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Prince George's Community College softball coach Melissa Miller officially welcomed four new players to the Largo school on July 22, and the Owls' coach may add four other players to the roster that have already enrolled in the school.

Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduates Alexis Frazier and Lindsey Gignac, Potomac High graduate Stefane Tucker-Broadus and Grace Brethren Christian School alum Brittany Frankenfield signed letters of intent July 22 to play the next two years with the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III program. In addition, Bowie High graduates Jessica Rivera and Shannon Peters, St. Vincent Pallotti High graduate Becca Franklin and Bishop McNamara High graduate Lisa Ayres have all enrolled at PGCC, and Miller said she anticipates they will be on the roster next spring.

"I think the four girls that we signed are going to help us a lot," Miller said. "We have two new incoming freshman pitchers [Gignac and Frankenfield] that will give Sarah [Bednarik] plenty of help. Alexis and Stefane will step right in and start. We only have four returning starters, so the incoming kids are going to get a lot of playing time. I'm expecting to get some of the other girls here in next week to sign up."

Frazier, a 2009 Roosevelt graduate who spent her freshman year at Virginia Commonwealth University, which did not field a softball team, was glad to be back in the county and have a chance to play softball again. Frazier, who is enrolled in the nursing program at PGCC, should play either center field or left field for the Owls.

"[VCU] didn't have a softball team last spring and that's when I realized how much that I missed playing," Frazier said. "I'm looking forward to playing here for two years and then transferring to Towson. Lindsey [Gignac] told me that she was coming here to play softball and I figured that it would work out for me. I still need to work on some things this summer, but I'm looking forward to playing softball again."

Gignac planned to go to Towson University, but after speaking with Miller in late May, she had a quick change of heart. Within 48 hours of that conversation she contacted Miller with her new college plans.

"Right after the region playoffs, I thought to myself ‘what am I doing?'" Gignac said. "I knew that if I went to Towson I wouldn't be able to play. I realized that I still wanted to play, so I contacted Melissa and told her that I wanted to come here and play. I've been going to the [batting] cages and that's where I ran into Alexis and we talked about playing here together. I think it's going to be the right fit for me."

Tucker-Broadus, who played her first two seasons at Oxon Hill before transferring to Potomac High for her final two years, will likely play first base next spring, while Frankenfield will join Bednarik and Gignac in the pitching rotation.

PGCC has struggled the past two seasons, going 7-46 as an NJCAA Division II program. The Owls will shift back to the Division III ranks in 2011.

"With the girls that we have coming in and the girls that we have back and our drop down into Division III, I think we can qualify for the region playoffs," Miller said. "We still have to play all of the same teams during the season, but if we can show [athletic director Jo Ann Todaro] that we have a winning record against other Division III schools, then I think we'll be able to play in the region tournament even if we don't have an overall winning record."

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.