Michelle Gascoigne, a 2013 NCAA champion and former ace of National Pro Fastpitch's Chicago Bandits, joined the Wildcats' staff as pitching coach in September of 2015.
 
Under Gascoigne, Northwestern has landed a pitcher on the All-Big Ten team in nine of Gascoigne’s first 10 seasons as the program’s pitching coach. The Wildcats have earned nine NFCA All-Region selections among six different pitchers under Gascoigne, as well as two Big Ten Pitcher of the Year award winners in a span of three years from 2022-2024.
 
Northwestern has qualified for eight NCAA Tournaments under Gascoigne while posting a Top 4 finish in the Big Ten in all but one season with the program. The Wildcats secured back-to-back-to-back Big Ten regular season championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024, marking just the second time “three-peating” in program history (also 1984-87). Northwestern has claimed three NCAA Regional titles since Gascoigne arrived in Evanston, and made its return to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series in 2022.
 
A Capital One Academic All-American in 2013, Gascoigne graduated from Oklahoma with a degree in education. She combined with classmate Keilani Ricketts to form the best pitching duo in the nation that season, leading the Sooners to the Women's College World Series championship game, where Gascoigne threw a three-hit shutout to secure the national title for OU.
 
Over her collegiate career, Gascoigne compiled a 49-7 record with a 1.65 ERA and 507 strikeouts in 378.0 innings pitched while holding opponents to a .189 average. The lefty strikeout artist was one of 10 finalists for the 2013 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award.
 
Following the completion of her collegiate career, Gascoigne began playing professionally for the Bandits. Gascoigne was an All-NPF selection in both 2013 and 2014, and helped pitch the Bandits to the National Pro Fastpitch Cowles Cup Championship in 2015. She assumed the leadership role of the Bandits' pitching staff in the 2016 season.
Gascoigne has prior coaching experience after serving as a graduate manager for her alma mater Oklahoma from 2014-15.
 
Gascoigne resides in Evanston with her husband and Wildcats Assistant Coach, Tony, and children Skyler and Brayden.
 
Year-by-Year Accomplishments

• 2025: Lauren Boyd earned All-Big Ten and NFCA All-Region honors and finished with a 15-5 record, a 2.30 ERA, 117 strikeouts and a .216 opponent batting average, all of which were career bests. Boyd went 7-1 with a 1.23 ERA down the stretch, throwing five-straight complete games against Wisconsin, UCLA (x2), Kentucky and Clemson to finish her career. During the last week of the regular season, Boyd was named the National Pitcher of the Week by D1Softball after going 2-0 with two complete games en route to a series victory at No. 8 UCLA.
   
• 2024: As a team, Northwestern led the conference in ERA with a mark of 2.57 as the Wildcats earned their third-consecutive Big Ten regular season title. During Big Ten play, the ‘Cats posted a combined 2.51 ERA as a team, which was 0.78 points better than the next closest team. After transferring into the program, Ashley Miller led the Wildcats’ staff and was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, going 17-6 while posting a conference-best 1.58 ERA.
   
• 2023: Northwestern saw two different pitchers in Danielle Williams and Lauren Boyd post sub-2.25 ERAs–both top-10 marks in the conference–while each pitching 100+ innings. The Wildcats swept both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, marking just the second time in program history accomplishing that feat. After announcing her return to Northwestern for her fifth and final season, Danielle Williams finished her career as Northwestern’s all-time wins leader (106) and surpassing 1,000 career strikeouts while becoming just the third player in program history to earn four First Team All-Big Ten awards.
   
• 2022: Northwestern returned to the Women’s College World Series for the sixth time in program history, while also capturing their first Big Ten regular season title since 2008. Danielle Williams won the Big Ten Pitching ‘Triple Crown’ in the regular season, leading the conference in ERA (1.49), strikeouts (270) and wins (25) en route to being named the first unanimous Big Ten Pitcher of the Year in program history and earning First Team NFCA All-American honors. Williams threw 39.1 innings over the Wildcats’ first six games of the postseason, earning five wins to help send Northwestern back to the Women's College World Series.
   
• 2021: Two Northwestern pitchers–Danielle Williams and Morgan Newport–were named to the All-Big Ten/All-Region team as Northwestern earned a third place finish in the Big Ten and secured a berth in the NCAA Regional. Williams opened the season with 30.0-inning scoreless streak and, on April 16 at Iowa, threw the first 7.0-inning perfect game by a Northwestern pitcher since 1984.
   
• 2019: Northwestern posted a 1.95 team-ERA while leading the conference in opponent batting average (.190) and recording 464 strikeouts (5th most in NU history) as Danielle Williams became the first Big Ten player ever to win the NFCA National Freshman of the Year award. Northwestern notched a 20-game winning streak from March 29 through May 4, the program's longest winning streak since 1985 and set a new program record for conference wins in a season, going 21-2 in the Big Ten.
   
• 2018: Rookie Kenna Wilkey emerged as the team’s ace as a first-year and became the program’s first 20-game winner in a season since 2009. Northwestern earned two victories in the Big Ten Tournament to advance to the championship game, including a no-hitter by Morgan Newport in the semifinals, along with two victories in the Athens Regional to advance to the regional final. The Wildcats finished the season ranked No. 24 in the nation.
   
• 2017: Four different Wildcat pitchers each tossed 80+ innings, led by sophomore Kaley Winegarner who tossed a team-high 103.1 innings while going 10-6 with a 2.85 ERA.
   
• 2016: Amy Letourneau turned in one of the best two-way seasons in program history and was named First-Team All-Big Ten and to the All-Defensive Team while ranking Top-10 in the conference in multiple hitting and pitching categories. Northwestern posted a 15-8 record in conference play en route to a third place finish and a berth in the NCAA Regionals.