DeLand, Fla. - The fall signing period for college softball saw Head Coach Frank Griffin ink three talented incoming student-athletes to National Letters of Intent to join the Stetson softball program: pitcher/outfielder Courtney Brandt (Dade City, Fla.), third baseman/shortstop Demi Meza (Oxnard, Calif.) and catcher/utility player Allison Sutherlin (Huntsville, Ala.).
Brandt is currently a senior at Pasco High School where she has been an All-Sunshine Athletic Conference honoree in softball and volleyball. She batted .444 with two home runs, 31 RBI, 15 stolen bases and 30 runs scored last season while pitching to a 11-6 record with a 1.93 earned run average and 172 strikeouts in 116 innings. Brandt led the Pirates to a district runner-up finish and a postseason appearance for the seventh straight year; the St. Petersburg Times named her to its All-North Suncoast First Team. Against Ridgewood High School on March 28, 2010, Brandt tossed a 15-strikeout perfect game.
An honor roll student every quarter at PHS and member of the South Florida Mini-Bulls club team, she is the daughter of Phillip and Rita Brandt and was born Oct. 27, 1992 in Tampa, Fla. Her older brother, Aaron, pitches for the Saint Leo University baseball team. Other schools that recruited Brandt included USF and Stony Brook along with A-Sun rivals Florida Gulf Coast and East Tennessee State.
Meza is an outstanding scholar-athlete who currently ranks #1 in her senior class at Oxnard (Calif.) High School with a 4.0 GPA. A powerful hitter, she batted .464 with seven home runs and 33 RBI for the OHS Yellow Jackets last season and was named All-Ventura County, Second Team All-CIF and First Team All-Pacific View League for the second time. A member of the So-Cal Pumas Gold travel ball squad, Meza paced Head Coach Gary Keohohou's team to second place at the 2009 Las Vegas Nationals and a top 10 finish in the 2010 Premier Nationals.
The daughter of Magdaleno and Sonja Meza was born Oct. 25, 1993 in Ventura, California and was also recruited by high-caliber programs such as BYU, Long Beach State and LIU.
Rounding out the trio of fall signees is Sutherlin, an honor roll student at Sparkman High School in her native Huntsville, Alabama. She batted .378 with 23 RBI and a .440 on-base percentage last season; the Sparkman HS Senators won the 2009 Class 6A state championship with a 53-9 record and placed fifth in both 2008 and 2010. Sutherlin's teams and Head Coach Dale Palmer have recorded a 164-25-1 record the last three years.
The daughter of Michael and Andrea Sutherlin was born Jan. 13, 1993 in Huntsville, Ala. and chose the Hatters over Southern Illinois, Tennessee Tech and Belmont. Sutherlin plays club softball for Head Coach Pat Moyer and Fury Fastpitch Gold.
The Hatters open their 2011 schedule on Thursday, Feb. 12 as Boston College, Michigan State and 2010 Women's College World Series third place finisher Tennessee descend on Patricia Wilson Field for the Stetson Lead-Off Classic. Stetson went 34-21 overall and 14-6 in the Atlantic Sun Conference last season, finishing second in the league and making it to the semifinals of the A-Sun tournament.
