Fournier making big jump for Rebellion

[jonriv]

Allyson Fournier stood along the third-base foul line during Friday night’s pregame player introductions and listened as the public address announcer mentioned the college programs that produced each Pennsylvania Rebellion player.
It sounded like a roll call of the top NCAA softball teams: Arizona State, Florida State, North Carolina, Auburn, Washington, South Carolina, etc.
There was one school that didn’t seem to fit with the powerhouse programs: Tufts.
For the record, that’s an NCAA Division III school near Boston. Tufts is where Fournier, a right-handed pitcher who signed Friday afternoon with the Rebellion, played her college softball.
“I noticed that during the introductions. That’s when I had to ask myself, ‘Why am I here?’” said Fournier, who made the unlikely jump from nonscholarship Division III to softball at its highest level in the United States in less than a week.
The Akron Racers, the Rebellion’s opponent in the opening game of Saturday night’s doubleheader, probably wish Fournier was anywhere but at Consol Energy Park. Fournier pitched two scoreless innings of relief and was the winning pitcher in the Rebellion’s 6-3 victory.
The Rebellion settled for a split as they were shut out by the Chicago Bandits, 5-0, for the second consecutive day in the nightcap. The three teams will play another doubleheader today with the Rebellion hosting Chicago at 2:35 p.m. and Akron in the second contest.
The win against Akron capped what has been an unlikely but memorable six days for Fournier.
Last Monday, she pitched Tufts to its third consecutive Division III national championship that capped a 51-0 season for the Jumbos. On Thursday night, Fournier received a phone call from her college coach, who said the Rebellion wanted to sign her and that she needed to get a flight to Pittsburgh because the NPF season opened the next day.
“I had to pack just about everything I own in one night. My flight landed at 1 p.m. Friday,” said Fournier, a native of South Windsor, Conn.
By 7 p.m. she had signed her first professional contract and was in a Rebellion uniform. By Saturday evening, she had made professional hitters look as helpless as those Division III batters she faced at Tufts, where she had a 63-1 record over the last two seasons. Fournier was 35-0 this year with 422 strikeouts (an average of 14 per game) and a mind-boggling 0.20 ERA. Fournier’s four-year career record was 111-5 and her ERA in her worst season was only 0.70.
“This whole week has been insane,” Fournier said. “I can’t believe I’m here.”
Fournier entered the Akron game with the score tied in the fourth inning. Rebellion starting pitcher Dallas Escobedo had thrown three innings of two-hit ball.
It was not the best situation for a nervous rookie to make her debut.
“I think her heart was beating through her shirt,” Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas said.
“I usually don’t get nervous, but today was a bit much,” Fournier admitted.
Fournier gave up two hits and struck out two, showing a 64 mph fastball and impressive changeup. She was the beneficiary of the Rebellion’s five-run fifth inning that made her the winning pitcher in her pro debut.
“We wanted to draft her but we didn’t think anybody else was going to pick her, so we decided to wait and sign her after the college season,” Montvidas explained.
Fournier knows the jump from Division III to the NPF is steep. Even the most successful major college pitchers have struggled while making the transition. One example is of this is Escobedo, who was the NPF’s No. 1 overall draft pick last year after having a record-setting career at Arizona State. Escobedo had a 1-11 record in her first pro season.
“We haven’t even talked yet about what my role will be,” Fournier said. “I guess they’ll work me in, give me some innings in relief.”
Fournier pitched again against Chicago, throwing 1 2/3 innings of relief. She gave up one hit, two walks and one run. She also struck out a batter.
Alexa Peterson’s two-run double capped the five-run fifth against Akron. The Racers scored three runs in the sixth off reliever Bryana Walker, but Samie Garcia’s single in the bottom of the sixth scored Whitney Arion with an insurance run for Pennsylvania. Garcia also drove in a run in the fifth inning.
Lefty pitcher Angel Bunner got the final three outs for a save.
Chicago’s Sara Moulton pitched a seven-hit shutout in the second game. She struck out five and was backed by the Bandits’ four-run third inning that included a walk, hits batsman and error. The Rebellion outhit the Bandits 7-4.
Emma Johnson, a rookie from Kent State, started at pitcher for the Rebellion and gave up four runs (three earned) in 2 1/3 innings.
Though his team has a 1-2 record and has been shut out twice by Chicago, Montvidas says he’s seen some positive performances.
“One of our goals is we wanted to cut down on our strikeouts and we’ve been making better contact,” he said. “I think we have more speed and people are getting used to that. When we have the opportunity, we have to put the pressure on the defense. We’re not making a whole lot of errors. We just have to be more consistent. You can see our pitchers have been inconsistent from game to game and they’re pitching from behind int he count too often.”

[jonriv]

http://pennsylvaniarebellion.com/Allyson_Fournier


Wow- a DIII pitcher going pro? BTW-my DD was her 1000th strikeout

Fournier struck out 14, including seven of the first nine Babson (10-8) hitters, on her way to a complete-game shutout in game one. She recorded the milestone strikeout in the top of the third when she got Babson RF Lindsey Schmid on a 1-2 pitch leading off the third. She is the fifth New England player to reach 1,000 Ks.

One way to make history.

[jonriv]

http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentar ... ins-summer

[fastpitchdad05]

A not-so-common case of an elite D1-level athlete playing D3. Thanks for sharing this, JR.

[USCpride]

That's awesome!

[jonriv]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu_lkB93Cv8

There is video of number 1000

[fastpitchdad05]

Looks like the video starts with her already having one strike on her, right? Because there's only three pitches and that first one was high for sure.

[jonriv]

http://just-in-justinsworld.blogspot.co ... s.html?m=1

[as the world turns]

She is a DI level pitcher that dominated DIII hitting. She has not been challenged for 4 years, I'll be curious on how she does against real hitters. DIII did not make her, she has always been a DI caliber pitcher.

[jonriv]

She is a DI level pitcher that dominated DIII hitting. She has not been challenged for 4 years, I'll be curious on how she does against real hitters. DIII did not make her, she has always been a DI caliber pitcher.

Looked like she did pretty well against "real" hitters-posting several strikeouts. performed well enough to get an extended contract.

Not sure about always being a D1 calibre pitcher and DIII not making her. I saw her pitch in TB, my DD played her several times. She was very good, but certainly not as dominant as she became. The only DI school that really looked at her was Cornell. She probably was not on DI radar(pun intended) because she did not post crazy speeds and was a later bloomer. My DD says it is not her speed that gets you- it is her excellent location and tricky change of speeds-she keeps batters very off-balanced. At Tufts she had an excellent coach in Cheryl Milligan. She was able to swim on the swim team (which she would not have been able to do at DI) which built up her upper body strength tremendously. She was much bigger as a senior than she was as a freshman. Also, the NESCAC has no fall softball schedule or practices- so she got the rest that Sam always calls for(again something she would not see in DI) The last thing is she earned a Chemical Engineering degree from Tufts in four years- something that I doubt would happen at most DI schools

As far as not being challenged- Tufts made the final bracket of the DIII playoffs all four years she was there and won the championship three times. My guess is she faced some real good hitters there

Many good players wind up playing DIII for many reasons- smaller schools, overlooked by DI, late bloomers etc. There certainly is a lot more talent than you give it credit for