Larry Sauceman to be inducted into NJCAA Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame

MORRISTOWN, TN – One year after announcing his retirement, former Walters State Softball Coach Larry Sauceman is receiving the highest honor junior college softball has to offer.

On Thursday, the NJCAA announced Sauceman as a 2025 inductee into the NJCAA Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. 

Sauceman is also a member of the TCCAA Hall of Fame and won TCCAA Coach of the Year four times. 

Sauceman finished his softball coaching career after 27 years with a record of 1085-382 (.740). He coached 16 All-Americans and many others who were named to the All-TCCAA teams and All-NJCAA Academic All-American Teams. A countless number of players came through the Walters State softball program under Sauceman's tenure and went on to four-year schools. 

Sauceman coached the Lady Senators to four TCCAA/Region VII Tournament titles and five appearances in the NJCAA DI Softball World Series. Walters State's most successful run under Sauceman came in 2023, when the Lady Senators finished 55-4 and sixth at the World Series. The Lady Senators also came in sixth in 2024, Sauceman's final season in charge. 

Sauceman got his start at Walters State in the 1980s as a baseball player and helped lead the Senators to the JUCO World Series and a No. 5 ranking in 1984.

Following his time at Walters State, Sauceman went on to Tusculum to play baseball and then coached the Pioneers baseball team for a year. However, when his former baseball coach at Walters State, Bill Gardner, gave him a call about Walters State's head softball job, Sauceman went for it. While Sauceman didn't get the job the first time around, he was given the reins the second time around. 

And the rest is history. 

Others in the 2025 Hall of Fame class include Phoenix's Chelsie Mesa, Phoenix's Lacy Goodman, Northeast Oklahoma A&M's Rylee Bayless, Kansas City Kansas' Lana Ross and Central Arizona's Craig Nicholson.