Towson, MD – For the third straight year, The Sage College's softball team has produced a CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-America Team member. This year's honoree, becomes the very first Sage student-athlete to earn a repeat selection to the team as Sage's junior utility player Kristen Beikirch (Brockport, NY/Brockport) was named to the 2014 Academic All-America Second Team. As a sophomore, she was named to the Third Team.
To be eligible for Academic All-America ® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 20,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
For more information about the Academic All-America ® Teams program, please visit www.cosida.com or www.capitaloneacademicallamerica.com.
Sage head softball coach, Jamie Brown said of Beikirch's selection, "Kristen is so well deserving of this award." Brown added, "She works extremely hard on and off the field. She is always striving towards achieving her ultimate goals of being a doctor and of being the best softball player she can be. Her Gator softball family is very proud of her and we can't wait to see what she can accomplish as a senior next year."
Beikirch batted .374 this spring with a team-best 43 runs scored and was a perfect 20-20 in stolen bases. She leads the team with 13 doubles in 37 starts and has played at first and third base, while also working behind the plate as a catcher. As a junior, she connected for a team-best 16-game hitting streak, while boasting 14 multiple-hit games with five multiple RBI games as well in 2014.
On her career, Beikirch owns several career marks as well. Among them, she is the program's career stolen base leader with 53, while also leading the Gators with her 128 runs scored. She stands No. 9 in career games played (124), No. 2 in at-bats (418), No. 2 in hits (175), No. 4 in doubles (29), No. 8 in triples (7), No. 3 in home runs (14), and No. 5 in RBI's (71). She owns a .419 career batting average as well in her time as a Gator.
With the release of the latest NCAA Division III softball statistics, she ranks nationally in Division III in doubles per game (No. 111 with 0.36), while standing at No. 33 in runs scored per game (1.19) and stolen bases (No. 52).
Over the course of her career she has earned numerous awards and acclaim. She was the 2013 Skyline Conference Player of the Year as well as the 2012 ECAC Metro NY-NJ- and Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year. Among her other honors in 2014, she was placed on the 2014 Skyline Conference All-Star Second Team as a utility player.
As a sophomore, she was named the Sage Female Athlete of the Year after earning numerous individual honors as a member of the 2013 Gators. Among them was a selection as the 2013 Skyline Conference Softball Player of the Year and to the 2013 CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-America Third Team. She finished her sophomore year with another record-setting pace and ranked nationally in six different categories. She ranked No. 43 in runs scored per game (1.12), while ranking 72nd in batting average (0.444). She also ranked in slugging percentage (0.688, No. 116) as well as home runs (6, No. 166), triples (3, No. 158) and on-base percentage (0.464, No. 250).
She not only led Sage in batting average, but the entire conference in batting with her blistering .444 and broke her own record from the 2012 season as she connected for 64 hits this season, two more than last year's 62 hits. She also added a team-leading 11 doubles, three triples, and six home runs. She had a .688 slugging percentage that matched her impressive .464 on-base percentage. Beikirch had 17 multiple-hit games on the season, while starting all 41 games for the Gators.
The 2014 softball team went 23-14 on the year having finished as the Skyline Conference Tournament Runners-up. The Gators won the 2014 Skyline Conference regular-season title and earned the No. 1 seed after producing a 10-4 record in league play. The Gators also made the program's third consecutive appearance in the ECAC Metro Tournament to cap the 2014 campaign.
Academically, she has excelled in the classroom as a biology and pre-med major with a 3.92 grade-point-average. A National Honor Society student at Brockport High School, she earned four letters in softball and was a two-time first team all-county pick as a junior and senior. She also earned All-Greater Rochester Honorable Mention honors.
At Sage, she has been named to the Skyline Conference Scholar-Athlete Team twice and had also earned five selections to the Dean's List. She is a candidate for the 2014 Sage Spring Scholar-Athlete Team as well as the 2014 Skyline Conference Scholar-Athlete Team. She is the daughter of David and Michele Beikirch.
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