With the Women's College World Series finished and the college
softball season complete, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball
team finds itself among the nation's elite in several statistical
categories.
The Islanders finished the season seventh in team batting
average with a .326 mark on the year. That puts them in the
company of the best in the nation, just one point behind national
runner-up Arizona and 10 points behind national champion UCLA. The
Islanders finished ahead of five teams that made it to the WCWS in
Oklahoma City.
"Anytime you can compare yourself to everybody in the nation and
have a set number to it, it gives you some validation," said head
coach Jake Schumann. "We had a
successful year and with our kids knowing where we are at,
offensively, defensively and in pitching, we know where we need to
improve, not only in the whole scheme of things but on a day to day
basis."
In addition to finishing in the top 10 in team batting average,
the team was also ninth in doubles per game, 12th in double plays
per game, 24th in fielding percentage, 29th in slugging percentage,
30th in scoring and 32nd in stolen bases per game.
"It's great to be awesome offensively and pretty good
defensively but we have to do all three phases," said Schumann. "It
tells us where our deficiencies are and where we have to get
better.
"We want to be No. 1 in all those categories so how you do that
is you continue to recruit well and continue to do the things in
practice to get better."
Along with the team accomplishments, Islander players were also
highly ranked nationally in individual categories. Hannah Schwarz
finished the season tied for 30th in the nation with a .410 batting
average. Caley
Jeter finished 23rd in on-base percentage at .526 for the year
while coming in 75th in batting average with a .384 mark. She was
also the 42nd toughest to strikeout with one strikeout for every
16.8 at bats, striking out just nine times all season in 151 at
bats.
The two individuals were named to the 2010 Louisville
Slugger/NFCA Division I All-Region Teams as Schwarz was named First
Team All-Central Region while Jeter was named to the second
team.
"Individually, you look at Hannah and Caley, anytime you can
finish in the top 100 in anything, and they are in the top 30 of a
couple categories, that's saying a lot because there are a lot of
division I softball players," said Schumann. "That's just a
testament to them individually and how hard they work with the
extra batting practice and the extra defensive practice.
"They are two kids that were recognized for All-Region and they
set an example for our kids on the team now and our kids coming in
that you are going to get recognized for the hard work."
Schwarz and Jeter, along with catcher Brittany Tucker, will help
make up the core of the Islanders offense that was the best in the
Southland Conference. The trio of players led the Islanders in the
majority of offensive categories and look to help continue the
resurgence of the Islander program under Schumann's direction.
As a team, they set new records for runs in a season, scoring
316 and breaking the old mark by 104 runs, as well as recording 505
hits, 36 home runs, 159 walks and 89 stolen bases. The previous
team highs were 415 hits, 30 home runs, 139 walks and 53 stolen
bases.
"The individual and team accolades will come," said Schumann.
"It's just something that's a building block and the foundation for
what we've started the last couple of years and making something
that we can be proud of."
