Veteran outfielder Tori Vidales committed to play collegiate softball the day before she got her driver’s permit. Like most, she didn’t have it all figured out at 15, but one thing was for certain: she would be pursuing softball at the next level. What she didn’t know at the time was that her career would include becoming an Olympian, long-time pro, and broadcaster for some of the sport’s biggest games.
Vidales’ commitment to Texas A&M spanned into a successful career that included a .355 batting average across all 240 games that she started. From travel ball to the pros, Vidales has always been a standout on the diamond, but it wasn’t until college that her game expanded off the field. Now, as an analyst for SEC Network, Vidales brings her insight to the ever-growing game that is college softball.
Vidales originally joined A&M as a Kinesiology major and quickly realized after a chemistry course she was interested in pivoting; that’s when her academic advisor recognized Vidales’ skills for conducting interviews and encouraged her to pursue journalism.
“I was like, ‘Actually, that would be kind of cool. Like, I could talk about softball as a job? How fun would that be?’ So she was explaining to me all the different options with the majors that A&M had, and she told me about agricultural communications and journalism,” said Vidales.
Agricultural journalism included all of Vidales’ interests, such as graphic design, radio, and photography, thus the birth of her broadcasting career. Vidales embraced the challenge of balancing the student-athlete aspect of pursuing her broadcast dreams and also being one of the Aggies’ top performers.
“When I was in college, I worked the football crew my junior year, so I got to work the big screen camera and walk around during the A&M football games, putting people on the big screen and getting to be on the other side of the broadcast,” said Vidales. “Then my senior year, I was on the volleyball crew and more hands-on, so I was at a lot of their games, shooting B-roll and putting together clips for the hype videos and stuff like that. I also did a segment called the Aggie minute, which was cool because it was like half English, half Spanish, catching people up on what was happening in all the Aggie sports.”
A new passion emerged, but it never wavered her focus on softball. She finished as the Aggies’ school record holder for runs (198), RBIs (219), and total bases (480) in 2018. After college, Vidales received a monumental call from the ESPN talent offices to audition as an SEC analyst, and the rest was history.
“It was like everything fell right into place, all the people in my life could see that I was interested in it and allowed me to explore that. Even Coach Evans at A&M, I had to ask permission to get out of the unofficial visits that normally took place on Saturdays during the football games. She was like, ‘Absolutely. I know you really care about this, so I want to give you that opportunity to explore.’ So she let me do that and here I am, years later, living the dream,” said Vidales.
Vidales, a long-standing player within Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball, has been competing in the league’s All-Star Cup (formerly Championship Season) since 2020. Softball also took her to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, representing Team Mexico. And even her broadcasting experience has helped her excel when it comes to competing.
“The more I’m breaking down plays and breaking down situations, or maybe even mindsets, I can almost use that as a callback whenever I’m in the box,” Vidales said.
Vidales has received valuable broadcasting advice from softball analyst and A&M Hall of Famer Amanda Scarborough. Scarborough has an impressive resume that includes calling the WCWS and the AUSL.
“It’s been really nice to have her in my corner. I know I can text her at any time and be like, ‘Hey, what would you do in this situation?’ or ‘How would you handle this? How would you handle this story?’ [and] being able to get a quick response. Also knowing that she cares too, because Aggies take care of Aggies always, so it’s been nice to have her in my corner,” Vidales said.
Similar to those college days of balancing journalism and softball, this summer Vidales traveled straight from working the WCWS in Oklahoma to compete with the Talons in Rosemont for the opening series of this inaugural season. She opened her season with a home run in her first at-bat in front of a sold-out crowd.
“It’s growing… You see all the little kids out there, little girls having something to enjoy instead of having to go to a baseball game. Now the girls can come to a softball game and see what they want to be,” Tori’s father, Johnny, said.
Vidales continues to be a large part of helping the game grow, whether it’s contributing to this year’s softball broadcasts on SEC Network or helping boost the Talons to their 9-3 record.
She hasn’t had to trade her helmet for a headset yet, and no matter which she’s wearing, Vidales’ career continues to skyrocket.
Cayla Sweazie is a former collegiate softball player turned sports reporter with a passion for telling the stories of athletes. She is serving as a correspondent for the Talons of the AUSL. You can follow her on Instagram @caysweazie.
