Nicole Mendes

Personal: Mendes earned her bachelor’s degree in social influence and her Master’s degree in human relations from Oklahoma in May 2022. She has two dogs and lists Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso as a person who has made a difference in her life. Mendes aspires to be an author in the future and share stories of female athletes. She also serves as a softball analyst on ESPN broadcasts. Mendes participated in cheerleading, golf, and basketball while growing up. She enjoys cooking, including creating recipes, and likes to read, typically traveling with multiple books. Mendes was homeschooled as a child with her mother, Nina, serving as her teacher. She is fluent in Sign Language as her older sister, Brittany, is deaf. Mendes' walk-up song is “G.O.M.D.” by J Cole.

2023 AUX Season: Mendes earned a total of 580 leaderboard points, with 570 of those points coming from wins. Throughout the season, Mendes played in seven games, starting in two of them. She had one hit in seven at-bats and scored four times. On June 14, Mendes recorded her only hit of the season, driving in a run with an RBI single against Team Zerkle.

2022 Championship Season: Mendes accumulated 1,200 points, finishing in 27th place on the leaderboard. She tied for the league lead in win points with DJ Sanders and won 11 games during the campaign, along with Sanders and middle infielder Aubrey Leach. Mendes scored a run against Team Chidester on July 30 and Aug. 14.

2022 AUX Season: Mendes compiled 806 leaderboard points in her Athletes Unlimited debut. She started in 9-of-11 games, tallying three hits and five runs scored. She also drew three walks and went 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored against Team Eberle on June 14.

International Experience: Mendes was a member of Team Mexico at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she hit .190 with four hits and a run scored in six games. She also represented Team Mexico at the 2019 USA Softball International Cup.

At Oklahoma: Mendes was a five-year letter winner at Oklahoma. She started 209-of-241 games from 2017-21 and closed her career with a .360 batting average, 25 home runs, and 121 runs batted in. She also made 27 appearances in the circle, furnishing a 2.47 earned run average with 29 strikeouts in 34.0 innings. Mendes was a three-time selection to the Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team, a three-time NFCA All-Region performer (including First-Team distinction in 2017), and a member of the 2017 Big 12 Conference Championship All-Tournament Team. She was named the 2017 Big 12 Freshman of the Year and claimed a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team. Mendes holds the Oklahoma record by playing in 23 career games at the Women’s College World Series. She finished her career ranked second in program history with 16 triples and 10th on Oklahoma’s all-time list with 46 career stolen bases. Mendes set the OU postseason single-game record with seven runs batted in against Morgan State in the 2021 Norman Regional. She also holds a share of the school single-game record with five runs scored against New Mexico on Feb. 27, 2021. Mendes scored three runs against UCLA on June 5, 2021, to establish the Oklahoma single-game record at the Women’s College World Series. She teamed up with Paige Lowary to throw a no-hitter against Oklahoma State on May 6, 2017.