DJ Sanders

Personal: Sanders joined the softball coaching staff at the University of Memphis as an assistant coach on Sept. 16, 2022, after being a volunteer assistant at Mississippi State during the 2022 season. She is motivated to work hard every day to meet her own expectations. Sanders considers becoming a professional softball player as her proudest moment. Her favorite movie and book is the Twilight series. Sanders has three dogs and two cats. If she wasn't playing softball, she would be a basketball player. She also played basketball and volleyball as a child. Sanders enjoys cooking, reading, and swimming as her hobbies. Her walk-up song is "Go DJ" by Lil Wayne.

2022 Championship Season: Sanders finished in 13th place on the league leaderboard with 1,434 points. She tied with outfielder Nicole Rangel-Mendes for the league lead with 1,200 win points. Sanders won 11 games during the season and started 10 out of 15 games. She had a batting average of .282 with two home runs and seven runs batted in. Sanders had four multi-hit games, including three hits against Team McCleney on Aug. 21. She went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored against Team McCleney on Aug. 12. Sanders also had a season-high 180 leaderboard points.

2022 AUX Season: Sanders finished in a tie for 27th place on the leaderboard with 808 points. She appeared in seven games before missing the final series. Sanders had five hits in 10 at-bats, including a double. She recorded three runs batted in and scored a run. Sanders went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored against Team Mulipola on June 19.

2021 Championship Season: Sanders earned 15th place on the leaderboard with 1,352 points. She tied for fourth in the league with 1,140 leaderboard points. Sanders had two hits in 26 at-bats, both of which were home runs. She also drove in five runs.

2020 Championship Season: ASanders accumulated 1,520 points to finish in 14th place on the leaderboard. She tied for ninth with 120 MVP points. Sanders had a batting average of .333 and started 14 games. She had five doubles, which was second in the league. Sanders also had four home runs, tying for eighth in the circuit. She drove in 14 runs, placing fifth among all hitters. Sanders tallied 33 total bases.

Other Professional Experience: Sanders played two seasons in the NPF after being selected with the No. 21 overall pick in the 2018 NPF Draft by the Chicago Bandits. In her rookie season, she had a batting average of .306 with seven home runs and 15 runs batted in.

At Oregon: During her college career, Sanders spent her senior season at Oregon after transferring from Louisiana. She earned Second-Team All-Pac-12 Conference honors with a batting average of .281 while starting 62 out of 63 games. Sanders had 16 home runs and 51 runs batted in during her lone season at Oregon.

At Louisiana: In her three seasons with Louisiana, she hit 51 home runs and had 167 runs batted in. Sanders was a First-Team NFCA All-America performer and led the NCAA in home runs, runs batted in, and slugging percentage during her junior season. She was honored as the 2017 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and was one of the 10 finalists for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. Sanders also earned First-Team All-Sun Belt recognition as a freshman and sophomore.