Kelly Kretschman

Kelly Kretschman
Personal information
Born (1979-08-26) August 26, 1979
Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, U.S.
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Sport
College team Alabama Crimson Tide
Medal record
Women's softball
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
2004 Athens Team competition
2008 Beijing Team competition

Kelly Kretschman (born August 26, 1979) is an American, former 4-time collegiate All-American, left-handed hitting softball player originally from Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. She played for the Alabama Crimson Tide (1998–2001) and won a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also played in the National Pro Fastpitch with the Stratford Brakettes and currently plays with the USSSA Pride; she is the career leader in RBIs, doubles and base on balls.[1][2] She owns numerous records for the Tide. She is one of select NCAA Division I players to bat .400 with 300 hits, 200 runs and 100 stolen bases.

Alabama Crimson Tide

The freshman's campaign saw her named to the NCAA Division I All-American and All-SEC second teams.[3] She broke both school and conference season records in batting average, home runs, hits (NCAA all-time Freshman Class record) and slugging percentage (which led the NCAA that year).[4] Her RBIs, triples, runs and on-base percentage ranked top-10 at Alabama; she still claims all those top season records but has been surpassed in the average.[5]

Starting February 27 and lasting until April 4, she went on the NCAA's third best consecutive game hit streak (35). She hit .521 (62/119) on 15 home runs, 5 triples and 15 doubles to slug 1.109%.[6] For one of her games, Kretschman reached career single game highs in RBIs (5) and hits (4), as well as hitting a school record two triples to end the game on a run-rule victory over the Wisconsin Badgers on March 1.[7]

For the 1999 season, Kretschman repeated as All-American, moved up to First Team All-SEC and broke another school record with 30 stolen bases.[8] Her hits and triples are top-10 for a season with the Tide.[9]

Kretschman was named First Team All-American for the 2000 season and continued her all-conference success.[10] She ranked top-10 in school history for virtually every season stat: average, RBIs, home runs, triples, doubles, hits, walks, runs, stolen bases, slugging and on-base percentages. The hits total (102) led the NCAA that year and is still the school record while every other latter category is a top-10 Tide record.[11]

The Tide made it into their first Women's College World Series and Kretschman's only career appearance at the series, she hit .333 with 3 RBIs and slugging over .550% to be named to the All-Tournament Team.[12] The Tide were eventually eliminated by the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles despite nabbing a victory over DePaul.[13]

For a final season, Kretschman would be named First Team All-American and All-SEC.[14] She entered more top-10 season records for average, hits, walks and percentages to the Alabama Crimson Tide program.

Besting the Michigan Wolverines 7-2 on February 28, Kretschman connected for her 50th career home run off pitcher Meghan Ritter.[15]

Kretschman would graduate owning career records in average, RBIs, home runs, triples, doubles, hits, walks, runs, stolen bases, slugging and on-base percentages. She retains all records except for the RBIs, walks and stolen base career totals.[5] She is tops in the SEC for runs and slugging percentage, which also is 6th best all-time in the NCAA Division I.[8][16]

Team USA

Kretschman began her career with Team USA in 2000 while still a student at Alabama.[17] On the "Aiming For Athens" tour, she would hit .471.[18] She had tour highs of 5 RBIs (in part courtesy of a grand slam) vs. the UCLA Bruins on March 28 and a perfect 4/4 hit game over the Texas Longhorns on March 9, 2004.[19][20]

At the Olympics, Kretschman at one point had a 5 game RBI streak. She went 1/3 vs. Australia in the August 23 finale to earn gold.[21] Kretschman was tied leading the team in triples, doubles and was perfect in the field.[22]

The "Bound 4 Beijing" tour saw Kretschman lead the team in walks while hitting .467 and slugging .822%. On March 28, Team USA suffered a 1-0 loss that snapped their perfect Olympic tours record at the hands of Angela Tincher and the Virginia Tech Hokies. Kretschman walked in the second inning to disrupt what was otherwise a perfect game.[23]

In the August 21 Olympic softball finale vs. Japan, Kretschman was shut out by Yukiko Ueno managing only a walk as the US was downed 3-1 to take silver.[24] In her last international tournament, Kretschman hit .348 for Team USA.[25]

National Pro Fastpitch

Kretschman began her career with the Akron Racers in 2005 and hit .280.[26] From the next year on 2006–2011, not including 2008, Kretschman would play for the Connecticut Brakettes, Washington Glory and finally the USSSA Pride, her current and longest tenure.[26][26][26][27] In 2006, 2009–10 and 2015–16, she was named an NPF All-Star.[28][29][30] In 2016, she was named Player of The Year and became the first batter to achieve the Triple Crown with career highs in average, RBIs and home runs; she also had career bests in runs, hits, slugging and stolen bases.[31]

She also won three straight Cowles Cup Championships from 2005-2007. In 2010 she won her fourth title; in her other seasons of play since but not including 2014, Kretschman was a finalist for the title and claimed her fifth NPF Cowles Cup on August 24, 2013.[32] In all the combined finals games, Kretschman has gone 6/23 with three RBIs.[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] She did not play in the 2011 finale.[41] Kretschman set a league record with 35 walks in 2006. This helped Kretschman attain the current career record for walks (the first to cross 200) and she became the only player with three 30 walk seasons. Kretschman also claims the doubles (the first player to top 50), RBI (again being the first to reach 200), runs and doubles crowns. In 2015, she also became just the second player to collect 300 career hits and in 2016 she became the first to tally 1,000 at bats. Currently, she stands second all-time in home runs behind teammate Megan Wiggins.

Statistics

Alabama Crimson Tide

YEAR G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
1998 67 214 94 100 .467 64 25 7 22 211 .986% 31 11 40 47
1999 65 210 54 83 .395 31 8 4 16 131 .624% 34 13 30 33
2000 80 234 83 102 .436 58 14 3 18 168 .718% 51 16 43 46
2001 61 184 57 83 .451 38 13 2 9 135 .733% 45 14 20 28
TOTALS 273 842 288 368 .437 191 60 16 65 645 .766% 161 54 133 154

Team USA

YEAR AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
2004 142 54 64 .450 40 7 3 14 105 .739% 17 18 5 6
2008 147 76 66 .449 58 11 1 13 114 .775% 51 17 5 5
TOTALS 289 130 130 .450 98 18 4 27 219 .758% 68 35 10 11

NPF Akron Racers, Connecticut Brakettes & USSSA Pride

YEAR AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB
2005 75 14 21 .280 13 1 0 3 27 .360% 13 9 6
2006 100 26 41 .410 12 3 0 9 59 .590% 35 16 2
2007 51 16 17 .333 5 1 2 3 27 .529% 19 10 3
2009 120 17 42 .350 22 8 0 7 73 .608% 21 18 1
2010 145 27 43 .296 29 7 1 11 77 .531% 31 24 6
2011 70 14 21 .300 10 1 0 3 27 .385% 16 4 2
2012 85 17 30 .353 24 3 0 5 44 .517% 22 18 1
2013 129 26 41 .318 19 1 0 4 48 .340% 26 17 4
2015 151 24 49 .324 23 7 0 5 75 .496% 16 9 10
2016 144 45 65 .451 46 14 0 9 116 .805% 33 17 13
TOTALS 1070 226 370 .346 203 46 3 60 574 .536% 232 142 48

References

  1. ↑ "Brakettes All-Time Roster". Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  2. ↑ http://www.usssapride.com/team/
  3. ↑ https://nfca.org/index.php/awards/awards-history/3893-1998-di-all-american-teams-
  4. ↑ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/Softball%20Archived%20Stats/1998/1998%20SB%20DI%20final%20stats.pdf
  5. 1 2 http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/alab/sports/w-softbl/auto_pdf/2010-guide.pdf
  6. ↑ http://www.rolltide.com/sports/w-softbl/archive/1998/plyr_21.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.rolltide.com/sports/w-softbl/archive/1998/bama01.htm
  8. 1 2 http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/Portals/3/SEC%20Website/Softball/2011/SoftballMG.pdf
  9. ↑ https://nfca.org/index.php/awards/awards-history/3851-1999-di-all-american-teams-
  10. ↑ https://nfca.org/index.php/awards/awards-history/3828-2000-di-all-american-teams-
  11. ↑ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/Softball%20Archived%20Stats/2000/D1.txt
  12. ↑ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/softball_champs_records/2009/DI/champs.pdf
  13. ↑ http://web1.ncaa.org/ncaa/eventlist.do?championship=400025&division=400025400012
  14. ↑ https://nfca.org/index.php/awards/awards-history/3795-2001-di-all-american-teams-
  15. ↑ http://www.rolltide.com/sports/w-softbl/archive/2001/bama1.htm
  16. ↑ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/SB_Records/2011/DivI.pdf
  17. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/folders.asp?uid=157
  18. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/folders.asp?uid=1920
  19. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/info.asp?uid=1861
  20. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/info.asp?uid=1842
  21. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/info.asp?uid=1687
  22. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/uploads/olympics/2004overallstats.pdf
  23. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/info.asp?uid=3409
  24. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/info.asp?uid=4366
  25. ↑ http://www.usasoftball.com/uploads/2008%20olympics/final%20cumes.pdf
  26. 1 2 3 4 http://www.profastpitch.com/stats/archive/
  27. ↑ http://npf.bbstats.pointstreak.com/player.html?playerid=34338
  28. ↑ http://profastpitch.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/STATISTICS%20FOLDER/Award%20Archives/2006%20Award%20Winners%20and%20Team%20NPF.pdf
  29. ↑ http://profastpitch.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/STATISTICS%20FOLDER/Award%20Archives/2009%20Award%20Winners.pdf
  30. ↑ http://profastpitch.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/STATISTICS%20FOLDER/Award%20Archives/2010%20Award%20Winners.pdf
  31. ↑ "Historic Night At The 2016 NPF Annual Awards Banquet". Profastpitch.com. 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-08-24.
  32. ↑ http://npf.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=166497
  33. ↑ http://profastpitch.com.ismmedia.com/ISM2//05%20EVENTS/champ.htm
  34. ↑ http://www.profastpitch.com/news/teamsnews/index.html?article_id=479
  35. ↑ http://ctbrakettes.com.ismmedia.com/ISM2//Boxscores/po3.htm
  36. ↑ http://www.profastpitch.com/news/teamsnews/index.html?article_id=688
  37. ↑ http://www.profastpitch.com/news/teamsnews/index.html?article_id=925
  38. ↑ http://profastpitch.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/DOWNLOADS/Championship%20Game%20box%20score.pdf
  39. ↑ http://www.profastpitch.com/news/npfnews/index.html?article_id=1275
  40. ↑ http://npf.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=23618
  41. ↑ http://npf.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=61627
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