Hull Drafted 11th Overall in NPF College Draft
April 1, 2013
|
||
 |
||
|
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Chicago Bandits selected Jayhawk senior Maggie Hull 11th overall in the National Pro Fastpitch 2013 College Draft, announced Monday night.
The NPF College Draft by BOWNET featured five rounds of four selections for a total of 20 overall draftees in the 2013 rookie class and was held in downtown Nashville, Tennessee at the Ford Theatre located inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Showing the increased popularity and growth of the sport, the draft was broadcast on ESPN3.com for the first time in league history.
Hull becomes the fourth Jayhawk in program history to play at the professional ranks and third to be drafted. Her 11th overall selection makes her KU’s highest drafted player and the first since Brittany Hile was selected 15th overall by the NPF Diamonds in 2011.
“The feeling right now is completely unreal,” Hull said. “To be watching ESPN3 and hear them talk about me is just unbelievable. We’re so focused on building the Kansas softball program and that’s been my goal over the past four years and to know that’s been getting national attention is just unreal. I would say it’s a dream come true, but it’s even beyond my dreams, or reality, to be drafted to a team and especially one like the Chicago Bandits, who had such a successful season last year.”
Hull was the third selection, and first position player, taken by Chicago. The Bandits finished 2012 with a 25-19 record, and advanced to the NPF Championship Series. Hull joins elite company with future teammates that were also drafted by the Bandits on Monday night: Jolene Henderson (Cal-Berkeley, P), Michelle Gascoigne (Oklahoma, P), Raven Chavanne (Tennessee, OF/3B), Mel Dumezich (Texas A&M, P/IF) and Jenna Marston (Missouri, C).
“That is a very elite group, some very good softball players were drafted today,” Kansas head coach Megan Smith said. “That is only going to make the NPF stronger and to have Maggie be a part of that is special. She represents our university and our program extremely well.”
More than halfway through her senior season, Hull is leading the Big 12 Conference and ranks fourth in the country with her .490 batting average. She also leads the league with 51 hits and is tied for second with 11 doubles. Her 37 RBIs trail just three of her Big 12 counterparts and have her sitting at 132 career RBIs – just three shy of tying the Kansas record.
The Lawrence, Kan., native has started all 191 games of her Kansas career and leads the Jayhawk record books with a .366 career batting average. In the first Big 12 series of her final season at KU, Hull hit .444 with three RBIs over three games against No. 8 Texas.
“It’s phenomenal,” Smith said about Hull’s offensive consistency. “People can’t get her out. They don’t know how to pitch to her because she makes adjustments. She works really hard and she puts her heart and soul into it. I attribute her success to that more than anything. What she’s doing statistically is hard to do, not many people can do it and she does it against everybody in the Big 12, outside of the Big 12 and it’s phenomenal to watch her day-in and day-out.”
A true icon at KU, Hull broke the KU single-season record with a .409 batting average in 2012, a record that stood for more than 30 years. She led her team with 67 hits and scored 46 runs, which tied a Kansas record for the most runs scored in a season. At the conclusion of her historic junior, Hull earned All-Big 12 First Team honors, KU’s first player to earn first team all-conference status since 2006.
Hull was named an NFCA All-Region First Team member in 2012, just one step below All-America status. A two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team award winner, Hull became the 11th KU softball player to be named an Academic All-American. Capital One and CoSIDA presented her Third Team honors last May.
Although her 2012 campaign was stellar, Hull has been a four-year starter for the Jayhawks and ranks on nearly every top-10 career list: batting average (.366, 1st), RBIs (132, 2nd), runs scored (128, 2nd), hits (212, 4th), doubles (43, 3rd), slugging percentage (.566, 2nd) and home runs (21, 9th).
Aside from drafting the NCAA’s most talented athletes, NPF is interested in building a league that is devoted to serving its communities and providing positive female role models. Hull more than fits the bill as she continuously finds ways to give back to her hometown whenever she can.
“That is the closest city to home is just so exciting for my entire family and for my fiancée Kevin and I,” Hull said. “I think within about five seconds of my name being on the screen, I had text messages from my parents and my siblings and from some of my roommates that were watching. Within a couple of minutes, all of my teammates had found out and were all texting me. It’s a huge honor to have all the support and how excited they are for me, it makes it that much more of a big deal to me.”
She is actively involved with community outreach; she volunteers with Lawrence Community Shelter, Special Olympics and Young Life as well as spending time as a translator for Spanish-speaking student athletes. In 2013, she was a driving force behind bringing an FCA chapter to the University of Kansas.
Hull will conclude her Jayhawk career and will graduate in May with a dual degree in journalism and Spanish before joining the Bandits this summer. The NPF season runs from June to August.
ABOUT NATIONAL PRO FASTPITCH (NPF)
National Pro Fastpitch is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. The league, created to give elite female fastpitch players the opportunity to pursue a professional career in their chosen sport, has operated since 1997 under the names of Women’s Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women’s Pro Softball League (WPSL). NPF is the Official Development Partner of Major League Baseball in the category of women’s fastpitch softball since 2002.
JAYHAWKS IN THE PROS
Destiny Frankenstein (2006) – New England Riptide, Free Agent
Serena Settlemier (2006-08) – Texas/Rockford Thunder, 14th overall
Brittany Hile (2011) – NPF Diamonds, 15th overall
Maggie Hull (2013) – Chicago Bandits, 11th overall
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
