Outside The Chute

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Arizona Alum, current Cal State Fullerton Pitching Coach and 2021 Olympian, Danielle O’Toole. Tooly has had a remarkable career to date.  She earned Mountain West Pitcher of the Year honors in 2014 and Mountain West Freshman of the Year recognition in 2013 while with San Diego State.  After transferring to Arizona, Tooly became one of the best pitcher in the Wildcats rich tradition of great hurlers.  In 2017, she would go on to be named a first team All-American, Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, as well as, one of 10 Finalists for USA Softball Player of the Year.  From there she would go on to be drafted 8th overall into the NPF by the Chicago Bandits and was selected to Team USA where she helped lead the team to a silver medal at the International Cup and a gold medal at the World Cup of Softball.  Tooly most recently competed in her second season at Athlete’s Unlimited, and also, for Mexico at the 2021 Olympic Games where she would post a stellar 1.23 ERA with seven strikeouts and only 3 earned runs over 17 innings of work. We’re gonna talk to Tooly about getting her start in the game, her time playing under legendary coach, Mike Candrea, the roller coaster ride of emotions to the 2021 Olympics and of course we have to talk about her pets and the sitcom Friends. Tooly was an absolute pleasure to chat with and I’m so excited to see what’s in store down the road for one of the great one’s in our game.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with 3 time ISF World Champion and Softball New Zealand Hall of Famer, Marty Grant Marty had an absolute amazing career.  As I just said, he won 3 ISF World Championships with the New Zealand Black Sox in 1996, 2000 and 2004, with the one in 2000 coming from a No-Hitter in the finals from Marty.  He is a 3 time ISC All World selection and also captured the 1996 ISC World Title with the Tampa Bay Smokers.  For all he accomplished in his career Marty was inducted into the New Zealand Softball Hall of Fame back in 2015. We’re gonna talk to him about getting his start in the game in his hometown of Nelson, coming over to North America to play on the ISC circuit, those memorable ISF wins with the Black Sox, and much, much more. Marty was such a pleasure to chat with.  As someone who watched him from a far over the years it was really cool to be able to sit down and talk with an absolute legend in our game.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Georgia Alum, and current Assistant Coach at Hofstra University, Kristyn Sandberg. Kristyn has had a fantastic career as she spent her undergraduate career at the University of Georgia and was named a second-team NFCA All-American after garnering first-team All-Region honors. She played a key role in leading the Bulldogs to the Women's College World Series in 2009 and 2010 while earning SEC All-Freshmen Team honors in 2009 and First Team All-SEC recognition in 2012.  She would go on to be drafted 5th overall in the 2012 NPF Draft by the USSSA Pride where she would become a two time NPF Champion.  Kristyn appeared in over 300 games in the NPF and was a consistent threat throughout her career as she recorded over 45 home runs and tallied 150 RBI. For her efforts, Kristyn collected several awards from the league, including NPF Miken Rookie of the Year accolades in 2012, All-NPF honors in 2015 and 2018, was a Rawlings Gold Glove Finalist in 2017, and also, earned an NPF All-Decade Team distinction. She now finds herself in the coaching ranks with stops in LSU, Syracuse and now with Hofstra We’re gonna talk to Kristyn about getting her start in the game, her decision to attend Georgia, her time in the NPF, her love for the New York Islanders, and much much more. Kristyn was an absolute pleasure to chat with, Hofstra definitely has a good one on their hands.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Wisconsin alum and Canadian Olympic Bronze Medalist, Kelsey Harshman. Kelsey has had a fantastic career to date. She played collegiately at the University of Wisconsin, helping the Badgers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017 and 2018. She started in every single game throughout her four years, setting school records in all-time runs (180), on base percentage (.527), and consecutive games on base (40). She was the first freshman at UW to be named to the All-BigTen team, as well as the first three-time selection to the All-BigTen team in school history. She was also named to the 2017 All-BigTen Defensive Team.  Kels made her debut with the National Team in 2015 as a member of the Canadian Junior Women's National Team at the WBSC World Championship in Oklahoma City. Since then, she has represented Canada at multiple international events, including the Olympic Games this past summer in Tokyo where they took home the bronze medal. We’re gonna talk to Kels about getting her start in the game, the influence her mother and aunts played in her development, her time with the Badgers, of course, the bronze medal win in Tokyo and much, much more. Kelsey was an absolute pleasure to chat with and I’m definitely looking forward to what she has in store moving forward with everything she does.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with the creator of Fastpitch the Movie himself, Jeremy Spear. Jeremy got into the game of Fastpitch after playing Baseball growing up, which included 4 years at Yale where he would play Division I with the Bulldogs. Later on down the road after spending time on the New York Art scene, the competitive juices for sport were missing and he jumped into the game full force and decided to document that journey which resulted in the creation of what we all know as Fastpitch the Movie. We’re gonna talk to Jeremy about getting his start in the game, how big of an adjustment there was going from baseball to softball, the epic NCAA pitching dual between Frank Viola and Ron Darling that he was a part of and, of course, all the ins and outs of the movie that he created. It was an absolute pleasure for Hopey and I to talk to Jeremy as he played a huge part in this game at showing everyone just how the game was back in the 90’s with his documentary.  We’ve said it on here many times.  If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and do so!

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with former Ashland Merchant and one of the star’s from Fastpitch The Movie, New Zealand native, Shane Hunuhunu. Shane was a force on the ISC circuit back in the 90’s while playing with Ashland, Ohio, terrorizing opposing pitchers with his heavy bat.  He was selected to the ISC All World Team back in 1992 in his very first ISC World Tournament.  Huny also captured the 1989 ISF World Junior Title in Summerside, PEI while competing with New Zealand. We’re gonna talk to Shane about getting his start in the game back in New Zealand, moving to the US to play on the ISC circuit and of course, all about the Fastpitch Movie made by next week’s guest Jeremy Spear. Huny was a treat to chat with and his very personable attitude shines through in this episode.  It was a pleasure for Hopey and I to chat with such a great guy from our game.

Outside The Chute we sat down and chatted with former USA Men’s National Team member and recently inducted ASA/USA Softball of PA Hall of Famer, Bill Hillhouse. Billy has had a fantastic career, playing all over the world.  He spent 8 season playing down in New Zealand, one in Australia and numerous back home in the US.  In 1993 he became the youngest pitcher to play on the US Men’s National Team and proceeded to win the Most Valuable Pitcher award at the Pan Am Tournament that same season.  During his playing career he also became an ISC Commissioner from 1997 until 2013 and now runs his own his own pitching instruction business called House of Pitching. We’re gonna talk to Bill about getting his start in the game back in Pennsylvania, what it was like to travel the world at a young age, being named to the US Men’s National Team and much, much more. Bill was so awesome to chat with as the guy is an encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to our great game. 

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with San Jose State alum and Canadian Olympic Bronze medalist, Emma Entzminger. Emma has had a fantastic career to date.  She played four seasons (2014-18) with the Spartans while studying at San Jose State University, starting in 191 of her 207 games played over that span. Over her career with the Spartans she had a .287 batting average, .434 OBP, 17 doubles, three triples, four home runs and 70 RBIs. She finished at SJSU ranked third all-time in runs scored (142), fourth in walks (85) and OBP (.434) Emma competed at her first Pan American Games at Lima 2019 and tied for the team lead with five RBIs as Canada won the silver medal. Just a few weeks later, she posted a .429 batting average at the WBSC Americas Olympic Qualifier as the team booked its ticket to Tokyo. In her Olympic debut, Emma recorded two hits and three RBI as Canada won the bronze medal. We’re gonna talk to Emma about getting her late start in the game, her time at San Jose State, a great story of adversity and reflection after being released from the National Team in 2017 and of course the epic bronze medal win this past summer at the Olympics in Tokyo. Emma was a pleasure to chat with and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for our country down the road.