Mississippi State Softball: Mississippi State’s Edwards, Sells playing in college summer softball leagues

Summer leagues have been a college baseball institution for many decades, but college softball players did not have that same opportunity to keep working at their craft and playing the game they love after the school season ends until 2020, with the founding of the Florida Gulf Coast League.

Four years later, the FGCL is still going strong, and other leagues have been established in more recent years. Mississippi State’s Kylee Edwards and Kiarra Sells are taking advantage of those opportunities this summer, with Edwards playing for the FGCL’s Bradenton Slice and Sells joining the Texas Ninebands of the Lone Star State Collegiate League.

Edwards enjoyed a strong freshman year as the Bulldogs’ starting shortstop, batting .269 with eight doubles, five home runs and 23 runs batted in. She also struck out just 11 times in 134 at-bats, a 7.1 percent strikeout rate, although she did close the season without a hit in her last 10 at-bats in the conference and NCAA tournaments.

Through four games in Florida, Edwards is just 2-for-14 at the plate, but has a homer and a pair of RBI as well as a stolen base and three runs scored.

“I’m super excited to get back to work, improve my game and play with some of the best collegiate girls,” Edwards said in a news release.

Sells and the Ninebands have won their first five games of the season, with the rising junior utility player homering twice and driving in five runs along the way. Sells has not started a game in her two years with MSU but has been one of the Bulldogs’ most-used bench players, entering 33 games in 2024 as a pinch-runner, pinch-hitter or defensive replacement. She is yet to record her first hit in the maroon and white but scored 13 runs this past season.

Both leagues will run until mid-July, with games streaming exclusively on AthletesGoLive.com.

MSU