Broken records, shutout pitchers and the POY race: Numbers that defined the 2024 season
The 2024 college softball regular season has officially wrapped up. This season brought many record-breaking heroes and fascinating stats.
These stats can tell us about strengths, weaknesses and which players are leading the race for the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. They can also provide us some hints about what we might see in the Women’s College World Series, which begins May 30. The NCAA Softball Selection Show Presented by Capital One will air live on Sunday, May 12 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
With the conference tournaments upon us and with the final top 25 poll of the regular season out, here are the key numbers to know from the college softball season.
Stats are through May 7.
15: Clemson’s pitching staff has allowed just 15 home runs all season, the fewest by any Power 5 conference team this year.
14: Charlotte started the season with a bang, downing Florida State 6-5 in the first game. The 49ers have quietly kept up their momentum throughout and ended on a program-best 14-game winning streak.
13: With UCLA’s 12-1 win over Arizona State on Saturday, the Bruins clinched their 13th and final Pac-12 regular-season championship.
12: There were 12 perfect games this season. Ball State’s Francys King claimed the final of the regular season in an 8-0 victory over Central Michigan on Saturday.
11: There were 11 different pitchers with over 200 strikeouts this season.
Brooklyn Shroyer (FDU), NiJaree Canady (Stanford), Kasey Ricard (Boston), Courtney Wyche (Maryland), Maddie Penta (Auburn), Maddia Groff (Southern Illinois), Isabella Smith (Campbell), Rissa Bajusz (Western Michigan), Maya Johnson (Belmont), Olivia Lackie (South Alabama) and Mariah Lopez (Utah).
10: Miami (Ohio) had 10 different batters hit home runs this season as the Redhawks claimed a nation’s best 154 homers, ranking fourth all time.
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Miami (OH) stuns Oklahoma with back-to-back jacks
Karli Spaid and Holly Blaska stun the Sooners with back-to-back home runs to give the RedHawks an early 3-0 lead.
9: Maya Brady, who hit a two-home run in UCLA’s sweep of Arizona, has nine multihomer games in her career (tied for second most in UCLA history).
8: In April, Reese Atwood set a Texas program record with eight straight games hitting at least one RBI. This wasn’t the only program record she shattered, as her 21 home runs are the most in a single season.
7: Miami (Ohio) finished the regular season only seven home runs shy of tying Oklahoma’s 2021 team (161) for the single-season home run record.
6: Oklahoma’s six losses are the Sooners’ most since 2019. They finished that season as the WCWS runner-up to UCLA.
5: Stanford’s NiJaree Canady has only allowed five home runs all season, the fewest among Pac-12 pitchers who started at least 15 games.
4: Oklahoma’s Tiare Jennings has 301 RBIs in her career. She needs four more to surpass Sierra Romero (304) to claim the fifth most in women’s DI softball history.
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Tiare Jennings crushes a solo HR for OU
Tiare Jennings hits a solo home run into no-man’s land to give Oklahoma a 1-0 lead against UCF.
3: Texas had three starting hitters batting over .400, helping lift its offense to a nation-leading .380 batting average.
2: Boston (26) and Oklahoma (21) were the two teams to finish the regular season with 20 or more shutouts.
1: Florida State entered as the preseason favorite to finish atop the ACC but lost its final series of the season to Syracuse to drop below Duke in the conference standings, handing the Blue Devils their first 1-seed for the ACC tournament in program history.
ESPN Stats & Information research contributed to this article.
