Alexis Osorio, Haylie McCleney and Kelly Kretschman to Attend 2018 Team USA Softball Selection Camp
USA Softball released its list of 56 national team selection camp invitees Wednesday and three Crimson Tide stars are on the prestigious list. Senior pitcher Alexis Osorio along with four-year All-Americans Haylie McCleney and Kelly Kretschman will have the opportunity to earn a spot on the 2018 Team USA roster.
The selection camp will be held January 1-5, 2018 in Clearwater, Fla. Among next summer’s events, Team USA will compete in the World Cup of Softball XIII and will look to defend its title in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women’s World Championship.
The camp invite is the first for Osorio, a two-time All-American for the Crimson Tide from Riverside, Calif. Last year, she posted a 23-8 record and 1.21 ERA with 334 strikeouts over 203.0 innings pitched for Alabama, including a 2-1 record and 0.59 ERA in NCAA Tournament play. For her career, she is 64-24 with a 1.76 ERA and 834 strikeouts, averaging 1.44 strikeouts per inning. Her .161 opponent batting average and 10.07 strikeouts-per-game average are at the top of the Crimson Tide career lists while her 834 strikeouts put her just 166 away from becoming the fourth pitcher in program history with 1,000 career strikeouts.
McCleney, a 2016 UA graduate, has been a mainstay on the Team USA roster since 2014 after playing on the Junior National Team in 2013. Last summer, the Morris, Ala., native hit .474 with nine hits and six RBIs at the World Cup of Softball XII, leading the team to a runner-up finish. McCleney and Team USA later won gold at the 2017 Pan American Championship as she hit a scorching .613 at the plate with 17 runs scored and seven walks. McCleney concluded her Crimson Tide career as the program’s all-time leader in batting average (.447), on base percentage (.569), triples (16) and walks (199).
Kretschman, the program’s first four-time All-American, was part of Team USA in both the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, earning a gold medal in the latter. Since then, she has been one of the premiere players in the National Pro Fastpitch league, winning Player of the Year honors in each of the last three seasons. A 2001 Alabama graduate, she still holds career records in slugging percentage (.766), games started (273), runs scored (288), hits (368), doubles (65) and home runs (60).