
By Patrick Lujan
She’s the leader of the ‘little sister’ team, but boy, did she show up the big sisters.
Madi ‘Bubba’ Nickles is the most senior player of the USA Junior Women’s National Team and what she did against the world’s best softball teams in the World Cup of Softball XII in Oklahoma City this past week was absolutely remarkable.
Against the best in the world, Bubba did the following in the six games she played against USA, Canada, Australia, Philippines and Puerto Rico twice:
.550 batting average (led the tournament)
1.050 slugging (led the tournament)
1.621 OPS (led the tournament)
2 home runs (tied for most in the tournament)
10 RBI (led the tournament)
Asked if she expected to have quite the performance, Bubba told GSPN, “No I didn’t.”
“In all honesty, I was hitting one-on-one with (UCLA coach and softball legend) Lisa Fernandez for about three hours. Everything she taught me in those three hours was on my mind the whole tournament. I was literally paying attention to pitcher’s tendencies and what pitches they’d throw in certain pitch counts and in the end, it helped out studying the opposing pitchers.”
Talk about dialed in!
“Every time I go up to bat, I just have this mentality that they don’t look at me as a little sister. I know my team is just as good as any of those teams in the tournament and we deserve the respect.”
At 19-years-old, Bubba is the only player on the Junior team with international experience…all others are first timers.
As the team leader, her focus was building team confidence.
“We all deserve to be on that field and compete against the best teams. At the end of the day, we did earn their respect from the different teams.”
The Junior team would take 5th place out of the eight teams, which included the top four teams in the world (Japan, USA, Canada, Australia).
The top-ranked team from Japan won its second straight World Cup title with a 2-1 win over #2 USA.
SHORTSTOP
“I’ve always been a middle infielder the past two years (with the Junior Nationals), they seem to be more confident putting me at shortstop. Where ever they put me, I’m just gonna give it my all. I’m getting used to it again because I haven’t played shortstop in a year.”
NEXT UP
After this awesome performance, Bubba and her team will head to Clearwater, Florida for the Junior World Championships (19-below) from July 24-30 where they are considered favorites to win the gold.
All the while, Nickles appreciates the support she gets from Guam. “I love all the support from my homeland from so far away.”


GPS Sports Calendar
December 2023
- SU
- MO
- TU
- WE
- TH
- FR
- SA
Events for November
1st
ISA BOYS SOCCER
IIAAG GIRLS BASKETBALL
ISA GIRLS BASKETBALL
Events for December
2nd
IRON LEGENDS THROWDOWN
ISA HS BASEBALL
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING
Events for December
4th
IIAAG BOYS SOCCER
ISA BOYS SOCCER
ISA GIRLS BASKETBALL
Events for December
5th
ISA HS BASEBALL
ISA GIRLS BASKETBALL
IIAAG GIRLS BASKETBALL QUARTERFINALS
Events for December
5th
Events for December
7th
ISA HS BASEBALL
IIAAG BOYS SOCCER PLAYOFFS
Events for December
9th
40th GRC PLUMERIA ROAD RACE
GUAM RUGBY INTERNATIONAL 7s TOURNAMENT
ISA HS BASEBALL
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING
IIAAG GIRLS BASKETBALL SEMIFINALS
Events for December
10th
TOUR OF GUAM 2023
GUAM RUGBY INTERNATIONAL 7s TOURNAMENT
Events for December
11th
ISA HS BASEBALL
IIAAG BOYS SOCCER SEMIFINALS
Events for December
12th
ISA HS BASEBALL
ISA GIRLS BASKETBALL
Events for December
12th
Events for December
14th
ISA HS BASEBALL
IIAAG BOYS SOCCER FINALS
Events for December
15th
ISA GIRLS BASKETBALL
IIAAG GIRLS BASKETBALL FINALS
Events for December
16th
3rd GUAM NINJA CHAMPIONSHIP
ISA HS BASEBALL
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING
Events for December
16th
Events for December
18th
IIAAG BOYS SOCCER ALL-ISLAND MEETING
Events for December
19th
ISA HS BASEBALL
ISA GIRLS BASKETBALL
Events for December
19th
Events for December
23rd
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING
ISA HS BASEBALL FINALS
Events for December
23rd
Events for December
24th
Events for December
25th
Events for December
27th
Events for December
29th
- 31
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Events for December
30th

Baseball
ROYALS DOWN FRIARS IN STATEMENT GAME

Basketball
3×3 HOOPS REPEAT AS GOLDEN BOYS

Basketball
RAPADAS LEADS WILD COUGAR COMEBACK

Baseball
GUAM HOSTS KIWIS IN U15 BASEBALL

Basketball
SHARKS FEND OFF DOLPHINS IN GIRLS HOOPS

Baseball
ROYALS DOWN FRIARS IN STATEMENT GAME
COMING SOON …
- IIAAG Girls Basketball Playoffs