SOFTBALL

The 2019 season was another record breaking season for Poet Softball! Even with a 4th place finish, we had conference high 6 All-Conference nominees which was evident in taking the 2019 SCIAC Tourn. Championship Title and the program's 2nd NCAA Appearance! The Conference Tournament was an eventful weekend with the team taking an opening day win against the #1 seed CMS to come back Saturday and play 10inn against Pomona-Pitzer and another 5.5inn halted game against CMS, totally 8 hours at the field on Saturday. The Poets came back on Sunday for a 10am continuation against CMS to win in extra innings then to be followed up with a Championship SWEEP of Pomona-Pitzer in 2 games and 14 innings.....and all of this happening with finals starting next week.

 

Some of the many impressive statistics for the year began with 4 SCIAC player of the week awards, 1 National Division III Hitter of the week award, SCIAC Conf. Tournament MVP, Whittier Athletic's Female Team Athlete of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, NCAA Statistical Champion with BB's per game, 4 NCAA Tournament Team Nominees, ​2nd Highest Team BA (.328 Conf/.325 Overall), 1st in SB (88 overall – next highest 62/63 conference – next highest 29), 3rd in SLG (Conf .485/Overall.462), 3rd in Triples, 3rd in Homeruns (19), 2nd in Walks, 2nd lowest Strikeouts, 3rd highest in OB%, Least amount of walks given up in both conference and overall (even with the most games played), Tied for 1st in conference for RCS% (first in overall schedule),  

 

Even more exciting than the on-field accomplishments are the academic ones. We proudly raised our team GPA from a 3.23 to a 3.27 overall for the year! The program was nominated for the 3rd consecutive year for the highly touted national honor of NFCA All-Academic Team, which only 2 other SCIAC programs were selected. Within those, we had 9 nominated for NFCA Academic All-Americans which require above a 3.5 cumulative GPA for both the Fall and Spring semesters.

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 This 2020 season we will be returning 4 of the 6 of our All-Conference Honorees and all but 1 of our 2019 returners. Our senior class spotlights 4 of our consistent starters from the 19 season including 2 in the circle, 1B and 2B. The Junior class touts multiple '19 award winners and big leadership. Our Sophomores are highlighted as a mixture all across the diamond, returning with tons of championship experience under their belt. Our incoming athletes include 2 transfer catchers, 2 utilities and 3 to the mound and they are all in great hands as our Coaching staff (Mandie Perez, Brigid Ruiz, Mike McBride) returns for the '20 season

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I am honored to be entering my 3rd season as Head Coach for the Poets and cannot be more excited to see what this year's team can achieve.