Allyson "Ally" Nicole Carda (born January 15, 1993) is an American, former collegiate All-American softball

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. Carda has been a member of the

United States women's national softball team The United States women's national softball team is the national softball team of the United States. It is governed by USA Softball (formerly known as the Amateur Sof ...

since 2015 and was a member of the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). ...

from 2012 to 2015, earning three First Team All-

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

and back-to-back conference

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

awards. She also earned back-to-back National Fastpitch Coaches Association First Team All-American honors. Carda represented Team USA at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

and won a silver medal.

Early life

Carda was born on January 15, 1993, in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, to parents Heather and Jim Carda. Carda and her family moved to

Elk Grove, California Elk Grove is a city in Sacramento County, California, located just south of the state capital of Sacramento. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade– Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 Census, the population o ...

, where she attended Pleasant Grove High School, from where she graduated in 2011. She is openly lesbian and her partner is

Kelly Kretschman Kelly Sue Kretschman (born August 26, 1979) is an American former nine-time professional All-Star softball outfielder and current head coach for the USSSA Pride of the Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF). Kretschman played college softball at A ...

UCLA Bruins

Carda signed a letter of intent to play for UCLA during her senior year of High School. Carda became one of the all-time greats in the winningest program in history, becoming the best 2 way player for the Bruins since

Lisa Fernandez Lisa Maria Fernandez (born February 22, 1971) is an American former softball player and current associate head coach at UCLA. She played college softball at UCLA as a pitcher and third baseman, and is a three-time medal winning Olympian with T ...

International career

Carda was named to the

roster in 2015. Carda also played for the Red, White, and Blue in 2016 and 2017. Carda helped the Red, White, and Blue to a

World Cup of Softball The USA Softball International Cup previously known as the World Cup of Softball, is an annual softball tournament. The first eight World Cups were held at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The competition is governed by USA ...

Gold Medal in 2015, and a Silver in 2016. Carda also won a silver medal at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

and a gold medal at the

2016 Women's Softball World Championship The 2016 Women's Softball World Championship was an international softball competition to be held in Surrey, British Columbia between July 15 and July 24, 2016.

. Carda represented Team USA at the

and won a silver medal. At the Tokyo Games, Carda suffered the loss in the gold medal game to

Team Japan Team Japan is a professional wrestling group that was brought together as a part of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's World X Cup Tournament. History 2004 Team Japan started as six-man team as team captain Nosawa from All Japan Pro Wrestling tea ...

in two innings of work on July 27, 2021. For the tournament, Carda pitched eight innings and scored a run for Team USA.

Statistics

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carda, Ally 1993 births Living people Pan American Games medalists in softball Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Softball players at the 2015 Pan American Games UCLA Bruins softball players Chicago Bandits players Competitors at the 2022 World Games World Games gold medalists World Games medalists in softball Olympic softball players of the United States People from Elk Grove, California Sportspeople from Sacramento, California Softball players from California Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Softball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in softball Olympic medalists in softball LGBT baseball players LGBT softball players 21st-century LGBT people 21st-century American women Lesbianism Lesbian sportswomen