The 2026 season was a rough one for FGCU softball and head coach Lindsay Fico, who just wrapped up her first season with the Eagles.
After a 5-13 stretch in February, the Eagles played close to .500 from March to May, going 16-20. Part of that is because of the team’s 14-10 conference record, which earned it the No. 5 seed in the ASUN Softball Tournament.
FGCU ultimately lost in the second-round of the tournament, going 1-2 with a win against No. 8 Austin Peay and losses to No. 4 Jacksonville and No. 3 North Alabama.
But now having gone through a full season, Fico plans to take full advantage of the offseason in a way she couldn’t last year.
“I feel like I now understand all of the stuff that I didn’t know last year,” she said. “I have a much clearer feel on what our program needs are and the types of players and people we need to build the culture that we want to build here.”
Fico was hired in May 2025, just weeks after leading her previous school, Mercer, to its first NCAA Tournament appearance. That meant she had to adjust to new surroundings and pitch herself as the new face at FGCU, something she says felt like a PR campaign.
She thinks this year will be different.
“I’m excited to get out this summer, recruit and have conversations with travel ball coaches and things like that to continue to build the relationships now that I feel like I have my feet underneath me a little bit more,” Fico said.
Eight seniors on the team graduated this past May, leaving some holes on the roster to fill. Fico plans to use the transfer portal for reinforcements on top of the six incoming freshmen.
One of the areas Fico is most looking to add to is the bullpen, which lacked experience outside of senior Grace Taylor and junior Victoria Ash. Two of the six incoming freshmen are pitchers.
Teams usually rotate up to six pitchers per season. FGCU, however, played four all season, including two freshmen. One of the two was right-handed pitcher Julia Bacoulis, who pitched 63.2 innings and recorded a 3.30 ERA in conference play en route to an ASUN All-Freshman Team honor. Tegan Gabrielse pitched 39.1 total innings and posted a 6.76 ERA.
Fico says she was pleased with her bullpen’s effort, but still wants to see more experience on the mound next season.
“I want to see that grow and whether that’s by number, whether that’s by experience or a little bit of both, that is absolutely a focus for us this summer and as we look into the portal and the junior college world,” Fico said.
FGCU is not only looking to fill in the bullpen. Catcher positions must also be filled as Sietske Drijvers and Maddox Thomas are among the eight that graduated. Drijvers started 54 games and set a new program record with 17 runners caught stealing, a feat which helped her earn third team All-ASUN honors.
Outfielders Olivia Black and Parris Wiggs also graduated, leaving Fico with another area to address. Black received third team All-ASUN honors, ending her FGCU career as the program’s leader in stolen bases with 102. Wiggs and Drijvers both transferred from Mercer to play their final seasons in Fort Myers.
Fico also thinks the team’s performance in conference play could be improved.
Had FGCU won at least two more conference games or the six-game season series over Jacksonville, which it lost 4-2, it’s possible FGCU might’ve received a more favorable seeding.
“There’s no question that the higher seed you can be, the better chance you have,” she said. “I want to put a bigger emphasis on just how important it is to position ourselves in conference play to make sure that we’re positioned the best possible way to make a real run in the tournament.”
With her first season now behind her, Fico enters the 2026 offseason focused on turning FGCU into a championship-winning program in the ASUN.
“We’ve got a year of work that we can look back on and say, ‘okay, we need to get better here and we need to get better there,’” Fico said. “Now we can lean hard on the foundation of what FGCU softball is and the expectation to compete for championships every year.”
