Subject: Ritter and Kelly selected as the 2005 USA Softball Player's of the Year Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 13:19:29 -0600 From: "Brian McCall" <bmccall(at)softball.org>
Jennie Ritter and John Kelly selected as the 2005 USA Softball Players of the Year Oklahoma City, Okla.---USA Softball announced today the selection of Jennie Ritter (Dexter, Mich.) as the 2005 USA Softball Female Athlete of the Year and John Kelly (Chester, Iowa) as the 2005 USA Softball Male Athlete of the Year. These two athletes have been submitted to the United States Olympic Committee to be considered for the USOC Female and Male Athletes of the Year. Ritter, in her first season as a member of the USA Softball National Team, was a dominating force for the Red, White and Blue. In her first appearance with the USA Elite Team, Ritter appeared in three games at the 2005 Canada Cup in Surrey, B.C., where she earned three wins. She was the workhorse of the team pitching more innings than any other pitcher (24.2) while compiling 20 strikeouts. In the latter part of July, she led the U.S. Elite Team to its first gold medal of the season at the Intercontinental Cup in Madrid, Spain. Against Italy in the finals, she was the winning pitcher after going five innings, allowing two hits and no runs to lead the team to a 6-0 win. During the Cup, she made three appearances, recorded two wins, pitched 11 innings without allowing a run and recorded 16 strikeouts. For her efforts she was named as the Most Valuable Pitcher of the Tournament. In the final national team event of the season, Ritter traveled with Team USA to the Pan Am/World Games Qualifier in Guatemala City, Guatemala. In three starts she did not allow a run in 12 innings of work while allowing only six hits. For the second time this year, Ritter led USA Softball to a gold medal and even more important the top seed at the 2007 Pan Am Games and a spot in the 2006 ISF World Championships. All of these accolades come after this 2005 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist led the University of Michigan to its first ever National title. Kelly led the USA Softball Junior Mens National Team to a fifth place finish at the 2005 ISF Junior Mens World Championship in Prince Edwards Island. It was the highest finish for a USA Junior Mens team in more than two decades. He carried the U.S. pitching staff through the championship pitching all but 13 innings. In that span he logged 34 innings of work, striking out 19 while compiling an ERA of 3.91. John Kelly was a warrior for us during the entire tournament, Head Coach Tim Lyon said. He stepped up and was ready to take the ball every time we asked him to and gave it everything he had. The USA Softball Womens National Team was also nominated to the USOC in the Team of the Year category after continuing its winning ways into 2005, a year after winning its third consecutive gold medal at the 2004 Olympics. In its first appearance of the year at the International Sports Festival in Chula Vista, Calif., the team went undefeated, 5-0, outscoring opponents 34-2. Team USA finished with a team batting average of .364, nine homeruns and allowed only 10 hits in five games. In an exhibition game at the Champions Cup fans saw a rematch of the 2004 Olympic gold-winning USA and silver medalist Australia in Irving, Calif. Team USA proved the gold medal was rightfully theirs with a 10-0 shutout over Australia. The team turned in 11 hits and two home runs in the game. At the inaugural World Cup in Oklahoma City, Team USA outscored and out hit Japan but fell 3-1 in the championship game for a second-place finish. In its first event outside of the U.S., the Red, White and Blue saw a rematch against Japan at the Japan Cup. Despite finishing second in the Japan Cup, Team USA took the overall series with a 4-3 record, outscoring Japan, 22-8. The team wrapped up its 2005 campaign at the Pan Am/World qualifier in Guatemala City, Guatemala, securing the top seed to the 2007 Pam American Games with a 2-0 win over Canada in the finals. The team outscored its opponents 87-3 in nine games, also qualifying for the 2006 World Championships. ABOUT THE ASA The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nations largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 87 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/ ABOUT USA SOFTBALL USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Mens, Womens, Junior Boys and Junior Girls National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Womens National Team is one of the only two womens sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won seven World Championship titles including the last five consecutive. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/ From: "Brian McCall" <bmccall(at)softball.org> Als Fastball List *Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.AlsFastball.com/ NEWS: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball
_______________________________________________ Alsfastball mailing list [email protected] http://fastpitchwest.com/mailman/listinfo/alsfastball_fastpitchwest.com
