Following a phenomenal junior season, Texas Tech softball’s Karli Hamilton was awarded Third Team All-America honors by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association on Wednesday.
Hamilton is the fourth Red Raider in program history to earn All-America honors and is the second student-athlete to earn third-team status. The Houston native joins Sandy Butler (1998-second team), Amanda Renfro (2001-second team) and Jessica Hartwell (2018-third team).
After Hartwell earned third-team laurels last season, Hamilton’s NFCA All-America nod marks the first time in program history that the Red Raiders have received the prestigious postseason recognition in back-to-back seasons.
Starting all 58 games as Tech’s everyday center fielder, Hamilton saw a tremendous boost in the batter’s box in her third season with the Red Raiders. The NFCA Central All-Region and All-Big 12 First-Team honoree led the Big 12 Conference with 73 hits and seven triples during the regular season while she sat second with a .427 batting average.
Hamilton set the school career and single-season record with eight triples during the Red Raiders’ 2019 campaign and now holds the school record with 13 triples in her career. She became the first Big 12 player to record eight triples in a season since 2010 and tied for third in Big 12 single-season history with her triples mark this year.
Finishing the 2019 season with 78 hits, Hamilton tied for 14th in the nation after Tech’s first NCAA appearance since 2012 and only four other student-athletes around the country finished higher in triples. She led the team with 25 multi-hit games and reached base in 22 consecutive games from Mar. 16- Apr. 30.
The junior was awarded three Big 12 Player of the Week nods and she maintained a .317 batting average with 20 hits against Top-25 RPI teams. Through 58 games, Hamilton led the Red Raider lineup in batting average (.398), runs scored (58), total bases (128), hits (78) and triples (8).
Additionally, Hamilton earned Second-Team All-America Honors from Softball America, which is in its first year of existence. The organization’s first-ever All-America teams were voted on between the staff of Softball America and an advisory committee made up of softball personnel from around the country. Gregory was designated as the head coach of the honorable mention squad and associate head coach Sam Marder earned an identical title on the honorable mention team as well.
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