Former first team, all-region Panther pitcher steps away from high school softball and makes a name for herself in travel ball
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Oct. 1 — As a freshman, Summer Pence earned first team all-district and all-region honors in softball playing for the Page County Panthers. Then, she quit playing high school softball…to focus on a travel team in Birmingham, Ala.
From there the right-handed pitcher caught the eye of head coach Jamie Trachsel’s staff at Ole Miss. About two weeks ago, Pence verbally committed to become a Rebel and play softball for the Division I, SEC school in the fall of 2028 under a full four-year scholarship.
“I mean the feeling is unexplainable,” Pence told PVN this week. “It’s exciting, but it helps me put into perspective everything that me and my family have put into this…the hard work has paid off.”
The Rebels of Ole Miss finished 36-26 overall and 6-18 in the Southeastern Conference during the 2026 season. However, in just six seasons in Oxford, Coach Trachsel lead the Rebels to five consecutive NCAA Regional appearances, including the school’s first-ever Women’s College World Series (WCWS) in 2025. Trachsel became the fastest coach in Ole Miss history to reach 100 wins.
“I have had multiple phone calls with her and her staff, and made my official visit on the weekend of Sept. 11 where I went down and got to see the campus and meet the coaches,” Pence said.
After receiving interest from a number of Division I schools in the SEC and the ACC — including Virginia Tech, Virginia, Duke, NC State, Texas, Auburn and Ole Miss — Pence narrowed it down to two choices, Ole Miss and Virginia Tech. The Page County resident had attended a number of camps in Blacksburg, where she had grown familiar with the coaches and the players, and she even made her first “official visit” to the Virginia Tech campus. She described the choice between the two as “one of the toughest decisions of my life.”
“It’s a decision for two years from now,” she said.
But in the end, a few factors in Oxford rose to the surface.
“Honestly, it’s just the culture,” Pence said of her decision to play for Ole Miss. “It’s a championship culture…it’s all about getting to Oklahoma City [site of the WCWS], and about getting 1 percent better each day… I also felt they were close together, a connection between the girls…and I also just loved the coaches.”
The right-hander, who has been clocked at 69 mph from just 43 feet from the plate, says she probably won’t be a “unicorn” — a pitcher who bats for themselves, rather than being replaced at the plate by a designated hitter — although her hitting’s not bad.
Pence is currently a junior at Luray High School, but she doesn’t plan to play for the Bulldogs next spring. The Division I commit left high school softball 16 months ago to focus on the Birmingham Thunderbolts. The travel team based in Alabama has recruited 15 to 20 players from California to Florida and everywhere in between. Coach Jenny Buzzel-Parker spotted Pence in the fall of 2025 playing in a travel team tournament with Team UNC.
“I think she saw my grit and mindset,” Pence said of why she was recruited for the elite travel team. “Being able to compete in tough situations and not let anything get to you.”
The Thunderbolts play fall and summer schedules. Week-long tournaments can include two or three games in a single day. By the time a two-month season ends, the Thunderbolts have taken the field at least 50 times.
Right now, Pence is preparing for the fall travel season, which she says gets underway in a few weeks. Over the past year, the LHS junior has pitched 101.2 innings and recorded 115 strikeouts with an ERA of 1.93. She only allowed 86 hits and gave up 28 walks. Her WHIP — walks plus hits per inning pitched — is a mere 1.12. And that’s against elite competition.
Ole Miss started watching Pence last fall and started recruiting her heavily over the summer.
“They saw me in some good situations,” she said, “and I guess they liked what they saw.”
Pence says her future college coaches did not weigh-in on whether or not to play high school softball or travel ball, but it’s a decision she made because of the level of competition and the training schedule that comes with it.
“The main reason for not playing high school ball is…my travel team plays against the best talent in the country, and it’s hard to shift to a high school schedule,” she told PVN. “It’s just more productive for me to just refine my game for travel ball rather than go back-and-forth. It’s more about the amount of time I can put into it between working out at the gym and pitching multiple times a week. So, it’s more about the training and my ability to stay polished and really work on my game.”
When she was just 6 or 7, Summer would play baseball with the boys because Luray did not have a summer softball league at the time.
“Every time I tried to play softball, I got put with Luray boys pitch,” she remembers. “They don’t care if you are a girl…if you are weak, you are weak.”
That’s where Summer gained her grit and began to hone her fundamentals and mechanics. By age 8, she was playing softball in the Shenandoah Recreation League. Her game continued to elevate until she became a Panther at 14.
And now, after two seasons of travel ball with a team from Alabama, this Page County native is headed to the land of Hotty Toddies on the Grove at the University of Mississippi, where she plans to major in Finance and play top-shelf softball in the SEC.
“The goal [moves] from just recruiting to being able to compete at the highest level now,” Pence said.
“I just want to thank my coaches and my family for supporting me through this whole thing.”
For more information about Ole Miss Softball,
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Pence leading Panthers at the plate and in the circle
I hope her dreams come true….but D1 sports can crush dreams if the athlete’s discipline is not there.