Anissa Urtez had been contemplating retirement since before the Athletes Unlimited Softball League schedule was announced. But when she saw that her Blaze would be playing a series at her alma mater, the University of Utah, she knew it was a sign.
The 30-year-old shortstop, a two-time All-Pac-12 honoree with the Utes who is in her ninth year playing professionally, announced Sunday via Instagram that this summer will be her last. With the Blaze playing a four-game series at Dumke Family Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City starting Wednesday, Utah fans and everyone else who has followed Urtez’s career will be able to shower her with love and support one last time.
“I was fully ready to be done before the season even started, and then Utah got announced, at Dumke Family Softball Stadium, and I’m just thinking in my head, ‘Whoa, it couldn’t be more perfect, more meant to be,’” Urtez said. “I’m so excited that my teammates get to experience the atmosphere, get to experience the fans, because they’re amazing. I love playing at this field, and it’s home for me. This is where I’ve been able to build my career.”
Urtez is from the Los Angeles area, so she had no shortage of elite softball talent around her growing up. She had a record-setting career at Downey High School, earning San Gabriel Valley League MVP honors as a junior in 2012.
Utah was a program trying to find its footing in the early 2010s after joining the Pac-12, but Head Coach Amy Hogue sold Urtez on her vision, and Urtez committed before ever stepping foot on the campus, which is located at the base of the Wasatch Mountains in eastern Salt Lake City.
“It’s just in a beautiful spot in the state,” Urtez said. “I absolutely just loved the atmosphere and the environment. I didn’t want to be too far from home. It was in the Pac-12. I knew I would play, and I knew that our team would compete because we had a really good freshman class coming in.”
After finishing in last place in their first two years in the Pac-12 before Urtez arrived, the Utes began a steady climb back toward national relevance. Urtez immediately became Utah’s starting shortstop, with Hannah Flippen, another Southern California product who arrived on campus in the fall of 2013, at second base.
With that duo anchoring the Utes’ lineup and forming one of the best middle infields in college softball history, Utah reached back-to-back NCAA Super Regionals in 2016 and 2017. This week, the former double-play partners will go head-to-head — Flippen is having a stellar season for the Talons, batting .364 with a 1.062 OPS and 17 RBI in 18 games.
Former Utes pitcher Mariah Lopez, who helped lead Utah to the 2023 Women’s College World Series, is also on the Talons’ roster.
“If you would’ve asked either of us (when we graduated from college) if we’d still be playing softball, we probably would’ve said, ‘What softball league are we playing in?’” Flippen said. “To have this platform and to continue to play the game, obviously, I miss playing with her, but it’s fun competing with her. We’re counterparts on different teams. It’s really fun just to watch her compete, watch her continue to be successful in this game.”
Urtez’s pro career began with the Scrap Yard Dawgs of National Pro Fastpitch in 2017. She then spent a year with the Cleveland Comets in 2019, who had an affiliation with the Mexican national team. Since 2020, she has been part of Athletes Unlimited, and also played for the Toda Medics of the Japan Diamond League in 2022.
Most notably, she represented Mexico at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, hitting two home runs in six games. In Tokyo, she faced her then-fiancée (now-wife), Amanda Chidester, who won a silver medal with Team USA, retired in 2022 after an illustrious pro career, and is now an assistant coach at her alma mater, Michigan.
“It’s Anissa’s last run, and it’s important that she gets to have it be everything she wants,” Hogue said. “She put a lot of pressure on herself to have it be the greatest physical, successful season, and she was losing some of the joy because she was stressing so much. To watch her shift during the break and go in seeking joy, which is what she had when she played here and why she found success on the field, it’s going to be easy to do here (in Utah).”
The Blaze selected Urtez in the fifth round of the inaugural AUSL Draft in January. She got off to a hot start, driving in three runs in the first series of the season. Urtez did not play over the weekend against the Volts in Seattle, but while her offense has been up and down, her defense has remained outstanding.
“We’ve been talking more about how she can’t wait to go to her favorite coffee places back there,” Blaze Head Coach Alisa Goler said. “She just is excited to be in Salt Lake in general. You can tell that she really loved her time there when she talks about it.”
Urtez was an assistant coach at Utah Valley during the 2019 season and said she wants to stay around softball, offering defensive clinics and private instruction. But she also has a passion for social media marketing and hopes to land a full-time role in that field once her playing days are over.
Chidester will be in the stands this week in Salt Lake City, as will Hogue, who said she has both Urtez and Flippen jerseys for their respective AUSL teams.
“I’m going to be an emotional wreck. I have so many special memories on that field,” Urtez said. “Being able to see (Hogue) in the stands and old teammates and my family and being back in that environment, it’s going to be very nostalgic, but my goal is to be as present as possible and just fully embrace all of it. I’m just so lucky to be able to put my cleats on and step out there again.”
Benjamin Rosenberg is the Blaze beat reporter for the AUSL this season. He has more than seven years of experience covering college, professional and high school softball, and graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 2021.
