The 2025 Bradford Red Devil Women’s Softball team has a state championship title to defend. They were the best team in the state last year…they are the best team in the state this year. And with excellence comes expectation. With rare exception, you know you are getting everyone’s best, every game. They all want to gauge themselves against the best. But unfortunately, no matter how well the other team may play, the 2025 Red Devils have one element that simply cannot be replicated. Shock and Awe. Lefty Aubrey Strelow (committed to Central Michigan), and righty Brooklynn Danielson (committed to Southern Illinois), create a 1-1 Punch that is simply a rarity. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, I’ve been in the Women’s Softball world for about 15 minutes, but I’ve been in a booth over 500 times, and I know dominance when I see it.
I don’t know enough about the history of the sport to know if this is generational stuff….but it sure feels like generational stuff. In this sport, if you have one dominant arm, you are very likely to be relevant. And if you have a big arm and then a great second option, you will compete. But when you have two dominant arms and back it up with a line-up that expects to score, you got Shock and Awe. The other team walks up to the diamond, looking to see who is warming up, knowing there is zero chance for good news. Brooklynn simply throws the ball past people. In the last game v Whitnall, I was giving props to a girl who made a 1-3 out, got a fist single (the only hit of the game) that snuck through the middle, and then struck out (one of the 17 registered by Schocklynn that game) but fouled a few balls off. That was the hitting star for the other team…1 for 3 with a K and a comebacker to the mound! Danielson will soon register her 500th career K.
Awe-brey is more surgical. Her ball moves most of the time. And my bet is she enjoys hearing the ooooo’s when her change-up corkscrews someone into the ground. She certainly can run it up there when it’s called for, she’s just not relentless, unhittable cheese like her right-handed counterpart. And Aubrey is also as dangerous at the plate as she is throwing to it. Again, I don’t have a ton of chops in this industry but what I’ve seen leads me to believe there are very few people who get on base as much as her AND hit a ton of HRs, including to the opposite field. What a luxury to know you have 2 Number 1s, both alphas with a ton of experience, who want the ball and who expect to dominate in the circle and at the plate. I just don’t think situations like that come along very often.
And there is a boatload of help working alongside Shock and Awe. A well-seasoned, well-documented, and experienced coaching staff. Catcher Angela Parker is fantastic behind the dish. Works hard for her pitchers back there, takes the job very seriously, and is good at it. A trio of impact Freshmen have filled the void left by the graduation of two Senior contributors and quite honestly, they are probably better offensively now than they were at this point last season. As of the writing of this article, they have not lost and sit atop the polls…why wouldn’t they? I’d never discuss running the table, that’s bad juju, too many stars gotta line up to even consider. But that don’t mean they ain’t the best team in the state. They are. And that guarantees you absolutely nothing.
So you gotta run em out there. You gotta play the games….and in this case, with a well-deserved target on your back. And for the 2025 Red Devils, that translates to “hit em with Shock and Awe”. The only way to do this, is by taking it. Teams that “defend” rarely do so. Teams that dominate eventually get credit for a title defense. A team couldn’t possibly do that without a pitcher who gets in the circle knowing she is the best. And Bradford has two of em. Like I said before…it kinda feels like generational stuff. They still play several home games, and the best part of going to see this team is that there is no way you won’t see the most dominant pitcher in the state…you just won’t find out which one til you get there.