Cal State San Bernardino's softball program picked up three outstanding local talents this week when Erica Prentice of Rim of the World High School, Britney Butler of Riverside Poly and Jamie Leffingwell of Cajon High School signed national letters of intent to play for the Coyotes in 2009-10. 
    Prentice, a pitcher with eye-popping stats who can play shortstop and hit for average, brings versatility and a strong right arm to the Coyotes while Leffingwell can play the outfield and drive in runs. 
    Rim of the World has been a strong factor in the Mojave River League with Prentice leading the way the past two seasons. She earned second-team all-CIF Southern Section honors in 2008, winning 18 games with a 0.45 earned run average and striking out 171 batters. She batted .476 with seven homers and 30 RBI. 
    In 2007, Prentice recorded 16 wins with a 0.89 ERA and 273 strikeouts while batting .494. 
    Thus far in 2009, she has five shutouts as the Scots have gotten off to a 7-2 start. She has 66 strikeouts in 37 innings with a 0.95 ERA. Teams are batting just .142 against her offerings. She is hitting .429. Her last outing was a one-hit, 2-0 shutout of Serrano High School on Tuesday. 
    Prentice will be reunited with a former teammate, Kat Kolde, a 2008 Rim graduate, who is red-shirting this season at CSUSB.
    Leffingwell, a right-fielder, will be joining a team that has two of her former teammates at Cajon HS on the squad – sophomore centerfielder Priscilla Curiel and freshman third baseman Alex Mitchell. The Cowgirls are 12-4 this season with Leffingwell leading the team in runs batted in with 20. She has two home runs and is batting .302. The team is 4-0 in the San Andreas League thus far. 
    In 2008, Leffingwell hit .381 on a team that went 23-7 and won the SAL with a 14-1 record. She had one home run, six doubles and 17 RBI and a .587 slugging percentage to go with a .453 on-base percentage. 
    Butler, who plays shortstop and outfield, is having a solid season for the Riverside Poly Bears, currently on top in the Big Eight League with a 5-0 record after beating highly-rated teams from Norco and Santiago (Corona). The Bears are 13-3 overall.
    Through 16 games this season, Butler is batting .381 with five home runs, three triples, four doubles, 11 RBI and 16 runs scored. Her slugging percentage is .970 and her on-base percentage is .490.
    Butler was an all-Riverside County honorable mention in 2008 while hitting .389 for the Bears with two home runs and scoring 20 runs with an on-base percentage of .476. She struck out only six times all season.