Santana And Gilmore Headline Seven All-Pac-12 Softball Honorees
May 16, 2012
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - Junior Elizabeth Santana and freshman Dani Gilmore headlined a group of seven Oregon State softball players to receive All-Pac-12 recognition when the conference's first, second, honorable mention and freshman teams were announced by Commissioner Larry Scott on Wednesday morning.
Santana earned a nod on the All-Pac-12 First Team while Gilmore was named to both the Pac-12 All-Freshman and All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention squads. Seniors Mary Claire Brenner, Erin Guzy and Paige Hall also received honorable mention accolades and Aryn Feickert and Ya Garcia were awarded Pac-12 All-Freshman Honorable Mention in a vote by the conference's coaches for their performances during the 2012 season.
With her spot among the Pac-12's best, Santana became just the fifth Oregon State player to ever earn a place on the conference's first team and the first since 2007. Brianne McGowan (2005-07), Cambria Miranda (2006-07), Brynnen Guthrie (2003) and Tarrah Beyster (1997-2000) are the other Beavers to have received such an honor. All four also received All-America status at some point in their careers.
Oregon State's shortstop, playing her first year for the Beavers after transferring from UC Davis, has started all 55 games and leads the team in average (.349), hits (61), triples (3) and RBI (36). The last OSU player to best her 61 hits so far this season was Miranda, who had 66 in 2007. Santana's 36 RBI are 11th all-time in single-season history at Oregon State and if the season ended today her .349 average would rank the same in that category as well. She had her best game of the year in OSU's upset of then-No. 3 Arizona State on April 10, almost single-handedly dispatching the Sun Devils with a 2-for-4 effort, including a game-tying solo home run in the seventh and a walk-off two-run job in the ninth.
Gilmore is having one of the more impressive seasons for a Beaver freshman in recent memory. Through 55 games she is batting .313 (52-for-166) with nine home runs and 33 RBI. Her 42 runs scored and 13 stolen bases, both team highs in 2012, place her 4th and tied for 6th in single-season history at Oregon State in each respective category. Her nine long balls in her first year in Corvallis are the most for any Oregon State freshman since Beyster launched 12 in 1997.
The All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention award is Brenner's first, the third for Guzy and second for Hall. After knocking 71 hits in her four years, Brenner has posted a career .254 batting average to go along with 10 home runs, 58 RBI and 27 runs. She holds the school record for home runs in a game after belting three against Southern Utah on February 14, 2010 and is the last OSU player to earn Pac-10 Player of the Week honors when she launched six total home runs over five games at the Kajikawa Classic, from February 8-14 that same season. She has had two six-RBI games in her career, which is the second-highest total for runs batted in in a single game in Oregon State history.
Guzy has had her best season in Corvallis in 2012, setting career highs for average, hits, runs, doubles, home runs and RBI after batting .307 with 47 hits, 21 runs scored, 10 doubles, three home runs and 26 RBI. She is OSU's active career leader in games played, with 202, and hits, with 147, and her 30 career doubles are tied for 10th all-time in Oregon State history.
Hall has been a dual threat for Oregon State throughout her entire career, with four-year offensive marks of a .267 batting average, 17 home runs and 67 RBI. With a career record in the circle of 51-43 (14-3, 2.62 ERA in 2012) she is one of only six Oregon State hurlers to amass 50 wins. Her 381 strikeouts in 578.1 innings put her fifth all-time at OSU. Additionally, her five saves this year are tied for third in program history for a single season, are tops in the Pac-12 and tied for eighth in the nation.
Garcia has started every game at second base for Oregon State this season, batting .237 with 20 runs scored, nine sacrifice hits and six stolen bases. In the season opener against BYU the freshman burst onto the collegiate stage after going 3-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored.
Feickert, one of only four freshman pitchers in the Pac-12 to receive recognition, went 3-1 this season with a 3.57 ERA. She lasted a career-high 6.1 innings in her first-ever Pac-12 start, a 7-5 win over No. 14 UCLA on April 1, and followed that up with a start against No. 3 Arizona State on April 10, going five innings and only allowing one run. The win over UCLA was huge for the Beavers, as it was Oregon State's 11th all-time victory against the perennial powerhouse from Southern California and was only the Beavers' fourth win against the Bruins in Westwood.
Oregon State is having its best season since 2007 and will make its 10th-ever NCAA postseason appearance this weekend. OSU's first game in the double-elimination regional in Norman, Okla. is on Friday, May 18 against No. 25 Tulsa. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. PT/5 p.m. CT.
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