Redmon, Kardatzke Honored as D1Softball.com Freshman All-Americans
Big South Softball Co-Freshman of the Year honorees
Dakota Redmon of Radford and
Sophia Kardatzke of USC Upstate have been D1softball.com Freshman All-Americans, the outlet announced on Thursday. Both were named to the Second Team.
Redmon continues to achieve new heights with the Highlanders adding her Second-Team Freshman All-American award to a quickly growing list of achievements. Throughout her debut season with Radford, the newcomer has earned NFCA All-Region recognition, NFCA Freshman of the Year Top-25 finalist, Big South Pitcher of the Year and Big South Co-Freshman of the Year. Just the third Highlander to ever earn an All-American nod, the Stokesdale, N.C. native led Big South pitchers with a 2.40 ERA, 129 strikeouts, 16 wins, 178 innings pitched, and held opponents to a .231 batting average. Redmon was the Highlanders' ace in conference play leading the conference in ERA (1.44), strikeouts (55), innings pitched (78.0), complete games (11) and opponent batting average (.186). The freshman also racked up six weekly awards from the conference during the season.
Kardatzke came into the 2025 season with high hopes of an immediate impact to a program coming off the 2024 Big South Conference Championship and NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional Appearance. During Opening Weekend, Kardatzke's first start in the circle was highlighted with 10 strikeouts in a 6-4 victory over Bowling Green. At the plate, Kardatzke added six hits through five games of the opening weekend, resulting in being named Big South Freshman of the Week. From that week, Kardatzke began to find her way as she earned Big South Freshman of the Week six times total on the year. The Freshman from Jacksonville, Florida led Upstate Softball with a .391 batting average, 72 hits, 15 home runs, and a .728 slugging percentage. Kardatzke added 58 runs scored, two triples, 55 runs batted in, and 22 stolen bases. In the circle, Kardatzke went 4-4 with a 3.02 ERA pitching four complete games while striking out 53 batters The accolades were recognized by the Big South at the end of the regular season as Kardatzke was named Big South Co-Freshman of the Year, All-Freshman Team, and First team all-conference. The NFCA featured Kardatzke on the Freshman of the Year Top 25 list, which featured outstanding athletic achievements from the top freshman in the NCAA. Going into the postseason play, Upstate Softball was the No. 3 seed, and Sophia Kardatzke made a memorable debut in the Big South Tournament with her first two at bats, both being two-run bombs in the win against Longwood. Kardatzke continued to be a factor in the following two games adding stolen bases, multiple hits, and scoring runs contributing to the Spartans going back-to-back as the Big South Tournament Champions while also punching their ticket to the 2025 NCAA Softball Regionals. In the opening game against Clemson, Kardatzke recorded her 23rd multi-hit game of the season going 2-for-3 against the Tigers.
D1 Softball's All-Americans, Freshman All-Americans and superlative awards are all voted on by staff, writers, digital media creators and industry experts. In the 2025 All-Freshman All-American first and second teams, Redmon is one of two Big South student-athletes and one of just six mid-major representatives.
D1 SOFTBALL FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICANS
First Team
C – Kennedy Proctor, Utah
1B – Tori Edwards, LSU
2B – KK Dement, Texas A&M
SS – Gabbie Garcia, Oklahoma
3B – Ella McDowell, Arkansas
OF – Taylor Shumaker, Florida
OF – Audrey Vandagriff, Alabama
OF – Char Lorenz, Louisville
UT/P – Macey Cintron, Clemson
UT – Alexis DeBoer, Washington
UT – Nelly McEnroe-Marianas, Oklahoma
UT – Rylee McCoy, Oregon
UT – Ilove'a Brittingham, BYU
UT – Lauren Putz, Michigan
SP – Isabella Vega, UCF
SP – Jazzy Francik, Florida State
SP – Payton Burnham, Arkansas
SP – Addisen Fisher, UCLA
Second Team
C – Beth Damon, UCF
1B – Makenzie Butt, Boise State
2B – Morgan Brown, UL Monroe
SS – Jessie Clemons, Iowa State
3B – Jordan Lynch, Virginia Tech
OF – Bella Foran, Florida Atlantic
OF – Kelly Fricker, Lehigh
OF – Rylee Slimp, UCLA
UT/P – Sophia Kardatzke, USC Upstate
UT – AnnaLea Adams, Auburn
UT – Jada Cooper, Grand Canyon
UT – Dakota Redmon, Radford
UT – Joie Economides, Stanford
UT – Cat Petteys, UConn
SP – Miali Guachino, Ole Miss
SP – Maddie Johnson, Georgia Southern
SP – Lorin Boutte, Ohio State
SP – Jayden Heavener, LSU