Trio of Panthers named to All-SCIAC softball team
ORANGE, Calif. – A trio of Chapman University softball players were named to the 2015 SCIAC All-Conference Softball team on Thursday as selected by the coaches. Junior P Natalie Both, junior OF Gabrielle Leveratto and senior IF Taylor Cartwright headlined the Panthers' All-Conference class, earning second team honors. Additionally, junior IF Larissa Rinauro received a sportsmanship award.
Both served as the Panthers' ace on the mound racking up 150 innings to earn SCIAC honors for her third consecutive year. As a junior, Both led the SCIAC with 141 strikeouts, averaging 6.58 per seven innings. She also ranked fourth in two additional conference categories with a 2.99 ERA and 11 wins this season.
In Leveratto's first year as a Panther, the junior ranked fifth in the SCIAC with a .490 on-base-percentage, 11th in the conference with a .393 batting average and finished in the top-20 with .571 slugging percentage. Leveratto led the Chapman offense with 33 hits and 20 RBI, earning hits in 20 of her last 25 games, while collecting three home runs. The center fielder also led the Panther outfield with .982 fielding percentage committing just one error in 34 games.
Third baseman Cartwright ranked second on the team behind Leveratto in several offensive categories with a .429 on-base percentage, .448 slugging percentage and a .344 average at the plate this season. The senior collected 33 hits, leading the team with seven doubles while scoring 12 runs and collecting 16 RBI. Cartwright logged 43 total bases over the year for eight extra-base hits and eight sacrifice hits for the Panthers.
Meanwhile Rinauro received sportsmanship honors as part of the SCIAC spring sports postseason awards. The junior finished the season with a .247 hitting average and a .354 on-base-percentage. She scored 14 runs for the Panthers, collected 24 hits in 97 at bats and started all 34 games for Chapman.
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was established in 1915. The league is currently comprised of nine private colleges and universities in Southern California: California Institute of Technology, California Lutheran University, Chapman University, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, University of La Verne, Occidental College, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, University of Redlands, and Whittier College. The conference recognizes outstanding athletic achievements of its student-athletes on a weekly and annual basis.
All-SCIAC Softball Team: http://thesciac.org/sports/sball/2014-15/Releases/all_conference
by Raquel Rinauro
Sports Information Assistant
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