Courtney Lynn Blades-Rogers (born May 16, 1978) is an American, former collegiate All-American, right-handed

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

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 ...

. She was a starting pitcher for two

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

teams: the Nicholls State Colonels and later the

Southern Miss Golden Eagles The Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles (also known as Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles) are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), located in Hattiesburg, Miss ...

. For her career she collected 151 wins ( second most) and 1,773 strikeouts ( fifth most). She was awarded the Honda Sports Award Softball Player of the Year in 2000 and was recently named the #7 Greatest NCAA Pitcher of All-Time.

Early life and education

Born in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

, Blades graduated from

Belaire High School Belaire High School (usually abbreviated as "Belaire" or BHS) is a public school in East Baton Rouge Parish. It is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The school is a part of the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools. History Belaire was found ...

in Baton Rouge in 1996. Blades began her career with the Colonels and earned the 1997

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

Newcomer of The Year Award. She continued her excellent play to earn both Player and Pitcher of The Year in 1998. Her combined

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

(career best), strikeouts, wins,

shutouts In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

and innings pitched stats led the league, which earned her a pitching

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Tri ...

At the close of 1998, Blades two-year career placed her in the top-10 for school records in

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(.320), shutouts and ERA; her 613 strikeouts set the record. Beginning in the 1999 season, Blades transferred to Southern Mississippi as a junior to continue working with her relocated head coach Lu Harris. She was honored with First Team All-American honors. She threw three

no-hitters In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

and a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

and proceeded to strike out 497 batters, setting a new

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

season record, eclipsing Michele Granger's previous mark of 484, set in 1993. Her wins, ERA, innings and shutouts set new school records. The wins were the fourth best total ever in the

as she led the nation that year. Blades led the Golden Eagles to an appearance at the 1999

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

. It was a first for the school program and especially notable because it was their reactivation after 7 years of hiatus. As a senior in 2000, Blades would earn All-

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, USA Pitcher of The Year, USA MVP and a First Team All-American citation. She also picked up the Honda Sports Award for softball in 2000 as the best collegiate player that year. Blades threw 4 no-hitters and two perfect games and would win 52 in her final season, setting the

single season and Senior Class records. Her ERA, WHIP, innings pitched and shutouts also reset school, conference records and were career best (excluding ERA), and also placed Blades in the top-5 for inning and shutout records in an

season. Along with USA conference pitching Triple Crown, her career best strikeout ratio of 11.6 led the nation. On March 1, 2000, Blades struck out 18 batters in a 7-inning, 7-1 win against the

Samford Bulldogs The Samford Bulldogs are the 17 varsity teams (8 men's and 9 women's) that represent Samford University in NCAA Division I athletics. The men's basketball team made its first NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000.They were led by Reed Raw ...

, her career-high for a regulation game. The performance tied her with the

fourth best (third at the time) regulation game record holders. Beginning on April 15 and lasting until May 7, Blades pitched a career best 80 consecutive scoreless innings, a school and conference record and ranked top-10 for the NCAA. In one of the games on May 6 against the

USF Bulls The South Florida Bulls (also known as the USF Bulls) are the athletic teams that represent the University of South Florida. USF competes in NCAA Division I and is a member of the American Athletic Conference for all sports besides sailing, w ...

, she broke Michele Granger's previous

career strikeout record of 1,640 by reaching 1,643. During the NCAA Tournament to reach that year's

, Blades would notch her career, school and conference record best 21 strikeouts against the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

in a 1-0, 13-inning loss on May 20, 2000 The game total was also the tournament record that held until 2004. At the WCWS, Blades twirled her second season

on May 25. It was the fourth perfect game ever pitched at the World Series. Blades fanned 11 of the No. 2 seeded, 2000

batting champs, the Arizona Wildcats, on opening day to also break the

season wins record. Southern Mississippi would end the season with a third-place finish at the series and ranked 4th nationally under the command of Blades, who was selected to the WCWS All-Tournament Team. She finished the season with a total of 663 strikeouts, becoming the first pitcher to break 500 and 600 strikeouts in a season. That mark brought her career total to 1,773, a record that would stand until February 25, 2006 when

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

pitcher

Cat Osterman Catherine Leigh Osterman (born April 16, 1983) is a retired American softball player. Osterman pitched on the United States women's national softball team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver medal at the 2008 and 2020 Su ...

passed the mark against the

University of Nevada-Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

. The eagle owns the school career records in just two seasons for wins (95), strikeouts (1,160), ERA (0.93), shutouts (50) and innings pitched (717.2). Blades also owned the conference

career strikeouts crown and now ranks second all-time, while her wins, ERA and innings are all top-5 for a career. For both schools, Blades is ranked second in wins, 5th in strikeouts, 4th in innings pitched and 8th for shutouts, while being tied 5th in perfect games for an

career.

Playing career

Blades played with the Stratford Brakettes for one tournament in 2000. She pitched in 5 games with a 2-1 win–loss record, 37 strikeouts, 1 earned run in 24.1 innings, putting her ERA at 0.29. One of the wins Blades pitched was a

with 11 K's against the Decatir Twisters.

Coaching career

In 2001, Blades served as an assistant coach under Lu Harris at

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Awards & honors

On November 4, 2000, Blades was inducted by the

Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to a ...

Director of Athletics Richard Giannini into the newly created Southern Miss Legends Club; other members include

Reggie Collier Reginald C. Collier (born May 14, 1961) is a former professional American football quarterback. Best known as a dynamic college football star, he had a short-lived professional career in both the United States Football League and National Footbal ...

Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 consecutive starts from 1992 to 201 ...

Ray Guy William Ray Guy (December 22, 1949 – November 3, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a punter for the Oakland / Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Guy was a first-team All-American selecti ...

Sammy Winder Sammy Winder (born July 15, 1959) is a former professional American football running back who spent his entire professional career playing for the Denver Broncos, from 1982 to 1990. The son of a farmer, Winder played his high school football at M ...

, Janice Felder, Nick Revon, and

Clarence Weatherspoon Clarence Weatherspoon, Sr. (born September 8, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) born in Crawford, Mississippi. He is currently the assistant coach for Jones County JC. Previousl ...

. Blades was ceremoniously invited into the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles Hall of Fame on March 31, 2006. On July 27, 2012, Blades was also inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. * 1997-1998 All-

* 2000 USA MVP * 2000 USA Pitcher of the Year * 2000 Region 7 Most Outstanding Player * 2000 Honda Sports Award *

All-Decade Team (2005)

Statistics

Nicholls State & Southern Mississippi

Athletic accomplishments

* 1,773 strikeouts fifth most * 151 wins second most * 77 shutouts (seventh most) * 7 career NCAA Division I

* 3 career NCAA Division I

perfect games Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

* .320 batting average ( Nicholls State Colonels) * .307 batting average ( Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles)

References

External links

* * *https://web.archive.org/web/20150906063204/http://msfame.com/hall-of-fame/inductees/courtney-blades-rogers/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Blades, Courtney 1978 births Living people Softball players from Louisiana American softball coaches Southern Miss Golden Eagles softball players Nicholls Colonels softball players Georgia Bulldogs softball coaches Sportspeople from Baton Rouge, Louisiana