US sports magazine Sports Illustrated unveiled today “The Unrelenting”, a list “celebrating the women in sports who are powerful, persistent and purposeful in their pursuits”.
Softball stars Cat Osterman, Victoria Hayward, Erika Piancastelli and Jessica Warren, and Major League Baseball (MLB) coach Alyssa Nakken were included in the 52-women list, highlighting baseball and softball's pathways.
They joined some of the best women in sports, like tennis legends Billie Jean King and Serena Williams, gymnast Simone Biles, US Soccer National Team star Megan Rapinoe, nine-time Olympic medallist sprinter Allyson Felix, NBA’s San Antonio Spurs Becky Hammon, along with athletes, coaches, journalists and sports organisations executives.
Osterman, Piancastelli, Hayward and Warren were named for leading the Athletes Unlimited inaugural season, a league with no coaches nor general managers, where players compete for the individual title of Athletes Unlimited Champion.
Osterman is one of the greatest pitchers in softball history. She won an Olympic gold medal in Athens 2004, a silver medal in Beijing 2008, and two WBSC World Championships (2006 and 2010). In 2019, she came out of retirement to compete in her third Olympics at Tokyo 2020. This summer she added the first-ever Athletes Unlimited title to her successful and brilliant career. She is slated to play for Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games next year.
Hayward joined the senior Canada national team in 2009 at 16, becoming the youngest player ever to wear Canada’s jersey. She has competed in five WBSC world championships (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018), winning the bronze medal three times. She was the top hitter of Canada’s team that finished in fifth place in the WBSC Junior Women’s Softball World Championship 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa. The outfielder is the captain of the Canadian Olympic Softball Team.
Piancastelli, the captain of the Italian national softball team, will also participate at Tokyo 2020. She led Italy to the title both in last year’s European Championship (she was named MVP) and the WBSC Softball Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier. She has participated in two WBSC Women’s Softball World Championships (2016 and 2018).
Nakken, a former Sacramento State softball star, became the first woman to coach full time in Major League Baseball. She was hired as an assistant under San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler and this summer she replaced the first base coach during exhibition games against the Oakland A’s, becoming also the first woman in MLB history to coach in an on-field capacity.
