Tiare Rose Jennings (born June 5, 2002) is an American

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

player for the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

. As a freshman in 2021, she was named

NFCA National Freshman of the Year The NFCA National Freshman of the Year is an award given by Schutt Sports Schutt Sports (trade name of Kranos Corporation) was a United States company that manufactured protective gear for several sports, focusing on American football, baseball ...

, Softball America Freshman of the Year and was selected as a first-team All-American.

Early life

Tiare Rose Jennings was born to Maria and Ignacio Jennings in

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

and grew up in San Pedro. She is of Samoan,

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

and Mexican descent. Jennings played travel ball for the OC Batbusters, and won the 2019 USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championship.

High school career

Jennings attended St. Anthony High School in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. During her freshman year, she was named the 2017 Southern Section Division 6 Player of the Year. She battled injuries during her junior year. During her senior year, she batted .710 with six

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 19

run batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(RBIs), 18 runs scored, and a 1.483

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

in a season that was shortened due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. She was named the 2019–20 Gatorade California Softball Player of the Year. She finished her high school career batting .581, with 111

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

s, 61 RBIs and 16 home runs. She was ranked as the nations No. 2 recruit in the Class of 2020 by Extra Inning Softball's Elite 100 list and No. 4 on FloSoftball's Hot 100.

College career

Jennings made her collegiate debut for

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

on February 11, 2021, in a game against

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stu ...

. Jennings began her career going 4-for-4 with three home runs and six RBI in a 29–0 victory. Jennings and

Grace Lyons Grace Lyons may refer to: * Grace Lyons (cricketer) (born 2005), Australian cricketer * Grace Turk, formerly Grace Lyons (born 1999), American softball player {{hndis, Lyons, Grace ...

each homered three times against the Miners, tying a school record for most home runs by an individual player in a game. The Sooners set an NCAA single-game record for home runs in a game with 13. During the weekend at the Miner Invitational, she was 12-for-13, with five home runs, 12 RBIs, 30

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple and 4 for a home run. For example, three singles is three total bases, while ...

, eight

extra-base hit In baseball, an extra-base hit (EB, EBH or XBH), also known as a long hit, is any base hit on which the batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error or opting to make a throw to retire anot ...

s, and a .983 batting average. She was subsequently named Big 12 Player of the Week for the week ending February 16, 2021. During the Courtyard Marriott Tournament, Jennings went 11-for-17, with a .647 batting average, four home runs, 10 RBIs and 23 total bases. Additionally, she did not register a strikeout all weekend and was perfect in the field, making appearances at second base, shortstop and third base, collecting seven assists and a pair of

putout In baseball statistics, a putout (denoted by ''PO'' or ''fly out'' when appropriate) is awarded to a defensive player who (generally while in secure possession of the ball) records an out by one of the following methods: * Tagging a runner wit ...

s. She was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the week ending March 9, earning her second weekly honor. Jennings earned her third player of the week honor for the week ending April 7. She went 6-for-9, with six RBIs, 11 total bases, and her 16th home run of the season, in a series against

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. Jennings earned her fourth player of the week honor for the week ending April 20. Jennings went 4-for-7, with three home runs, 13 total bases and five runs scored during a series against

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. During the regular season, she ranked first in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

in runs scored (60) and RBIs (72), and tied for first in doubles (14), and ranked second in hits (66), home runs and slugging percentage. She finished the 2021 season with 27 home runs and led the nation with 92 RBI. She also ranked in the top five nationally in slugging percentage, home runs, doubles, hits and batting average. Jennings' 92 RBI broke the

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

freshman single-season RBI record. Following an outstanding season, she was named first-team All Big 12, Big 12 all-freshman team, Big 12 Freshman of the Year,

and Softball America Freshman of the Year. She was also one of only two freshmen in the country named a top 10 finalist for the

USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year is an award given by USA Softball to the best college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United St ...

. During her sophomore year in

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, she batted .385 with 24 home runs, 72 RBIs, and a .882 slugging percentage. Her 24 home runs ranked for fourth in the nation, while her 72 RBIs tied for third in the NCAA. In the field, she had a .982 fielding percentage, with 14 double plays, 46 putouts and 63 assists to two errors. Following the season she was named a unanimous first-team All-American.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Tiare Living people 2002 births American people of Samoan descent Oklahoma Sooners softball players People from San Pedro, Los Angeles Softball players from California