Amber Marlett, a senior pitcher on the Texas Wesleyan softball team, is having a successful season for the Lady Rams, both on the mound and at the plate.
Marlett is currently 4-4 with a 43 strikeouts in 33.1 innings. As a designated hitter, she has a .400 batting average with three home runs, 17 RBIs and a .733 slugging percentage.
Marlett has been playing softball for 16 years, and after graduation from Rancho High School in Las Vegas, was offered a scholarship to play softball at a Division 1 school, Southern Utah University, before transferring to Howard Junior College, in Big Spring, where she was recruited by current Wesleyan head coach Shannon Gower.
“I chose Wesleyan because they had my major, which is athletic training” Marlett said. “There was only a handful of schools that let you do athletic training, and play a sport because of the clinical hours, but coach Gower works with my schedule to ensure I can get the hours I need to graduate.”
Since transferring to Wesleyan after her sophomore season, Marlett has been a two-year starter both on the mound and as a DH for the Lady Rams.
Gower said she has a lot of good relationships with Texas junior colleges, and that’s what helped her recruit Marlett.
“Every year that we are looking, we tend to reach out to the different junior colleges.” Gower said. “The pitcher prior to her (Alexis Beltran) was also from the same junior college, and I was very happy with the results.”
Last year, Marlett was 14-6 with a 1.87 ERA. She threw 142.1 innings and had 121 strikeouts and six complete game shutouts. She posted a .330 batting average with eight home runs, 21 RBIs and a .631 slugging percentage.
Gower calls Marlett one of the leaders on the team, and loves her work ethic. Kelly Raines, her coach at Howard, agrees.
“Amber was a really good player for us,” Raines said. “She led by example, and has improved as a player every year.”
Marlett has earned plenty of awards in high school and college. She was a four-year letter at Rancho High School, earning All-Region as a freshman and sophomore and earning All-State honors her junior and senior seasons.
Last year, she earned first-team honors in the Sooner Athletic Conference, and was named SAC player of the week for Feb. 17-23, 2014 after batting .636 with four HRs, 12 RBIs, and five runs. She was also named SAC pitcher of the week for April 11-13, 2014 after allowing one run on 11 hits while striking out seven in 12 innings pitched against Oklahoma Baptist University and St. Gregory’s University.
Marlett currently doesn’t have plans to play after college, as she wants to become a physician’s assistant. She is going to graduate in the fall because there are a couple of pre-requisites that she still has to complete. Marlett has high hopes for both the team and for herself this year.
“I would love for the team to win conference this year,” Marlett said. “We are really strong, and play in a really good conference, but we have beaten the eleventh and the eighteenth ranked teams, and we just have to keep working hard, but I think we can do it.”
As a senior, Marlett says she wants to leave it all out on the field and have no regrets at the end of her college career. Her message to the freshman and returning players is simple.
“Never give up, keep working hard” Marlett said. “You’re going to have your highs and lows, but you don’t get to where you want to be, by sitting there and doing nothing.”
