STATESBORO - Cortney Radke, who has international playing experience as well as several years as a collegiate pitching coach under her belt, has been named the pitching coach of the Georgia Southern softball program, as announced Thursday by head coach Sharon Perkins. Radke, a Florida native, comes to Statesboro after two seasons at FGCU, where she mentored one of the top pitching staffs in the ASUN.

"We are excited to welcome Cortney Radke to our staff," said head coach Sharon Perkins. "Cortney brings a wealth of knowledge from her playing days, as well as college coaching experience, to Georgia Southern, and I look forward to seeing her work with our pitching staff."

"I am extremely honored to have been offered and to accept this position with Georgia Southern softball," Radke said. "I am even more excited to learn and work with passionate and knowledgeable coaches like Coach Perkins, Coach Sandlin and Coach Krull! I plan to bring my passion and experiences to elevate the pitching staff, and I can not wait to get to work!"

In Radke's first year in Fort Myers, she led one of the nation's premier pitching staffs. At one point during the year, FGCU was the only school in the country to have two pitchers with ERAs below 1.00 (Angelina Bonilla and Allison Sparkman). The FGCU pitching staff was consistently at the top of every pitching metric in the ASUN during the year, finishing the season as the only team in the top three in ERA, saves, home runs allowed, and opponent batting average. Nationally, FGCU finished 19th in ERA with Sparkman (28th) and Bonilla (41st) also topping the national leaderboards as individuals. Under Radke's guidance, Bonilla pitched the sixth no-hitter in program history, earning second-team All-ASUN honors. Sparkman was a third-team All-ASUN and a unanimous selection to the ASUN Freshman Team. 

In 2025, Radke's pitchers were again stellar, with Sparkman leading the way. She led the Eagles in every pitching stat with a 2.35 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 18 wins, 31 games started, 14 complete games, six shutouts, 169.2 innings pitched, and a .222 opponent batting average. Sparkman is the only player in FGCU's DI history to have both her freshman and sophomore seasons in the top 10 of opponent batting average.

In 2023, Cortney Radke assisted the USF softball team, working predominantly with the pitching staff. The Bulls' pitching staff was second in the American Athletic Conference in ERA at a paltry 2.69 while working with the staff that had the second-most innings pitched. The staff excelled at not beating themselves with the fewest walks (126) and best K/BB ratio (1.95) and BB/7 (2.35). Individual excellence buoyed the staff with three out of five pitchers (Payton Dixon, Gabriella Nori, and Jaden Martinez) topping the conference ERA leaders. Dixon was the conference leader in ERA, Nori had the fewest BB/7 (1.08), the second most K/7 (6.11), and the best K/BB ratio (5.65).   

Prior to USF, Radke spent three years at her alma mater, North Florida. During the 2022 season, Radke helped the Ospreys reach 42 total wins and 27 wins at home, which are both top marks in the program's D-I era. She assisted with a pitching staff that was top five in the nation for ERA (1.75) and total shutouts (18). There were also season team D-I records set for opponent batting average (.220) and total saves (18).

The outstanding team ERA produced pitchers Morgan Clausen and Halle Arends as All-ASUN and All-Tournament selections, as well as four ASUN Pitcher of the Week honors. The excellent performances in the circle helped the Ospreys to their second ASUN Championship title game appearance in program history.

During UNF's 13-game win streak, which was the longest in D-I program history, the pitching staff was setting another school record with 56.0 consecutive scoreless innings that ran over the course of seven games. The pitching staff also aided in executing nine run-ruled games, as well as collecting three wins over Power Five teams for the first time since 2017.

The Ospreys in 2022 were atop the conference in various pitching categories, including ERA (1.75) and home runs allowed (7), as well as the top two in total strikeouts (335). Seven home runs allowed was 25 less than the second-best mark in the conference.

Before her time with UNF, Radke worked primarily with the pitchers and defense in her first season with UB. Under her guidance, the Bulls' pitching staff lowered its ERA to 4.92 in 2019, down a full two runs from 2018, while the defense compiled a .945 fielding percentage to go along with 811 putouts and 383 assists.

Before her time with the Bulls, Radke spent two seasons as pitching coach at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia.  

Radke helped the pitching staff post a 3.18 ERA with the Bobcats posting 43 victories during their 2018 campaign. Under Radke's watchful eye, Hannah Vet turned into an ace for the Bobcats as she posted a 25-6 record with a 1.62 ERA while striking out 123 batters and allowing opponents to hit just .218.

As a player at UNF, she was a four-year member of the Osprey pitching staff, where she scratched her name in the record book. She is in the top 10 leaders in: wins (38), appearances (108), shutouts (11), strikeouts (474), batters faced (2095). 

In her senior year, she made 31 appearances, recorded a 2.31 ERA in 118.1 innings. As a junior, she helped the Ospreys to their first-ever ASUN Championship as the staff tossed the conference's lowest ERA of the season (1.97), which was ranked 19th nationally. The staff had seven straight shutouts and kept opponents scoreless for 54.1 innings. As a freshman, Radke earned ASUN Freshman of the Year accolades, a spot on the All-Freshman team, and was twice named the Pitcher of the Week. She set multiple single-season records, including: strikeouts (310), innings pitched (268.2), appearances (49), games started (32) and completed games (27). 

Following graduation, Radke was recruited to play internationally in Auckland, New Zealand, for seven months. She ended her season abroad with an ERA of 0.53 in 80 innings, where she tallied 73 strikeouts. While in New Zealand, she also coached a U17 men's softball team, where two of her athletes made the U17 National Team. One athlete made the 14 and Under National Team and was named MVP of the tournament.

Radke graduated in 2015 from UNF with a degree in fine arts.