Arizona softball has lost its share of players to the transfer portal this season with eight former Wildcats looking for new homes. There’s finally evidence that it opens the other way, too. D1 Softball’s online portal tracker lists former Indiana pitcher Jenae Berry as an Arizona commit.
Berry’s social media accounts are set to private but several Wildcat coaches and players follow her on Instagram.
Berry will be returning to her home state. The freshman right-hander played softball and ran track for Queen Creek High School in the Phoenix metro area. She played travel ball for the Oro Valley Suncats – Judge in the Tucson area and the OC Batbusters – Stith in Southern California.
In her three seasons of varsity softball, Berry had an ERA of 1.51 in 399.1 IP. She struck out 677 compared to 115 walks.
As a collegiate pitcher, Berry had 24 appearances and 16 starts for the Hoosiers this season, finishing with an 8-6 record. She had Indiana’s second-lowest ERA (4.39) while leading the team in WHIP (1.44) and opponents’ batting average (.258). Her 16 starts were the second-most on the team and she pitched the third-highest number of innings.
Berry’s advanced stats are a bit contradictory. She has a .277 batting average on balls in play (BABIP).* A .300 BABIP is generally considered good in both softball and baseball, and hers is comfortably below that. It suggests that she may have been “unlucky” in her rookie campaign.
However, her fielding-independent pitching (FIP), which tries to measure things a pitcher controls without the help of her defense, is above the typical target of 4.00 or lower. Hers was 4.20 in her rookie campaign. She finished with an xFIP of 5.13, which has a target of 3.00 or lower.
To compare Berry to Arizona’s 2025 staff, the group of Wildcats had a FIP of 3.96 and an xFIP of 3.14. Devyn Netz had an individual FIP of 3.64 and an xFIP of 2.47. Miranda Stoddard had a FIP of 3.28 and an xFIP of 2.84.
Berry is predominantly a fly-ball pitcher with 57.3 percent of batted balls going into the air. Just 29.4 percent of batted balls stay on the ground while 13.3 percent are line drives. Pop-ups constitute 14.7 percent.
The Hoosiers finished 34-20 overall and 10-12 in the Big Ten this season. They lost to UCLA 5-4 in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament before being selected for the Fayetteville Regional in the NCAA Tournament. They went 1-2 in regionals with two losses to Oklahoma State.
Berry’s addition gives Arizona three pitchers for next season. She will join fellow rising sophomore Sarah Wright and incoming freshman Rylie Holder.
*All advanced stats in this article come from Synergy data made available by D1 Softball.