Allison Benning is Oregon bound and ready to work
LAKE ELMO, Minn. (BVM) — In less than a month, Allison Benning will be traveling to Eugene, Oregon to start her collegiate softball career as an Oregon Duck.
“I’m super excited,” Benning said. “I’m really looking forward to this opportunity. Since I started getting recruited, Oregon has been my dream school and I’m so grateful I get the chance to play for Coach Lombardi and be a part of the Ducks program.”
Benning has been dominating the Minnesota high school softball scene up to this point. In her senior season at Stillwater High School, she led the state in home runs with 15 and had a .514 batting average. However, she is most well known for her pitching. The 6-foot-1 righthander went 13-2 this past season with 160 strikeouts and her fastball can reach 69 mph.
“It took a lot of work but I also use my strength to my advantage, like my physique,” Benning said. “Being 6-foot-1, having long arms and long legs really helps you when you’re a pitcher.”
Benning was clearly made for softball and she uses her natural abilities well, but her work ethic has been the main catalyst for her success.
She began playing softball when she was seven years old. Her mother played in high school and her dad played in a competitive adult fastpitch league. Her father taught her the game and Benning quickly got hooked on the sport.
“It’s just always been a part of our lives as a family,” Benning said. “I just like everything about softball and it brings my family closer together so that makes it even better.”
By the age of 10, Benning knew that she wanted to play softball collegiately.
She loved to watch Sara Moulton pitch for the University of Minnesota and would watch the College World Series on TV. Benning continued to work towards that dream and was able to make varsity as soon as she entered Stillwater.
As a freshman, she played a big role in the Ponies’ state championship and then followed that up by helping Stillwater to a state runner-up finish the following year as a sophomore. However, even with her impressive resume up to that point, it wasn’t until Sept. 1 of her junior year that she knew her dream would become a reality. That’s when college coaches could reach out to her and begin the recruiting process and there was no shortage of coaches that wanted Benning to join their program.
“I knew I probably could do it before then,” Benning said. “But once Division I college coaches started contacting me and reaching out to me, that’s when I realized I had a shot to play Division I softball.”
It was at this time Benning also says her pitching took a huge leap forward. From sophomore to junior year, she had begun working with Randi Davis. She was already learning from her childhood hero, Sara Moulton, and Benning says her work with Davis added four miles on her fastball.
This was also the year she was named Gatorade Minnesota Softball Player of the Year and continued to climb up the ranking for the recruiting Class of 2021. As the accolades and college offers came pouring in, Benning appreciated the validation but didn’t lose focus on her goal.
“I focus on it for like five minutes and then I go back to working hard,” Benning said.
Benning originally thought she would play in the Big 10 and many Big 10 schools like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois tried to recruit her. However, as more schools from across the country began reaching out, she started to consider colleges like Mississippi State, Missouri and Tulsa. Then when Oregon and Coach Lombardi began recruiting her, everything fell into place.
Benning fell in love with the program and the idea of playing for a perennial powerhouse in Division I softball. By November of her junior year, she had verbally committed to Oregon and made it official on Nov. 11 of her senior year.
Now she is less than a month away from moving halfway across the country to begin the next chapter of her softball career. However, even with her high school career ending and college career beginning, she won’t stop trying to be the hardest worker on the team.
“I want to be able to help my team and have a good role,” Benning said. “But no matter what, I just want to be the hardest worker on the team every single practice, game and workout. That’s my goal.”
