Jolie Matthews, a talented 2026 outfielder from North Carolina and a member of Dana Fusetti’s strong Carolina Elite 18U team, was a promising softball player who then switched to gymnastics and eventually switched back to fastpitch after her gymnastics detour.

So why did she put softball on hold to become a state champion gymnast? And what led her back to her “true calling” as a softball standout?

It had to do with her older sister, Leanne Matthews, better known as “LA” to those close to her.

Their father, Joel Matthews, remembers what led to the switch from softball to gymnastics and back again:

“I’m very proud of both my girls,” the former baseball scout beings. “Jolie is a fun-loving kid with a free spirit and does well academically and stays focused on her goals. She is very competitive and more competitive with herself than her sister.”

Matthews explains what happened next:

“In her younger years, Jolie was always compared to her sister and this drove her away from softball and to gymnastics. When she came back to softball, she then wanted to be like her sister and today uses her sister as her role model. Her sister wants her to be better than her and pushes her to do more than she has.”

Not surprisingly, the siblings have a close relationship today as LA begins her final year of college softball this spring at Rutgers after having played previously at Penn State and The University of Houston.

We just had to ask the patriarch of the family: why is big sis called “LA”?

“She got her nickname because she was in a children’s TV show and did commercials when she was 8-to-12 years old,” Joel explains. “Her coaches found out about it and started calling her ‘LA,’ like being in Hollywood!”

While the college-playing LA. has made a splash in entertainment and in sports, Jolie has started to make waves, too, for her softball skills and also her personality on the field.

At the Top Gun Invitational last year in Kansas City, Jolie was mic’d up during a game, and she was impressive for how she played and also how her personality shined through:

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Fusetti, her club coach, said that Jolie’s personality really showed in the fun clip as did her skills on the field:

“Jolie is one of my top coachable kids,” Coach Dana begins. “I’m all about the finer details in my players and Jolie always is wanting to be better the next time she steps on the field versus the previous.”

“She is like a sponge and takes everything I say and works very hard on it.  Jolie loves to be a left-handed hitter, but I love the fact that she’s a triple threat.  I have seen her grow so much physically and mentally in this game.  She is very giving, and I’ve learned that through our conversations I’ve had with her doing charity work.”

And, a bit off topic, you see the 2026 grad’s energy in the clip, yes, but you also see Fusetti showcasing a few moves of her own… as in dancing near the dugout (she’s the one wearing the white cap).

“I had no clue I was being filmed!” Fusetti says sheepishly. “The girls were like: ‘Coach, show us your moves’ and I just wanted to be stupid funny about that because I do have some serious moves!” she laughs.

But the dynamic softball skills of the Matthews sisters is just one half of the athletic picture in the family.

The girls’ father had a great baseball career at Mississippi State before becoming a successful scout as did his brother (and the sisters’ uncle) Jay Matthews, who himself was a standout baseball player at the Univ. of North Carolina and also became a baseball scout which he’s done for the last 27 years.

Quite the strong examples Jolie has had in softball and baseball, which she herself played for a few years.

How, Jolie was asked, did the baseball influence help accelerate her softball game?

“I would say that having the baseball background in my family and playing baseball for two years when I was younger taught me the fundamentals of the game, how to read the ball, practice daily, benefit of muscle memory, and the importance of my mindset,” the high schooler says.

“Transitioning into softball was easy because both sports are similar. My sister, who is six years older than me, has had a great college playing career and I have learned a lot from her experiences. With my family’s background, the majority of everything I learned was from my dad, uncle, and sister.”

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

Join us tomorrow when we’ll publish Part 2 of our spotlight on Jolie, a Q&A with touches on family dynamics, how gymnastics impacted her softball career and who her hero is…