The NCAA finally allowed Division I college softball programs to carry three paid assistant coaches two years ago. The No. 11 Arizona Wildcats have had a hitting coach as one of the three each year, but it took a little while to find the right fit. Head coach Caitlin Lowe seems to have found the perfect fit this season with former Arizona State star Amber Freeman.
The former head coach of Vanguard University and assistant at California and Georgia has found a home in what was once the enemy’s dugout. She even has her fiance, former ASU football team captain Lloyd Carrington, wearing cardinal and navy on game days now.
Freeman had coached against ASU when she was the pitching coach at Cal, but the Devils went to Berkeley that year. She made her first trip back to Farrington as an opponent in late March. The Wildcats won the series 2-1, outscoring Arizona State 13-5 over three games, and Freeman got to touch bases with people from her past.
“From the announcer to I had so many boosters come up to me that were there since I was a player,” she said. “So it was really cool to see some familiar faces. And then also just be back in Tempe. I mean, that was home for me for seven years. So going back and just seeing how much the town has grown and just the upgrades made to the stadium, it was really fun to be there.”
She was initially interested in coming to Tucson because of a friendly face in the form of Arizona pitching coach Christian Conrad. She was also interested in why the position was open just a year after former hitting coach Josh Bloomer came aboard. Bloomer took the same position at ASU after a season at Arizona.
“Christian and I have been friends for years, and so when I saw that that position opened up, I reached out and was like, ‘Oh, wow, you guys are looking for a hitting coach?’” Freeman said. “Kind of just trying to see what happened there. And he was like, yeah. He’s like, ‘Actually, are you interested?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I am, actually.’”
She felt a rapport with Lowe. It has also allowed her to be closer to her family in California.
“Last year when I was at Georgia, I didn’t really think that I would leave,” Freeman said. “It was a great position and a great place to be. But once this position opened up, and I got on the phone with Cait, and we talked for like two hours about hitting and just our values and just seeing how much that we aligned, I knew it was going to be just such a great fit for me and my fiance. And just for me, also, being from California, it’s so much nicer being close to home. Georgia was really far, so I’ve seen my parents so much more in the last eight months than I had in the year before. So overall, just the location, from the coaching staff to fitting in with them really well to then just the excellence of the program, it was just a no-brainer.”
Freeman was an outstanding catcher for the Sun Devils from 2012 through 2015. She was a three-time NFCA All-American and the 2013 Pac-12 Player of the Year. She’s still in ASU’s top five for career highs in home runs (56), RBI (197), and doubles (46). She was pretty sharp in the classroom, too, earning the 2015 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award and being named an Academic All-American twice.
She’s brought those talents to the Wildcats, helping to improve what was already a formidable offense.
The Wildcats are pacing the Big 12 in most offensive stats. More importantly, they have improved in literally every offensive stat. From hits to runs to home runs to stolen bases to walks to strikeouts, there’s not one stat that has not improved. The Wildcats are even getting on base via hits-by-pitches more often this year, going from .45 per game last year to .57 this season.
It all starts with hits, but it certainly doesn’t stop there. Arizona is running away with the conference lead in hits. The Wildcats have 369 this season. The only other Big 12 teams to break 300 are Texas Tech (311) and Arizona State (304).
Four hitters had double-digit home runs with Allie Skaggs at 14 leading the team last year. There are three about two-thirds of the way through this season. Devyn Netz leads the team with 12. Miranda Stoddard is just behind her with 11, and Sydney Stewart has 10.
It’s hard to say which is most impressive since both Netz and Stoddard are doing it while serving as the Wildcats’ two primary pitchers. Stewart has made the most surprising jump among players who also hit last season, though.
The catcher had seven home runs in 91 games over two seasons at Washington. That included 82 starts. The transfer’s 10 long balls this year have come in 36 appearances, all as a starter.
Stewart has attributed that to better leverage this year and said it’s something she has worked on with Freeman. Freeman agrees that there are some mechanical improvements. She also points to the mental side of the game.
“What I’ve done with pretty much all of our hitters, especially the power hitters, is just simplify their swings,” Freeman said. “I think there is a misconception that to hit the ball really far, you have to have a big swing, and we just really dialed into our mechanics and are just keeping our swings as simple as possible…And I think there’s a big confidence thing with kids, as well. I feel like she’s really taken off mentally as a player, so I feel like that led to her higher power numbers.”
The approach and planning have been important for all of the hitters, but particularly so for Stewart.
“One thing that we’ve really done…with every hitter, I’ve helped them identify their strengths and weaknesses and what their particular zone is,” Freeman said. “So what our players do well, as far as like, maintaining count leverage, is just the pitches that they hit well and hunting those pitches in their at-bats instead of just going up there swinging. So I feel like this year, we’ve been really delving into having a plan and an approach for every hitter. I believe it’s specific, because everyone is different, and so I think that’s contributed to [Stewart] having more power and more success.”
Power is just part of the equation, though. In addition to being “Home Run U,” as the program sometimes refers to itself, Arizona has had strong slappers on the roster for years. Former Mike Candrea assistant Larry Ray was considered to be a sort of slap-hitting guru and proselytizer decades ago. The style didn’t go away simply because Ray and Candrea aren’t coaching at Arizona anymore.
The Wildcats have several players who have the slap as part of their arsenal but centerfielder Regan Shockey is the most accomplished at it. While Shockey’s average is down from .411 in 2024 to .404 through 37 games this year, she’s having more success in other parts of the hitting game.
Shockey strikes out far less this season, although it’s never been a huge problem for her. She has been rung up just 0.19 times per game in 2025. Last year, she struck out 0.46 times per game. Her slugging percentage has gone from .422 as a freshman to .441 as a sophomore. She has already scored 40 runs this season after scoring 42 through the entirety of 2024.
Since she was a very different kind of hitter, learning the slap has been on-the-job training for Freeman. While Lowe has been Freeman’s main source of information, Shockey has helped in that regard, too.
“I grew up hitting away as well, but she just expands my knowledge with little critiques that she sees,” Shockey said. “I mean, she has a great eye. She’s very intelligent, so she just fixes a little bit of things. She doesn’t try to change too much. She just tries to meet me halfway. I think we’re kind of teaching each other on the slapping level. I mean, she’s learning from me, slapping-wise, and I’m learning from her hitting-wise, and we’re just kind of bouncing off each other.”
Freeman’s natural ability, dedication, and attention to detail are important when it comes to expanding her knowledge. Her humility has also aided in that process according to her boss.
“She came into the dugout one day, and she’s like, ‘Man, I just have higher standards for slappers now,’” Lowe said. “She’s like, ‘I see something, and I’m like, ‘Nope, that’s not it.’ Her eyes are so good, but she’s a student of the game, so she’s not going to just say, ‘Oh, slap? I don’t know anything about that. Go see Caitlin.’ She’s gonna learn, and she’s gonna learn what makes Regan her best. We have constant conversations about it. I think she knows how to recruit a good one now, and it says a lot about you when you can admit, hey, I don’t know everything about this. Let me step into it. Let me learn and let me be the best at it. And I think that kind of humble behavior is going to take her a really long way in the sport. And we have just been proud to have her on staff, and I’ve been proud to have her as role model for our young athletes.”
Freeman is also making good use of the technology that Arizona began using last year.
“Having our Yakkertech has been huge for us, especially seeing how much pitches are actually moving, because, like, for instance, understanding that there’s a rise ball, like a decent rise ball that moves this much, and then like a plus rise ball that moves even more than that,” Freeman said. “So just being able to see those numbers and apply it to our hitters and how we should be prepping for like, for example, Texas. We really do a lot of machine work on the eHack. So I program specific pitchers into our machine, and we take at-bats off of the machine all week. So I just feel like the movement piece of how pitches are actually moving, what is the actual speed of the pitches, has been really huge. I would like to use more of the Yakkertech next year for more data, but I feel like I’m just barely scratching the surface as far as analytics go.”
The Wildcats hope that helps put them over the top against Oklahoma State and ace Ruby Meylan this weekend. Like Stewart, Meylan transferred from Washington to a Big 12 school after last season. She’s having a superb year again.
Arizona’s hitters faced her twice last season when UW came to Tucson. The Wildcats lost in a 13-2 run rule game in her first game, a start on Friday night. On Sunday afternoon, she came in to relieve starter Sidne Peters. Peters was shutting the Wildcats out and had only given up two hits when Meylan came in.
Arizona managed two runs on four hits and two walks against the Huskies’ ace. It was enough to win the final game of the series when Stoddard and Aissa Silva joined forces to shut UW out on three hits and two walks.
Facing Meylan again in a game with a “Pac-12 vibe” has the Arizona players excited. The Wildcats are also looking for some revenge against the Cowgirls, who beat them in the Stillwater Super Regional last season.
“I feel like it’s such a time for redemption, especially, we were there last year coming here this year I think is so important,” Biehl said. “So, yes, there definitely is a little bit of like the redemption feeling that we really want this one.”
Lead photo by Patrick Mulligan / Big 12 Conference