Luring California talent is paying off for East Coast softball programs

When Florida advanced to the championship series of the Women’s College World Series on Sunday, it did so with a Californian on the mound.

She threw to a Californian behind the plate and got five runs of support by, in part, five Californians.

Typically, players like Florida’s Amanda Lorenz, who leads the top-seeded Gators in batting average, runs, hits, home runs and slugging, end up at programs in the West, like UCLA.

But, Florida coach Tim Walton said, “I won’t lie to you, Amanda and quite a few other kids, we recruited our tails off to get them to leave Southern California and leave a tradition-rich program.”

A great migration of talent east has upended the balance of power in college softball, and few teams have capitalized more than Florida. The Southeastern Conference has used television exposure, new facilities and California’s own players to pry loose the West Coast’s stranglehold on the game. Football helped, too, Walton said. This is still the SEC, after all.

The trend began a little more than 10 years ago, estimated Walton, whose 2014 and 2015 national championship teams each had California contributors. But the effect is most pronounced in the roster of this year’s team, which will play Oklahoma in the championship series starting Monday.

Six of the Gators’ 10 starters on Sunday were from Southern California. There is Lorenz, from Moorpark; Garden Grove’s Nicole DeWitt bats third; Janell Wheaton, from San Dimas, bats fifth; Justine McLean (Rancho Cucamonga) starts at center field; Sophia Reynoso (Palmale) is the starting shortstop; and Delanie Gourley (Lakeside) is the No. 2 starting pitcher.

Current Pac-12 teams have won 23 of 35 national championships since the Women’s College World Series began in 1982, and UCLA alone has won 12 of them. But the SEC has won three of the past five and produced the runner up in the other two.

“I give all the credit to the players,” Walton said. “There is a big difference — the kids out in Southern California just practice, train, play against some of the best players not only in the country, but in the world.”

Why have a growing number of players chosen to upend thousands of miles east?

Several California transplants on Florida said they hardly considered leaving California when they were young softball players.

Gourley grew up near San Diego State but was smitten by UCLA’s success. She always figured she’d play there, if UCLA would take her.

“That was always my childhood dream,” Gourley said. “But as I grew up and started venturing out I started falling more in love with Florida.”

The appeal for players like Lorenz was fueled by ballooning college football television deals, which beamed southern schools onto California television sets each fall. The SEC programs, flush with football money, invested part of that in softball.

Walton said he travels to California five to six times each year to recruit. Florida schedules at least one trip to California each year. And success within a high school or travel program can be lasting.

Walton has recruited several players from the OC Batbusters travel team, including Lorenz. She committed to Florida early, as a sophomore in high school, and was met with bafflement.

“I heard those all of high school: ‘Why wouldn’t you want to go to UCLA? Come on, what are you doing?’ ” Lorenz said. “And meanwhile, Florida’s winning national championships left and right.”

Multiple Florida players cited significant fan interest as a reason they left for Florida. The SEC has five of the top 10 national leaders in average attendance this season. The Pac-12 had two. (Florida was seventh, averaging 1,598; the highest-attended California program, UCLA, was 23rd with 852.)

“Who wouldn’t want to play in front of a big crowd every weekend?” said Wheaton, Florida’s catcher.

The appeal of California players is apparent. Of the 28 players named to the All-SEC first or second teams this season, 10 were from California. That’s more than the total produced by the states of Florida (five) and Texas (four) combined.

The reason, Walton said, is that fastpitch softball is relatively new to the South. Florida high schools, for example, only switched from slow pitch in 1993.

“I just don’t think we’ve been playing it as long,” Walton said. “But the South, I can tell you, the athletes — they’re coming.”

In the meantime, the West Coast transplants are working just fine.

zach.helfand@latimes.com

Follow Zach Helfand on Twitter @zhelfand