Trey Jordan is a sophomore at Arizona State University assigned to cover Corona del Sol Athletics.

Corona del Sol senior and Memphis softball commit Emmalyn Brinka knew she wanted to play competitive softball at a young age. Her parents even moved from Montana to Iowa and finally to
Arizona to keep her dream alive.

“If I really wanted to play softball in college, I wouldn’t get to where I wanted to be in Montana,” said Brinka. “Just because there is so little exposure.”

The 6-foot-4 pitcher has 221 career strikeouts with a 3.50 ERA in 23 wins with Corona del Sol. On the offensive side of the ball, she carries a .351 career batting average and 40 RBIs. When Brinka was young she spent a lot of time around her parent’s slow pitch tournaments which led her to the game.

“You don’t really have much to do [in Montana] and my parents met playing slow pitch softball,” said Brinka.

Here in the valley, travel ball and school ball overlap on the calendar. This can get pretty taxing on players who may have multiple practices daily and must travel all over the country.

“I would have two practices a day, and I wouldn’t get home until 10 o’clock at night,” said Brinka. “In
the summertime, we have tournaments almost every weekend.”

Playing on a travel team is what led Brinka to Arizona in the first place as a part of AZ Force Duran.

“I started playing on a travel ball team that was based in Arizona while I was living in Iowa,” Brinka said. “I was flying to tournaments every other weekend and it just got to be too much, so we moved here.”

Brinka wasn't getting the opportunities she hoped for as there was already a pitcher headed to a power five school in front of her. She switched to the Storm Telesco/Stankiewicz team, and that was when her offers started to come in.

Brinka is headed to Memphis next fall to play for Natalie Poole and the rest of the Tigers' coaching staff. With offers from Tennessee State, Nicholls State and Memphis, Brinka’s on-campus visit sealed the deal.

“I’ve been told you’ll feel it when you know. The night before [my visit] me and my dad rented those birdie scooters," Brinka said. "We just went around the entire campus for two hours and after that it was like this is where I’m supposed to be.” 

Corona del Sol head coach Sean Thornton was overjoyed when Brinka committed.

“The recruiting process is hard on kids,” said Thornton. “I was so proud to see that her work had paid off and the look of happiness she had was awesome.”

When Brinka is not on the field or training, she likes to spend time at home with her parents, Paul and Becky, and her boyfriend Jalen.

“I just hangout with my family, my boyfriend, and my two dogs,” said Brinka. “Just rejuvenate, eat good food, and probably watch movies with my dad.”

This season Brinka is 3-3 in 10 appearances with a 3.50 ERA. Her opponent’s batting average is down to .214 when the Memphis commit is in the circle. On Brinka’s day, she leaves it all out on the field.

“You just look at her and know that she gave everything to that game in that moment,” said Brinka’s
father Paul.

While Brinka is a solid pitcher, she has worked hard to get better at the plate. This season she is batting .486 out of the six spot and leads the team in RBI with 16. Thornton said having Brinka hit lower in the lineup makes them very dangerous.

“I think we are just seeing the surface of what this team is capable of,” said Thornton.

With 11 games left to play this season and a 9-7 record, the Aztecs are going to need every piece of the puzzle to make a deep playoff run. Thornton believes they are setting themselves up for just that, and Brinka is helping to lead the way.