Pike Liberal Arts sophomore softball player Sam Yarbrough was offered and verbally accepted a scholarship offer to play softball at the University of South Alabama over the weekend.

After visiting the campus in Mobile Yarbrough is excited to be able to play softball in a place that she immediately fell in love with.

“I am so excited,” Yarbrough said. “Ever since I stepped foot on South Alabama’s campus I fell in love with it.”

Yarbrough received offers from various big programs including Virginia but ultimately decided that South Alabama was the place she wanted to be.

“The softball program is really great,” Yarbrough said. “It is also has a real family atmosphere. It’s a beautiful campus and I love Mobile.”

It didn’t hurt either that USA’s softball program recently has a successful track record within the Sun Belt Conference. The Jaguars have won two out of the last three Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championships.

“It makes me even more happy because I know that they have such a great softball program,” Yarbrough said. “When I get there I know that I will be on a team that will go somewhere.”

Entering just her sophomore season at PLAS Yarbrough has yet to really experience the game of sophomore at the high school level. Yarbrough’s hard work and strong work ethic helped pave the way towards an opportunity to play softball at the next level.

“My dream has come true,” Yarbrough said. “Every since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to play college softball. After college my goal would be to go on and keep playing softball at a higher level. South Alabama to me is the highest level that you can play at the college level.”

Being able to play softball at the place she loves is exactly what Yarbrough dreamed about as a young child.

“When I got the offer, I was thrilled,” Yarbrough said. “It made my entire day and it was just awesome.”

Although in just her second year at PLAS Yarbrough expects that once she steps foot on the South Alabama campus her primarily role with the program will be as a pitcher and as a utility player.

Even though Yarbrough has already verbally committed to attend South Alabama, she doesn’t plan on sitting back and taking the next few years in high school for granted.

“I am going to keep working hard and pushing myself to do be able to do the best that I can do,” Yarbrough said.

During her freshman season at PLAS, Yarbrough played in 43 games while hitting .517 on the season, with six homeruns and 50 runs batted in. Including the six homeruns Yarbrough finished with a total of 29 extra base hits.

As a pitcher Yarbrough finished with a 7-3 record. She pitched a total of 81 1/3 innings and struck out a total of 123 strikeouts.