FGCU grad wins Puerto Rican softball championship

Writer: Sylvie Sparks
Published: Updated:
Angie Bonilla Bravas de Cidra

Miami native and FGCU graduate Angelina Bonilla is a softball champion in southwest Florida and now a champion in Puerto Rico.

The standout pitcher planned to retire from softball after she graduated from FGCU in May until she heard about a semi-pro league in Puerto Rico that needed her in the pitcher’s circle.

She landed in Puerto Rico only two days before the S贸ftbol Superior Nacional Femenino championship tournament started and she fit right in.

“The girls are really good at adapting and stuff so they were really welcoming and it felt like I was already a part of the team for a while,” Bonilla said.

The team she joined is las Bravas de Cidra and with Bonilla on the mound, Bravas de Cidra won the island’s championship.

“It felt like we just won the ASUN championship. That’s how important the win was to all the people of Cidra. I was really happy to be a part of something like that.”

Especially because it meant her softball career isn鈥檛 over.

“Before this, I was thinking I was going to retire after my senior season. Not only do I get to continue playing softball, which I love, I get to do it in a whole other form because playing over there, it’s totally new, it’s totally different.”

She gets to bring her own Florida flare to the Puerto Rican game.

“One of the goals for implementing girls from the U.S. is to grow the league and to share knowledge from the U.S. over there to those teams.”

Bonilla is one of several girls from the states to play in S贸ftbol Superior Nacional Femenino.

As a lifelong lover of softball she will play anywhere to be on the diamond herself and get other girls on as well.

Bonilla told WINK News her plan is to play for Cidra again next summer and may even continue her career after that.

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