THE CHARACTER
Vicky Galasso, the former Idaho State catcher who stands astride the short history of Big Sky Conference softball like a titan. Despite only playing three years in the Big Sky – because the conference didn’t sponsor softball when she got to Pocatello in 2012 – Galasso holds most of the power hitting records in the conference, some by laughable margins. With her behind the plate and looming in the middle of the lineup, the Bengals won at least a share of the first three Big Sky regular-season softball titles.
THE TIMELINE
Originally from Huntington Beach, California, where she hit .619 as a high-school senior in 2011, Galasso was named second-team All-Mountain Division in the old Pacific Coast Softball Conference as a freshman after starting 47 of 48 games behind the plate and hitting .303. But it’s only when the Big Sky started sponsoring softball in 2013 that she turned into a monster. As a sophomore, she was named the first-ever Big Sky MVP after hitting .461/.500/.876, putting together a 25-game hitting streak and setting new ISU records with 82 hits, 60 RBIs and 156 total bases. She was just about as good in 2014, slashing .378/.478/.780 with 20 homers, 64 RBIs and (my eyes popped out as I read this line) 35 combined walks/hit-by-pitches against 12 strikeouts – but losing out on her second-straight MVP to a .369/.415/.602 season by her teammate Hailey Breakwell. That was all prologue to a hard-to-believe senior season – .433/.554/.940, setting Big Sky single-season marks that still haven’t been broken in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs (20) and RBIs (73) and capturing her second conference MVP.
She then went on to become the first Big Sky player ever to play in the professional National Pro Fastpitch League, winning a title as a rookie with the Chicago Bandits (the Bandits’ top pitcher and league MVP was Monica Abbott, who still holds the NCAA career records for wins, strikeouts and innings pitched more than 15 years after her career at Tennessee ended). Galasso also played for the Dallas Charge before starting her career as a coach.
THE MEASURABLES
Listed at just 5’6”, Galasso never wilted under the physical demands of catching. In her career at ISU, she started 206 of a possible 207 games, missing just one contest in her freshman year.
THE LANDSCAPE
Softball officially became the newest Big Sky Conference-sponsored sport in 2013 with seven teams – Idaho State, Portland State, Southern Utah, Sacramento State, Northern Colorado, Weber State and North Dakota. The Bengals, along with Portland State, Sacramento State, Weber State and Northern Colorado, were already Big Sky members in other sports and moved over from the Pacific Coast Softball Conference, which disbanded one year later. With Southern Utah joining the conference from the Summit League, and North Dakota finishing its D-I transition and also joining the Big Sky, the conference had one more than the six members required to earn an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
THE ACCOLADES
Three-time All-Big Sky first team
Two-time Big Sky MVP
Two-time Big Sky All-Academic
Three-time NFCA All-Pacific Region second team
Six-time Big Sky Player of the Week
THE PRESS
Galasso coming up huge in potent ISU softball lineup
ISU’s seniors want to cement their legacy with a Big Sky title
QUOTABLE
“Galasso is out-of-this-world good, a catcher who flew under the radar until (Idaho State head coach Julie) Wright found her, honed her game and turned her into the best hitter in ISU history. Galasso’s mentality on the field was a perfect fit with Wright. They both bitterly hate losing. Everything is a competition. Defeat is never an option. Galasso was such a great hitter because she played with extreme confidence.” – Kyle Franko, Idaho State Journal
APPEARANCES IN BIG SKY RECORD BOOK
SINGLE-SEASON
Third-highest single-season batting average (.461, 2013)
First- and second-highest slugging percentages (.940, 2015; .876, 2013)
Highest single-season on-base percentage (.554, 2015)
Third-most single-season runs scored (62, 2014)
Third-most hits in a season (82, 2013)
Tied for most RBIs in a season (73, 2015)
Tied for most home runs in a season (20 in both 2014 and 2015)
Most and second-most total bases in a season (156, 2013; 141, 2015)
Tied for second-most walks in a season (43, 2015)
Most runners picked off in a season (5, 2015)
Tied for most runners caught stealing in a season (19, 2014)
CAREER
Second-highest career batting average (.421)
Second-highest career on-base percentage (.506)
Highest career slugging percentage (.857; next closest is at .701)
Second in career runs scored (171)
10th in career hits (209)
Tied for most career RBIs (198)
Most career home runs (58; next closest is at 45)
Second-most career total bases (425)
Fifth-most career walks (89)
WHY YOU SHOULD REMEMBER
There are several reasons why Galasso has slipped, a bit, beneath the waves of history, foremost among them an accident of timing. Had she arrived at ISU a year later – or had the Big Sky started sponsoring softball a year earlier – she likely would have put most of the career hitting records in the conference out of sight like Barry Bonds in the early 2000s. As it is, Montana’s Delene Colburn, a fine hitter herself who tied Galasso for most career RBIs in conference history and is the only Big Sky player with more career total bases, required 62 more games and *192* more at-bats to set those marks.
There are a few more things working against Galasso’s historical legacy, namely:
- She shared the spotlight at ISU with quality players like Brakewell and then with Kacie Burnett, the greatest leadoff hitter in conference history and certainly a worthy candidate for a closer examination in this series herself (this one was very nearly about Burnett until I looked at the numbers one more time and came to the narrow conclusion that Galasso’s power did slightly more to change the scoreboard than Burnett’s average and speed. Still, Galasso has the second-highest career batting average in conference history at .421, one of only three players above .400. Burnett is at *.460*).
- For all their dominance in the regular season, Idaho State with Galasso never won the conference tournament. In 2015, her senior year and Julie Wright’s final year coaching at ISU, the Bengals went 34-18. Galasso hit .433, Burnett hit .459 and Breakwell hit .366 and they hosted the conference tournament at Miller Ranch Stadium in Pocatello – only to lose their first two games to Weber State and Sacramento State to bow out, with Galasso going 1 for 5 with two walks.
It was the end of one dynasty and the start of another. Weber State, which won that 2015 tourney in Mary Kay Amicone’s second year at the helm and then went on to take the 2016, 2019 and 2022 crowns as well, has cemented itself as the pre-eminent team in the Big Sky’s short history, while ISU cratered after Wright’s departure before a mini-renaissance under new head coach Andrew Rich in 2023. All of that takes a little shine off the Wright/Galasso/Burnett ISU teams – but it doesn’t diminish their accomplishments as the first really great team in the fledgling Big Sky Conference, or tarnish the dominance of their power-hitting catcher.
One last note on Galasso: although her hitting stats paint the caricature of a slow-footed goon, she was also one of the best defensive catchers in the conference (at least her stats say so – in 2015 she committed just four errors on 214 chances, had just one passed ball, and caught 13 of 32 runners attempting to steal. That tells a story, as does this – Big Sky teams, who were presumably familiar with her defensive prowess, attempted just five steals against her in 23 games). That year she also stole 14 bases in 17 attempts herself, her second-straight year with double-digit steals. As close to a perfect softball player as the conference has ever seen.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW
After playing professionally, Galasso joined Amicone’s coaching staff at Weber State. She also joined Wright’s staff at Maryland for a year before the Terps let Wright go after the 2019 season. She currently runs a strength training business in Texas.
