing their decorated collegiate careers simply satisfied with the top ranking was not enough. Instead, the goal remained: win in Oklahoma City (in the Women’s College World Series).

“I am so proud of this group of young women who have accomplished so much and were poised to have an unprecedented season for Texas softball,” White said on social media following the season. “We will be back stronger than ever!”

That goal alone is now reason enough for the team to want to return again for 2021, for another go at the title they did not have a chance to win in 2020. So it did not come as much of a suprise when Elish announced her intention to return to the Forty Acres on social media, even before the NCAA’s March 15 ruling.

Although Elish will return, others, such as shortstio Kaitlyn Slack, will not — some due to postgraduate commitments, others who do not want to go through a fifth year as a college athlete, especially when they have already graduated. With the roster changes that affect every team each year, one thing is certain: Texas will have a different look heading into next year, even though the NCAA did offer an extra year of eligibility after the coronavirus shut down the season.

The Longhorns’ goal will remain the same: bring a national championship back to Austin. Through tough losses, injuries and a transfer, Elish’s goal and desire to achieve it has remained the same. Even a pandemic like the coronavirus can not take away her passion for the game or drive to finish her final season on the Forty Acres as a member of the Texas softball program’s first national championship team.
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