SLIPPERY ROCK — Cheyenne Hindman was sitting in school in mid-March when she received an odd email.

It was a notice that the standout for the Slippery Rock High softball team had been released from her national letter of intent with Eastern Michigan University.

“I had no idea what it meant,” Hindman said.

Hindman had committed to play softball for the Eagles after her sophomore year at Slippery Rock.

A few minutes after receiving that strange email, a text popped up on her phone from another Eastern Michigan recruit with a link to the university's website.

Hindman clicked on it and her world was turned upside down.

Eastern Michigan was cutting its softball program.

“I didn't want to believe it,” Hindman said. “It didn't seem real to me.”

Hindman left class and cried in the bathroom. She was so distraught, she had to leave school early that day.

“It sent her reeling,” said Cheyenne's father and Slippery Rock softball coach Dan Hindman. “She's played a long time. She's played across the country, from California to Colorado to Florida. I don't know if she really understood the magnitude of it when it first happened.”

The magnitude was felt shortly after when Cheyenne began feverishly contacting other Division I softball coaches, looking for an opportunity and scholarship money that was lost to her.

By March, most Division I and even Division II schools had all of their money tied up in other recruits.

As an added complication, Cheyenne had been off the recruiting trail for more than two years and had no film of her playing to show coaches.

“I had everything ripped out from under me,” Cheyenne said. “All that hard work. All the hours and hours I had spent playing and getting my name out there to get a scholarship to a place I really wanted to go so I could get an education and not leave in debt for the rest of my life, all of that was gone.”

But Cheyenne chose to not let it defeat her.

Tuesday, she visited Mercyhurst North East, a two-year junior college, and she intends to play there.

“She's still chasing that dream,” Dan Hindman said.

Cheyenne has been a sort of softball prodigy throughout her life.

As young as 9, her name was on the national map for her softball prowess as she played for elite travel teams all over the country.

She helped one of those teams, Thunder Elite, to a national championship when she was 11.

This season for the Rockets, who won the program's first-ever District 10 championship and nearly upset the defending Class 4A state champions Monday in the first round of the PIAA playoffs, Cheyenne batted a team-leading .531 with four home runs, 25 RBI and 10 doubles.

She also was 16-4 in the circle as a pitcher with a 1.48 ERA and 145 strikeouts in 128 innings pitched.

“For her to focus like she did this season is amazing,” Dan Hindman said.

Cheyenne said no one from Eastern Michigan called her or the other recruits to tell them the program was cut.

The university offered to honor the terms of her scholarship for one year.

But Cheyenne wanted to play softball.

She has to rebuild her name on the national stage.

“I've kind of fallen into a no-man's land,” she said. “I need to play well enough (at Mercyhurst North East) to be an All-American. I'm starting the recruiting process over and it's such a long process.

“I don't regret (committing early),” she added. “I loved the school and the program and the people. I still have my dream.”