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Each year thousands of softball fans from across the country make the pilgrimage to Oklahoma City, Okla., to witness the Women’s College World Series at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
Lexi Bettermann envisions a day when she will make the trip to OKC for the WCWS. She has hung up her cleats, at least from a competitive standpoint, so the trip isn’t centered around her competing for a national championship.
Instead, the vision is centered around her two younger sisters, Paige and Josie, and a hopeful appearance on ESPN.
“My goal right now is to be the sister in the stands during the Women’s College World Series and when ESPN scans the crowd, I’ll be the one going crazy because they’re either on the same team or playing against each other.”
And given the skill set possessed by the two younger Bettermann sisters it very well could end up becoming a reality.
With a father who was a dual-sport athlete in college and a mother who works with USA Softball, it’s no surprise that three Bettermann sisters have taken to the softball field.
Sisters yes, but each of them is uniquely their own person.
One was a slapper and two are pitchers, two are tall and one is, well, shorter than the other two and two are Swifties and one is definitely not.
And each of their journeys into the game of softball has also been uniquely their own.
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Lexi Bettermann was the trailblazer for the sisters as she was the first to play softball.
Growing up in Minnesota, Bettermann did not have an older sister to look up to but what she did have was parents who helped guide her.
“Just instilling that work ethic and if you really want something sometimes in life you have got to make sacrifices. It’s fun to work hard and it’s fun to achieve those goals and sometimes it’s not always pretty. Their pep talks helped me get over those ugly parts of the sport and just really fall in love with the training and trusting my process.
“Leading by example and working hard and if I have a bad day just flush it and come out and work hard again the next day. Now that I am older, and not playing sports anymore, it was a huge not only lesson to help me be successful in my softball career but also just in life and I feel so grateful.”
Back then Minnesota wasn’t a known hotbed for softball, so her foray into the competitive side of the sport was slow to develop.
“I played community ball for longer than most kids do now just because softball was still kind of growing in Minnesota, so I feel like I kind of started a little late at the competitive level, but it worked out.”
Worked out indeed.
Bettermann was able to use her softball skills to earn a scholarship to the State College of Florida before finishing her career at Florida Tech. At Florida Tech, she was part of a 2019 team that won the school’s first-ever Sunshine State Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Division II Super Regional for the second consecutive season.
She graduated from Florida Tech with a degree in strategic communications but has remained tied to softball. She works for a sports facilities company that manages the USSSA national office complex and serves as the head coach at Holy Trinity High School.
“It’s a lot of fun. Basic mechanics are huge. You’re never too old to hit off the tee and you’re never too old to throw correctly and I think giving the players the fundamentals and just continue working their craft and teaching them the mental side of the game is important.
“Not letting two strikes freak them out. Not letting two outs get them down. They can persevere under pressure, and they can pull through and you have got to trust your training. So that’s what I’m trying to instill in the younger girls that I have. So, I’m excited for the years to come.”
Bettermann is incredibly proud of her two younger sisters and is excited to give back to the sport that gave her so much.
“I just feel completely and forever indebted to the sport. It was the one thing in my life that I always kind of gravitated towards. It was my favorite thing to do. You know, I had a bad day or whatever, I knew I could always go to practice. So yeah, I’ve always loved the sport.
“I’ve always wanted to give it what it gave me and honestly give players and younger athletes the tools that I maybe didn’t know, or I maybe didn’t have and try to make them better than I was. So coaching high school has kind of given me that opportunity to get back and just be around the game again in a different way.”
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Paige Bettermann followed Lexi’s path in softball and even bats left-handed as an homage to her older sister.
But it’s her right arm that has college scouts drooling as Bettermann has emerged as one of the top pitchers in the nation for the Class of 2027.
Last summer, Bettermann posted a 1.44 earned run average and struck out 257 batters in 192.1 innings pitched. She followed that up with 110 strikeouts during the fall season competing against 16U and 18U teams.
She was ranked in the Extra Elite 100 in both 2023 and 2024 and plays for the Santa Fe Inferno ’09 Donalson travel team and Bishop Verot High School.
Bettermann helped lead Bishop Verot to a district championship this spring and the team will compete in the Florida regional high school tournament beginning on May 8. The Vikings are ranked seventh in Class 3A in the state of Florida.
But prior to all the success and recognition, there was enormous effort and practice on her part and inspiration from her older sister Lexi.
Her formative years were spent at the softball field watching Lexi play high school and travel ball games, so it was a natural transition into the game.
She started playing tee ball when she was 4 years old, and the connection was made.
“Seeing her reach her goals really convinced me that I could do it if I worked as hard as she did. I got to see her travel and do all the things and compete at the highest levels in softball, so it inspired me to do the same thing.”
While Lexi showed the way, her younger sister Josie has also helped her growth and maturation on the softball field.
“We work together a lot on pitching. I catch her sometimes with just bullpens and it’s always been something we do together. We work on our drills and just try and help each other get better.”
Bettermann has also benefited from playing with the Santa Fe Inferno ’09 Donalson club program.
“To play with them, it’s showed me that when you’re on a team where every girl has the same goals, you can do great things. And we all push each other to be the best version of ourselves. So, our coaches really try and teach us that it’s not just about your performance, but your attitude and everything you show on the field. And that is really important to me.”
While appreciative of all the honors and awards she has received during her softball playing career, Bettermann is more focused on competing against the best players in the country.
“I don’t put a huge amount of pride into it, and I don’t try to talk about it that much. But it does show me that I can do it. Like seeing, and competing against girls who are the best, and proving myself against them is really important to me. It’s important that I can show that I deserve to be included among the top players.”
One area that she is paying closer attention to is her recruiting and she has already identified areas that will be important for her when she makes a decision regarding her college destination.
“For the recruiting process, I’ve just been trying to really look at schools that have the best environment and it’s somewhere that I think I can push myself to be the best player I can be. I really want to find a program that will push me to be the best version of myself.”
Wherever her college destination leads her Bettermann knows she will always have her two sisters and an unbreakable bond.
“For me, they’re my biggest inspiration. To try and reach the level that Lexi did and to see Josie follow my footsteps, it’s just really important to me that we all share the same sport, and we connect over it. It keeps us together.”
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Josie Bettermann has continued the tradition of the Bettermann sisters in the game of softball, and she just might turn out to be the best of the trio.
A pitcher and a first baseman, Bettermann currently plays for the Southwest Florida Elite travel team.
While extremely talented, Josie Bettermann has something that neither of her other sisters had. Two older sisters to help her navigate her softball career.
“I think that they really helped me because Lexi, she’s played at a college level, and I hope to do that someday. And Paige shows me that I can do it and so and I think that she really helps me because now I can work with her since we practice pitching and do drills together.”
Already having played several years of travel ball, Battermann is thriving in that environment.
“I like that you can play different people and different levels of teams. You can play some really good competition. And there’s others that aren’t as good, but it still gives you a good learning experience. And you can learn what you need to work on and try out new things.”
She also has benefitted from having Paige under the same roof so they can train together.
“I think it’s been very cool, and she’s taught me how to throw my rise ball and she’s helped me with the things that I’m doing wrong. She’s doing it right, so she always teaches me how to correct my mistakes and I think it’s made me progress a lot from where I started.”
One area that she continues to make strides in is her pitching.
“I’m doing pretty good. Usually, I end up having to go in when there’s bases loaded or something like that. And I feel I do a pretty good job of keeping it together and not completely blowing up the game. So, I feel like I do a good job with that.”
Paige Bettermann has seen the improvement and feels that Josie has a bright future in the circle.
“Josie has all the potential to be better than me one day. She’s always had natural movement and honestly her ability to win games impresses me all the time.”
While years away from being recruited, Bettermann plans to take full advantage of the power of social media.
“I think that it’s good for the coaches to see different videos. Because if they come and watch you and you’re having a bad day, it’s important for them to see you putting in the work and that you can do more than what they saw one time.”
And despite being only 12 years old, she already has her future plans mapped out due in part to her favorite player being Jessie Warren.
“My goal is to try and play at Florida State. That’s one of my main goals.”
But before she heads off to Tallahassee, Bettermann fully understands the work it will take to make her dreams come true. And that work will continue this summer with her travel team.
“My plans for the summer are to keep working on my pitching because I really want to improve that by the end of my summer season because I think that’s something I could really succeed in and I’m going to continue to work at first base and hopefully my team will progress and get better as well.”
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