A week before the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics, former Longhorns Janae Jefferson and Bella Dayton got their chance to shine in the Women’s Softball World Cup, an international six-day tournament in the Udine region of Italy, from July 15 to the 20th.
Although the World Cup does not garner the same attention as the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee’s decision to cut out softball and baseball from the 2024 Paris Olympics made that goal impossible for this year.
Softball has been an Olympic event five times since 1996, with a continuous stretch from 1996 to 2008 that created the opportunity for players like former Texas pitcher Cat Osterman to rise to stardom. The sport was gone in 2012 and 2016, but was back at the request of host nation Japan for 2020.
“The WBSC firmly believes that baseball and softball will help millions of fans engage with the Olympic Games, especially with USA being home to many of the sports’ best players and biggest stars from across the world,” said Riccardo Fraccari, president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, in a 2023 press release.
Until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, where softball is added again to the list of Olympic events, the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup is the biggest event on the international stage for the sport.
Despite attending the same university in the United States, Jefferson and Dayton competed on different teams.
Jefferson played for the No. 1 U.S. softball team and made it to the WBSC World Cup Finals before losing the title to No. 3 Japan.
“Our team expects to bring dominant pitching, great defense and timely hitting,” head coach Heather Tarr said before the tournament.
And they did dominate, throwing four shutout games out of the six games played. The U.S. was looking to claim its fourth consecutive WBSC Women’s World Cup title, but with a 1-6 loss to Japan, the U.S. win streak was broken.
Standing at second base, Jefferson kept a fielding percentage of .900. Jefferson had 11 at-bats, scoring three runs.
One of those runs scored was in the showdown between the U.S. and No. 6 Italy, Dayton’s team.
After graduating college, Dayton became one of three representatives from Friul’81, a club softball team based in Italy. When the time came, she tried out for the Italian team to honor her family heritage.
“The roster was defined with a very specific criterion in regard to those with the greatest amount of experience,” said Federico Pizzolini, the softball manager for Team Italy.
With Italy as the host for the six-day tournament that started on July 15, Dayton got to fully experience the Italian fanbase while batting at the top of the lineup.
Dayton performed well, notching nine hits and six runs in 18 at-bats, with a .778 slugging percentage. She took her normal place in left field and committed no errors.
Unfortunately, the team as a whole did not do as well, placing last in the tournament with a 1–4 record.
If Dayton and Jefferson maintain a successful career in the sport, they may have a chance to win for their team in a future World Cup or even in the 2028 Olympics.
