Jennie Lynn Finch Daigle was born on September 3, 1980, and is an American former softball player.

She played for the Arizona Wildcats softball team from 1999 to 2002, where she won the 2001 Women’s College World Series and was named collegiate All-American.

Later she led the United States women’s national softball team to the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

She also pitched for the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch from 2005 to 2010.

Finch is ranked in several categories for both the Wildcats in the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA Division I, where she was named #2 Greatest College Softball Player.

She is the National Pro Fastpitch career leader in WHIP and is a National Softball Hall of Fame, inductee.

She has been ranked by Tucson, Arizona sportswriters as the #1 Best Arizona Wildcats Softball Player; picked the #5 Best NCAA Pitcher All-Time and was chosen by the Pac-12 for the All-Century Team as a pitcher.

Time magazine described her as the most famous softball player in history. In 2010, Finch retired from softball to focus on her family.

In August 2011, she started working at ESPN as a color commentator for National Pro Fastpitch and college softball games.

What inspired Jennie Finch to play softball?

Jennie started pitching at age eight and by the time Jennie was nine, she was playing for a 10-and-under traveling all-star team. Every weekend was spent at a different diamond somewhere in suburban Southern California.

The more competitive the environment the more Jennie thrived. She hated to lose and worked exceptionally hard to make sure it never happened.

At age 12, she led the California Cruisers to the 12-and-under American Softball Association national title in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Every summer, the sport took her to a new part of the country for a national tournament. In 1995, Jennie’s ASA team captured the 14-and-under crown.