Annabelle Widra’s final game of her 2024 season and Auburn career came in Tallahassee in May. Widra played third base and had an RBI single in the 10-4 loss in the Tallahassee Regional.
Widra soon began the process of weighing her future and where she wanted to play her final college season. Auburn’s longtime coach, Mickey Dean, had announced his retirement. Widra decided to enter the transfer portal, but she also remembered the atmosphere of her final 2024 games.
“Being in the other dugout, getting to watch this magic that Florida State has, it’s just such a cool experience to be here especially as an opposing team,” Widra said. “Florida State just gave me so many great things. I love the atmosphere. I have some of my best friends that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. Everything about Florida State, the coaches and the people, it’s really just what I wanted from my last year of college.”
Widra is a versatile addition for FSU, a player who will be in the mix somewhere on the field or in the circle when the preseason No. 8 Seminoles open the 2025 season next Thursday against No. 5 Oklahoma State in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
The transfer addition is comparable to what Mack Leonard offered FSU in 2022 and '23 and Ashtyn Danley last spring. Widra made starts at three infield positions for Auburn in 2024 (21 at third base, eight at second base and one at shortstop) while also starting five games (and pitching in 17 more as a reliever) in the circle.
A right-hander, Widra was quite effective across 41.2 innings: She had 38 strikeouts and just three walks while posting a 2.86 ERA. But in SEC games, Widra was even better with a 1.56 ERA in nine games. At the plate, Widra hit .259 with two home runs, two doubles, 11 RBI and 13 runs.
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Where will Widra play day to day? FSU already has the best 3B-SS duo in the nation in Jaysoni Beachum and Isa Torres. Widra could fit in at second base, where the Seminoles lost Devyn Flaherty to graduation. And she could of course play second and pitch in the same game, as Leonard did in prior seasons. To Widra, it doesn’t matter.
“There’s not many people out there that can play multiple positions,” Widra said. “I’m really hoping just to contribute anywhere, whether it’s in the middle infield, in the circle, at the plate. I want to help team 42 win the national championship.”
The journey begins in a week when FSU plays its first international tournament in program history and faces a top-10 team to start. But first up is a weekend where they can make an early impression on fans, from a Saturday night event with softball diehards at the Champions Club inside Doak to a fan day intrasquad scrimmage on Sunday at noon.
Coach Lonni Alameda thinks fans will make a quick connection with Widra beginning this weekend.
“Annabelle is a big part of the reason why we’re going to be successful,” Alameda said. “She is going to be that smile that everyone wants to cheer for here. She has a great personality. I think it’s just a little bit of good recruiting. And recruit the players that fit here. And then the fans just embrace them.”
Widra also has some experience that the Seminoles could use early on as she was part of the Auburn team that played in Puerto Vallarta last February, pitching in two games and picking up a save in a win over UC Davis.
“It’s a really cool experience. Just being with this group, we’re so connected. I think we’re going to make so many memories on the field. It’s going to be really cool opening up our season somewhere else and make memories that are going to start 2025.”
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