SOLEDAD — Former Notre Dame softball standout and Soledad resident Julie Lopez made the jump from high school to Division I this year, going all the way to NCAA Division I Regionals with the Jackson State University Tigers.
Lopez earned a starting spot at shortstop as a freshman and adapted to living and studying in Mississippi.
Nearly 14 months ago, Lopez had signed a Letter of Intent to attend and play softball for Hiram College in Ohio, a Division III school. When all seemed set for Lopez to pack her bags for Ohio, she received a call from the head coach who had recruited her and offered her the full-ride to Hiram that she was taking a job at another college.
The college turned out to be Jackson State.
Lopez then was pleased to receive an offer to play softball for Division I Jackson State. After speaking to her parents, her softball travel coach and former Notre Dame teammates that have played Division I softball, she decided to make the move to the South.
As Lopez finished her high school playing career with a Central Coast Section championship for Notre Dame last spring, she felt she was ready for another challenge at the collegiate level.
While she had been ready to play Division III softball at Hiram, the move to a Division I school was a little nerve racking for the 18-year-old.
“I played well my senior year of softball and had felt ready to transition into playing at Division III at Hiram,” Lopez said. “My mind was set to attend Hiram and continue to approach it as just a student-athlete. Once I decided on Jackson State and the Division I level, I had to tell myself that now being an athlete came first and that was a something I would have to get used to.”
The short notice to attend Jackson State meant Lopez’s parents Cesar and April would pack everything their daughter needed to live in the freshman student housing on campus and drive to Mississippi. Lopez also had to make the adjustment to living out of California for the first time with new teammates.
“Half of our team was from California, with some of them from the SoCal area and one girl from Sacramento,” Lopez said. “I think that is a thing that a lot of girls were scared of coming to a team where some of them had been together for a few years now, and you’re just completely new. Especially when you go out of state and in a whole new area. The thing I realized is that all the freshmen are thinking that way and at the end of the day you are going to be a family because you are around each other 24/7. You’re eating and hanging out with each other and that’s the goal, to get along with each other.”
To earn a spot on the team, Lopez had to challenge two seniors for the shortstop position. At Notre Dame, Lopez played third base for the Central Coast Section 2023 Division I champions.
“At Notre Dame, we had so much talent at every position and I played third base and did pretty well,” Lopez said. “I learned how to play shortstop and beat out two seniors as a starter. Offensively, I Iike to bat at the top of the order, but at Jackson State we have plenty of bigger and stronger players that can knock in runs and the team didn’t need me to knock in runs. I’m 5’2 and my job was to reach base and be ready to score.”
Jackson State finished the season with a 33-19 overall record and was 17-8 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
In April, Lopez was named the SWAC co-Hitter of the Week for batting .636 in four games, including a game against Bethune-Cookman when she batted 6-for-6 in a doubleheader.
In last month’s SWAC Tournament, the Tigers played four games, defeating Southern (8-3), Alabama State (6-5), Florida A & M (5-3) and again Florida A & M (3-1) to win the 2024 SWAC championship title. For her efforts, Lopez was named to the All-SWAC second team.
The Tigers finished the year with two games in the NCAA Regionals, where they were defeated 5-0 against Louisiana State University and were eliminated on May 18 after a 15-0 loss to UC Berkeley.
Back at home in Soledad for the summer, Lopez will continue to work on her hitting and fielding to stay in shape for next year’s softball season. In July, Lopez will join her former teammates from Notre Dame to receive their rings for winning the 2023 Division I CCS championship.
