RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.36 (Softball)
5??0?? years of #KUsoftball pic.twitter.com/w5fvf9RBoA
— Kansas Softball (@KUSoftball) April 7, 2018
Play for your sister to your left and right #KUsoftball #JayhawkWay
A post shared by Kansas Softball (@kusoftball) on Feb 16, 2018 at 6:48am PST
2017-18 Season Highlights
- The 2018 campaign marked the 50th season of softball at the University of Kansas and the ninth under head coach Megan Smith. The Jayhawks concluded the season with a winning record of 27-25.
- The Jayhawks excelled in the classroom all year, achieving the program’s highest semester grade point average (GPA) of 3.45 in the fall of 2017 and nearly matching that mark in the spring of 2018 with a 3.44 GPA.
- Freshman utility Tarin Travieso earned Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors.
- Four-year starters Jessie Roane (third base) and Harli Ridling (catcher) earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Midwest Region honors.
- Kansas started the season 17-3 for its best 20-game start since 1996. The Jayhawks had a pair of winning streaks lasting at least five games this season.
- In the national statistics rankings, Kansas finished the season with the 13th-best fielding percentage (.975) and the 14th-highest doubles per game average (1.52).
- In the last four seasons, KU has won 121 games, including 40 wins during the 2015 season, which is still the most wins in a season at KU in over 25 years.
- The 2018 senior class is the first to play all four years of their careers at Rock Chalk Park. Ridling, a fifth-year senior, is the last Jayhawk to have played at both the on-campus Arrocha Ballpark and Arrocha Ballpark at Rock Chalk Park.
- All eight members of the Kansas softball senior class graduated from the University of Kansas.
- In the KU record books … Roane finished third in career doubles (51), sixth in single-season doubles (16 in 2018), seventh in career total bases (311), eighth in career slugging percentage (.507), 10th in single-season batting average (.377 in 2018) and 11th in career hits (194) … Ridling finished third in career home runs (37), third in career runs batted in (147), fifth in career slugging percentage (.534), sixth in career total bases (317) and 11th in career doubles (35) … Erin McGinley finished 11th in single-season doubles (14).
