CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball today announced that last summer’s Women’s National Team coaching staff will return for 2024, led by Manager Veronica Alvarez. The five-time Team USA player and three-time manager will be joined again by Reynol Mendoza as pitching coach, along with assistant coaches Alex Oglesby and Malaika Underwood.
The staff will guide Team USA at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women’s Baseball World Cup Finals from July 28-August 3 in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
“We are excited to welcome Veronica, Alex, Malaika, and Reynol back to the coaching staff in 2024,” said Women’s National Team Program Director Ann Claire Roberson. “This staff did an excellent job to lead us to this point, and we are lucky to have them in our dugout as we pursue a world championship this summer in Thunder Bay.”
In 2023, the staff led the United States to a perfect 5-0 record in the Opening Round of the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Team USA outscored its opponents 71-2 in its five games, batting .385 as a team and posting a 0.48 team ERA. It led all of Group A in most statistical categories–including runs, hits (51), home runs (5), ERA, and strikeouts (29)–and was one of just two unbeaten teams among the two groups.
Alvarez returns to the managerial position for the fourth time in 2024. Including Team USA’s unbeaten record last summer, she has a 15-2 record all-time at the helm of the program. Alvarez made her managerial debut in 2019 when she became the first female recipient of the USA Baseball Rod Dedeaux Coach of the Year award for her efforts in leading the Women’s National Team to a gold medal at the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier. The stars and stripes finished with a perfect 7-0 record and outscored its opponents 124-20, a performance that led to the team being named USA Baseball’s 2019 Team of the Year. Alvarez again served as manager in 2022 as the U.S. secured a series victory in a five-game friendship series against Canada in Thunder Bay, Ontario. After the stars and stripes finished unbeaten in 2023, Alvarez was the recipient of the “Doc” Counsilman Science Award for utilizing information provided by PDP Performance Assessments and Rapsodo to select the 20-player roster.
Beyond just her managerial career, Alvarez has donned the red, white, and blue in several additional roles. She served as the field coordinator at the Women’s National Team Development Program and the inaugural USA Baseball Girls Camp in 2021, worked on the 2018 staff as an assistant coach, and played for Team USA on five separate occasions. As a player, she medaled at every international competition she played in, including winning a gold medal at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, a silver medal at the 2012 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup, and bronze medals at the 2008 and 2010 International Baseball Federation (IBAF) Women’s Baseball World Cups.
“The significance increases each year that I get to lead these phenomenal players through development and competition. Each year, we have elevated the standard of what it means to wear the U-S-A letters across your chest, and this year is no different,” said Alvarez. “We take pride in representing USA Baseball while setting the standard for women in baseball across the board. There has been a heavy focus on development over the past six years with the contributions of incredibly knowledgeable and passionate coaches, and we are now looking forward to showcasing all of the work that we have done in pursuit of winning gold.”
Alvarez, who is currently the Coordinator of Player Development in Latin America for the Oakland A’s, has also continued to help grow the game of women’s baseball through programs created from the collaboration between Major League Baseball and USA Baseball, aimed at fostering the next generation of female baseball players in the United States. She has also been a coach at the Trailblazer Series since 2017, the Girls Baseball Breakthrough Series Showcase & Development Camp since 2018, and the Girls Baseball Elite Development Invitational from 2020-2022.
Mendoza reprises his role as Team USA’s pitching coach, a position he has held since 2019. During the 2019 team’s run to a gold medal at the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier, he helped coach its pitchers to a collective 3.16 ERA and .255 batting average against in 37 innings of work. After U.S. pitchers picked up a 3-2 series victory over Canada during a 2022 friendship series, they allowed just two earned runs over a five-game unbeaten stretch at the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Opening Round in 2023. In addition to his USA Baseball experience, Mendoza is also the head coach at Eagle Pass High School (Eagle Pass, Texas), where he has led the Eagles to 16 consecutive playoff appearances and three regional finals appearances in 2013, 2014, and 2021. Prior to coaching, Mendoza played seven seasons in the Miami Marlins’ minor league system after being drafted in the seventh round of the 1992 MLB Draft.
Oglesby also returns to Team USA as an assistant coach. A key player for the inaugural Women’s National Team that won a gold medal at the IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup in 2004, Oglesby batted .364 to earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team. She played in the Ladies Professional Baseball League before representing Team USA and was the league’s youngest player when it began in 1997. At just 17 years old, Oglesby led the San Jose Spitfires to the league’s first World Series Championship and was named both Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year for her efforts. She also helped form the California Women’s Baseball League in 2002, where she earned MVP honors twice.
Oglesby has also been a member of the coaching staff at the USA Baseball Girls Camp, the Women’s National Open, and Women’s National Team Training Camp. She has served on staff at the Trailblazer Series since its inception in 2017 and coached at the first-ever Major League Baseball and USA Baseball GRIT event in 2019.
After putting together one of the most decorated careers in USA Baseball history, Underwood returns to the coaching staff as an assistant coach for the second consecutive year. From her debut in 2006 to her final appearance in 2022, Underwood played on a Team USA-record 11 national teams and medaled at eight different international competitions. She won four total gold medals, including at the 2006 Women’s Baseball World Cup, the 2015 Pan American Games Qualifier and Pan American Games, and the 2019 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier. In addition to these, she also earned two silver medals at the 2012 and 2014 IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cups and two bronze medals at the 2008 and 2010 World Cups.
Along with all of her team success, Underwood achieved many different individual accomplishments while playing for Team USA. She was named to the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup All-Tournament Team in both 2008 and 2014 and earned the USA Baseball Sportswoman of the Year award in 2015. Underwood also holds the Women’s National Team record for most hits, runs, RBIs, and stolen bases in a career, as well as the record for most hits in a single game with five.
The USA Baseball Women’s National Team has medaled in six of the eight WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cups since the tournament’s inception in 2004. The U.S. earned gold in the first two editions of the event in 2004 and 2006, posting a 10-2 combined record. After winning bronze medals in 2008 and 2010, the stars and stripes claimed silver in 2012 and 2014. Overall, the Women’s National Team owns five gold medals in international competition, most recently earning a first-place finish at the 2019 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier.
The 2024 Women’s National Team Training Camp will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from July 16-20. Team USA will then train in Minneapolis from July 21-26 before opening the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Finals on July 28 against Venezuela in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
