Softball, like its older cousin baseball, is a numbers game. Here’s a look at five numbers across The Times coverage area that might surprise even the most die-hard area softball fans.
19
The number of combined home runs by Marquette teammates Taylor Cuchra (an area-leading 11) and Lindsey Kaufmann (who crushed eight longballs).
The next closest tandems from one team were the 16 by Newark’s Kaitlyn Schofield (nine) and Danica Peshia (seven) and the dozen combined home runs knocked by Ottawa’s McKenzie Oslanzi (seven) and Maura Condo (five).
1.62
Oslanzi’s absurdly good on-base plus slugging average, a statistic that has grown fashionable for measuring offensive production due to its relating the most important successful outcomes of an at-bat — getting on base and advancing as close to home plate as possible for the next hitter in the lineup.
The Eastern Illinois University-bound Oslanzi may be better known for her pitching, but she’s awfully good with the bat as well, including an area-best .583 batting average.
4
Hitters finished with batting averages at or above .500 this past spring. After Oslanzi, the next three were all in the high-octane Newark Norsemen lineup.
Schofield hit .510 with 46 RBIs, Ryan Williams batted .506 with 40 RBIs, and Peshia finished hitting an even .500 with 48 runs batted in. Teammate Taylor Kruser just missed joining the club, batting .496.
Also in the ballpark — pun intended — were .450-plus hitters such as Seneca’s Sam Vandevelde (.490), Serena’s Paisley Twait (.479), Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell’s Ella Derossett (.457) and Somonauk/Leland’s Bre VerCautren (.453).
32-for-32
Seneca’s Alyssa Zellers was perfect in stolen-base attempts. The speedster racked up 32 steals in as many tries this season and was not thrown out a single time.
5
The number of Times-area hurlers who pitched a statistically significant number of innings and finished with earned-run averages below two runs per game.
The list was led by two Newark stars, Schofield at 1.02 and Kodi Rizzo with an ERA of 1.09, followed by Oslanzi with a 1.31, Seneca’s Tessa Krull at 1.42 and WFC’s Shae Simons with a 1.76 earned-run average.
