Cal Softball Signs Historic Brown Baseball Transfer Olivia Pichardo

I don't understand this move at all. What are we gaining here? Perhaps someone can explain to me why.

PR move? Nothing to really lose on a one year deal. No $$ to attract the top tier portal players

She's a pitcher and she hardly hit.

BearinOC said:

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She's a pitcher and she hardly hit.

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yeah but she is also listed at Brown as an outfielder too, not all pitchers are listed at other positions. And some of her video work shows her playing outfield and throwing a runner out at the plate. Also, it shows her stealing a few bases.

I'm saying there is skill there, I mean, not a ton of people can throw 85 mph AND not a lot of people can even make a D1 roster. I'm not saying she's sure thing, I'm saying she has some tools and for very little investment, there is some skill sets to work with.

With much of the portal moves done, I'd venture that there are not many players in the portal with her base of skills. I see little drawback to giving her a shot for one season. Hell, I hope she kills it and that would make for a cool story.

I'd need to dig because I can't recall her name.... but there was a pretty good SEC shortstop who made the change from only playing HS baseball to softball. I remember her having a hell of an arm too. Think she played at Mississippi State. You never know

What do you mean portal is almost done; it just opened. Baseball/softball is hitting and pitching, not so much about the least athletic position-outfield. There's wishful thinking and there's reality. Let's get real.

BearinOC said:

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What do you mean portal is almost done; it just opened. Baseball/softball is hitting and pitching, not so much about the least athletic position-outfield. There's wishful thinking and there's reality. Let's get real.

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Oh, I must have made a mistake about portal timing, I didn't check the dates. Honest mistake.

But I stand by adding a good defender to a team that was not good defensively, and I think she will be that at a minimum. My opinion is also that we are not an attractive option at the moment, it is likely that there will be a few "reaches" and that's reality.

Anyway, it is happening so hopefully you'll root for future Bears, reach or no reach. I know I will.

BearinOC said:

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HairOfTheBear said:

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BearinOC said:

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What do you mean portal is almost done; it just opened. Baseball/softball is hitting and pitching, not so much about the least athletic position-outfield. There's wishful thinking and there's reality. Let's get real.

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Oh, I must have made a mistake about portal timing, I didn't check the dates. Honest mistake.

But I stand by adding a good defender to a team that was not good defensively, and I think she will be that at a minimum. My opinion is also that we are not an attractive option at the moment, it is likely that there will be a few "reaches" and that's reality.

Anyway, it is happening so hopefully you'll root for future Bears, reach or no reach. I know I will.

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I hope I dont come across as negative nelly. I am always rooting and am the biggest proponent of California. Hell, when I see a none committed player, I tell them to goto Cal.

In fact, I go out of my way to meet the Cal commits and have conversations when I meet them on the diamond.

I have photos with past players: Randi Roelings, Alyssa Herrera, Lagi Quiroga, Kayli Counts and etc.
Future players: Alanna Clincy, Nisha Mehta, Charlotte White, Malea Ricks.

I ump them all at the PGF, Alliance and Triple Crown Nationals/Qualifier. If I am not umping them, I stalk them at their games on their fields. lol

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Actually, I do appreciate the note and your involvement both with the Bears and all your umping. You are def more of an expert than me.

My own experience orbiting around the Bears began just with being enamored with the killer instinct and pitching of Michelle Granger, she was special. Funny enough, my girlfriend at the time was best friends with Annie Walsh's sister so I kept going to games after Granger left so I could support Annie.

Also, I was a women's basketball assistant coach at a Junior College and a former Bear Evelyn Fernandez, came back to play a season for us.

Later, I tried to attend a bunch of games in years around the Championship team. Such a great sustained run. I sure hope more of that is possible and coming for our Bears.

I just saw her swing. I understand now why he picked her up. I haven't seen her hit before. Baseball swings do not translate well due to up trajectory vs. down. Hence, baseball swings don't necessarily translate well in Softball. I think she might just be the exception.

I'm told Coach Sing was torn up about not renewing half to 11 schollies. He's trying to PU SEC players but no announcements yet. You have to wonder if NIL money is the issue. If so, I think it's tragic. Perhaps admin still hasn't learned its lesson going back to Bruce Snyder debacle and on.

As for Nila from Washington, I'd learned that from her friend but was doing a game on Sunday. By then she had tweeted it already.

Was hoping Gibson could bring over the Arkansas pitcher who just committed to Arizona State. Bummer.

But hey... Go Bears!

Your High Energy Player of the Game is Olivia Pichardo!@CenterPoint #ItsSpicy pic.twitter.com/47roMT3y44

— Mankato Habaneros (@KatoHabaneros) June 22, 2026

Olivia Pichardo (Cal) said, "Not today." 😤

The Mankato outfielder made an unbelievable home run robbery, climbing the wall to bring back what looked like a sure homer. Highway robbery at the ballpark! 🔥🙌 pic.twitter.com/kiNPM1zCDD

— Northwoods League Softball (@NWL_Softball) June 23, 2026

CalFanatic said:

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Was hoping Gibson could bring over the Arkansas pitcher who just committed to Arizona State. Bummer.

But hey... Go Bears!

Your High Energy Player of the Game is Olivia Pichardo!@CenterPoint #ItsSpicy pic.twitter.com/47roMT3y44

— Mankato Habaneros (@KatoHabaneros) June 22, 2026

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Courtney Diefel could have put in a good word. Sigh

wvitbear said:

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This is something i know some about. Girls who play baseball and then switch to softball. I was president of Albany Little League for 7 years and involved for many more. In the old days we had a fair amount of girlsplay at Albany but the the invention of Albany-Berkeley Girls Softball , we lost quite a lot. Still some girls still played and when i asked Why, they said Willie Mays didn't play softball. Still they eventually moved to softball in high school.

I have three comments. How did they do defensively,offensively and pitching wise.

1. Defensively, they were better than their counterparts in softball. Especially in the outfield. Babe ruth baseball has a bigger field.. You have to cover a lot of ground to play it. So you have to be fast and you have to have a better arm as you throws are deeper. This young lady sounds like she would be an excellent outfielder with an 85 mile and hour arm.

2. Pitching: An 85 mile an hour arm isn't going to help because you throw underarm. I don't remember any of our girls becoming a success as a pitcher.

3. Hitting. Some do and ome don't . Have a different release point. Plus the mound for a hgh school pitcher is 60'6" and a softball mound is something like 46 feet to 50 feet. In little league when it is 46 feet, a 60 MPH fast ball is hard to hit. The switch to 50 70 (Pitching mound 50 and bases 70). That 4 feet. makes a world of difference for a 60 MPH fast ball. The you need to change speeds. So the young lady who played baseball probably saw 90 mile and hour baseballs but at 60 feet. The key is how much reaction time do you have. I assume she will adjust to the to the release point.

An aside. Back when gilrs played in our league, we had a young lady named Tammy Holmes. When th women's baseball team that played mens teams some years ago, she was the first women to hit a homerun out of the park. In our league she was the MVP and her team won the championshil. At 12 years old she was 5'11" tall, so much bigger then the boys. She played college volleyball.

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THANK YOU for mentioning one of my All Time favorite people Tammy Holmes. One of my brothers was the same age as her and I was fortunate enough to be an assistant coach for her in Little league for one season and in Seniors (or maybe Big league I can't recall) for the All Star team. She was for real and I really enjoyed her play and personality. Sorta shy but also really funny. She didn't want any special treatment, she just wanted to play. Myself, the other coach, and our kids all loved Tammy. She was like a secret weapon. Other teams thought she must be weak or no good or both because she was "guuurrrl". Then she'd smash one in the gap for a double. Man that made me smile and laugh so much. Or she'd walk and then steal 2nd. Always kind of smiling like she knew something they didn't.

When she signed to play volleyball at Cal I was so excited for her, well and Cal lol.

Of course I followed her for the Coors Silver Bullets too and I think maybe she was the first woman to hit it out at Coors Field in a regular season game.

Oddly enough, I was good acquaintances with another woman that played for the Silver Bullets that had grown up playing baseball too. She even played high school baseball in the old RBAL for Richmond High where she pitched and played 2nd base as a regular every day player. She hated that she had nowhere to go in baseball so she reluctantly played softball and was a Div 2 All American for Hayward State. Charlotte Wiley, boy could she hit. I think Charlotte was actually the first woman to hit out at Coors but it was a preseason game. I also got to coach her for Junior College Basketball where her athleticism was on full display. Not tall but strong as hell. The only person on either the mens teams or women's JC teams I ever saw go lift after every practice and games if the gym was still open.
We were down to 7 players and still made it to the State final four that year. We also had one of Coach Nakamura's (Berkeley High Legendary Coach) daughter's (Lisa Nakamura El Cerrito High) on the team. Those two together were a couple of the toughest athletes I have even known. Damn I loved their hearts and effort. Exactly the kind of people you hate playing against, but how grateful you'd be if they were on your side lol.


So now in the moment, while thinking about Tammy and Charlotte, it connects for me why I was excited the other day when we signed Pichardo. Having experience with both Tammy and Charlotte gave me optimism that playing baseball at that high of a level, might give Pichardo a decent chance of making the switch and that swing! One difference would be that both Tammy and Charlotte were very strong physically and had more muscular builds in their own ways. But I still like Pichardo's lefty swing, and as pointed out, being able to throw 80 plus means she's got an arm.

Let's hope she can make some noise - Go Bears

During her stay with the Silver Bullets, I was at Memorial field in Albsny when her old Little League manger was throwing batting practice to her. She switch hit and hit 5 blls out of the park left handed and then five right handed.

Do you remember Dave Krone?

wvitbear said:

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During her stay with the Silver Bullets, I was at Memorial field in Albsny when her old Little League manger was throwing batting practice to her. She switch hit and hit 5 blls out of the park left handed and then five right handed.

Do you remember Dave Krone?

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Yes I do, he was pres. of Little League right? Is it safe to assume that's you? If so you were pres. nearly every season my brother played. The brother I mentioned earlier was same age and friends with Tim. But all my brothers went to Berkeley High as did Tammy eventually instead of Albany.

I also recall a little better that Tammy was on every all star team my brother made, but my Head Coach and I didn't get to coach the All Stars but once I think, and we also helped out one year as unofficial coaches as well with the coach that had the all stars.
She played hoop for Coach Nakamura at Berkeley too. His daughters and I would serve as extra bodies during summer training and a little during the season.

CalFanatic said:

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FYI- Coach Sing just shared a video of Olivia with an absolute tank of a home run to RF during summer league play. He shared one earlier in the week of her going yard. Her swing certainly looks to be translating.

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so, like, that's a good thing, amiright

I was president later.






wasn't there when she was playing. but Krone was there. He was my player agent. Registered all the players. Plus a lot of extra stuff. Died of cancer.

I was president form 1998 to 2005.

welcome, aand all the best to JR

I know Olivia is a grad transfer & has already played .D1 baseball but will she be only for the 1 years? Can she petition for one extra year since I believe her appearances were limited in baseball?

I believe only one year

🇺🇸 Olivia Pichardo is putting on a show! 💥 Her second home run of the night, this time a two-run blast.
WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group Rockford presented by RAXUS#BaseballWorldCupW pic.twitter.com/rwnKQ6E3sT

— WBSC ⚾🥎 (@WBSC) July 23, 2026

CalFanatic said:

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I believe only one year

🇺🇸 Olivia Pichardo is putting on a show! 💥 Her second home run of the night, this time a two-run blast.
WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group Rockford presented by RAXUS#BaseballWorldCupW pic.twitter.com/rwnKQ6E3sT

— WBSC ⚾🥎 (@WBSC) July 23, 2026

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Wow...can't wait for the season to start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow-I love her homerun trot! Probably the fastest in softball!