What one of AUSL's best hitters learned as college coach

MIAMI -- Chicago Bandits outfielder Morgan Zerkle has learned to see softball from both sides of the line.

For Zerkle, the offseason is no break from the game. It is a shift in perspective.

Zerkle, who has helped put the Bandits in the postseason for the second straight year, spends her time away from professional softball as the head coach at Marshall, her alma mater.

Balancing both roles has taught Zerkle to be kinder to herself, understanding that the sport will make you feel defeated and success at the plate can sometimes seem impossible.

“Being able to see it from a player's side makes me a more compassionate coach,” Zerkle said. “Seeing it from a coaching side makes me give myself a little bit of a break when I am not doing exactly what I want to do.”

The balance has also sharpened her understanding of adjustments at the plate and deepened her appreciation for why she first chose coaching.

This year, she is hitting .347/.430/.587 while manning all three outfield spots and not missing a game. In 2025, the AUSL’s maiden season, she led the league with nine home runs, nine doubles and 42 hits while posting a .420/.433/.780 slash line.

Zerkle started playing softball when she was 7 years old. A self-described shy kid growing up in West Virginia, she credits the sport with helping her gain confidence while building friendships and relationships that have lasted throughout her life.

“[Softball] helped bring me out of my shell,” Zerkle said. “[It gave me] the confidence that helps in other areas of life as well, and I just never get tired of it. It's a lot of fun if you play with freedom.”

The impact coaches had on her own development eventually inspired her to pursue coaching herself.

Before arriving at Marshall in 2014, most of Zerkle's coaches were parents who led her travel team, Mountain Thunder in Milton, W.Va. Then came Marshall head coach Shonda Stanton, who recruited Zerkle out of Cabell Midland High School. It was the only offer she received.

Zerkle entered college as a gifted athlete whose speed and slap-hitting ability made her successful throughout her youth. But she quickly learned that succeeding against elite college pitching required another level of development.

So she adjusted and it paid off as the lefty went on to become one of the most decorated players in Marshall history.

Zerkle won the 2015 Golden Shoe Award after leading the nation in stolen bases and finished her career as an All-American, two-time Marshall Athlete of the Year and two-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist. The power she discovered helped her lead the AUSL in homers last year.

“I'm personally a really neutral person,” Zerkle said. “I don't get too high, don't get too low, and I think that helps in a sport with a lot of ups and downs. [I just] try to see the positives in each day, and know that it was a journey that got me here ... 10 years in professional softball.”

Along the way, she began building a coaching résumé. She served as a graduate assistant at Indiana before spending four seasons as an assistant coach at Miami University in Ohio.

“I wanted to give to someone else the knowledge that I learned,” Zerkle said. “The ability just to give back how people gave to me to make them a better athlete.”

In 2023, she returned to Marshall as the fifth head coach in program history.

“My first year as a head coach was definitely kind of just surreal,” Zerkle said. “I wasn't looking to anyone else for the answers, I was supposed to be coming up with the answers.”

Eventually she learned to embrace that.

The program has steadily improved under Zerkle's leadership. Marshall finished near the top of the Sun Belt standings during her first two seasons and returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2026 for the first time since 2017.

As she balances coaching with her professional career, Zerkle continues to lean on the lessons built over a lifetime in the sport.

“I'm most excited to continue growing and prove to myself I can do it again,” Zerkle said. “There's more teams in the league this year, so I think just upping the competitiveness. I'm excited for all of that.”