Fresno State Athletics
Softball's All-American Becky Witt, Receives Stan Bates Award
8/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Aug. 6, 2001
Just completing her final season this past spring, Fresno State softball standout Becky Witt (Reseda, Calif.) became the second Fresno State student-athlete to receive the Stan Bates Award. Texas Christian University tennis player Sebastian Iannariello, garnered the honor as well.
The Western Athletic Conference established the Stan Bates Award in 1981 in honor of former WAC commissioner Stan Bates. The annual award is given to the WAC's top male and female scholar-athletes and recognizes the recipients' athletic and academic accomplishments and carries a $2,000 postgraduate scholarship.
The award marks the second postgraduate scholarship for Fresno State's Female Athlete of the Year. As a Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society member, and Kiwanis Torch of Excellence Award recipient, Witt was recently chosen as one of 29 female student-athletes to be awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship for academic achievement. She also becomes just the second female athlete in Fresno State history to be honored. Christina Bell, a former Bulldog women's soccer player, garnered the award in 1998.
Witt boasted a 3.60 cumulative GPA while majoring in kinesiology - sports medicine. She was a four-year starter in the outfield for the Bulldogs and finished the 2001 season as the team's leader in batting, hits, runs, total bases (80), at bats (192), stolen bases (18) and multiple-hit games (26).
The four-time all-West Region and all-Western Athletic Conference selection, concluded her career with four league championship titles, four NCAA Tournament appearances and two Women's College World Series showings -- including a national title in 1998 -- while guiding the Bulldogs to a 210-53 overall record in her four-year career.
Putting the finishing touches on a brilliant career by ranking in eight Fresno State records and seven WAC records, Witt is No. 8 in career runs (224), No. 9 in career hits (327) and No. 10 in at bats (866) in the NCAA annals.
With a career batting average of .382 (331-866), Witt shattered the school's career record in stolen bases (51) this season while tying a 20-year old record for most stolen bases in a game (3 vs. Colorado State, March 7). She also became just the second Bulldog to score 200 or more career runs and the fourth ever to collect 300 or more career hits.
Witt hit better than .400 in her last 34 games with a .407 average (44-108) that included 26 runs, three doubles, five RBI nine walks, sacrifice hit, 9-9 stolen bases and 45 total bases for a .417 slugging percentage. She was the team's most valuable player and led the WAC in batting (.396), hits (76) and runs (50) this past season. In the final NCAA statistics, Witt finished No. 29 in batting and No. 11 in toughest to strikeout.
