Sara Groenewegen

Sara Groenewegen (born April 12, 1995) is a Canadian professional softball pitcher for the Canadian Wild. She has been a member of the Canada women's national softball team since 2013, and finished her senior season at the University of Minnesota in 2017. She was a three-time All-American, tabbing herself as a two time pick for 1st team (2016, 2017 seasons). Sara owns the all-time Strikeout record at the University of Minnesota with 1,214 career strikeouts. She was the second overall draft pick in the 2017 NPF draft and signed a contract to play for the Akron Racers.

Sara Groenewegen
Canadian Wild – No. 17
Pitcher
Born: (1995-04-12) April 12, 1995[1]
White Rock, British Columbia
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • 2014 Big Ten Freshman of the Year
  • 2014 Big Ten Pitcher of the Year
  • 2015 Big Ten Player of the Year
  • 2015 Second-Team All American
  • 2016 First-Team All American
  • 2017 Big Ten Pitcher of the Year
  • 2017 First-Team All American
  • All-NPF Team (2019)
Sara Groenewegen
Medal record
Women's softball
Representing  Canada
Pan American Games
2015 Toronto
2019 Lima
World Championships
2018 Chiba, Japan
2016 Surrey, B.C.

Early life

Groenewegen was born on April 12, 1995, in White Rock, British Columbia, where she attended Elgin Park Secondary school, from where she graduated in 2013. Groenewegen was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of nine, but did not let this disease control her, persisting to become a member of the Canada women's national softball team at the age of 17. She has two sisters and comes from a 'softball family'.

College career

Groenewegen finished her senior season at the University of Minnesota in 2017, where she developed a reputation as one of the most feared pitchers in the entire country, winning Big Ten Pitcher of the Year as a freshman, and repeated her senior year. She also won Big Ten Player of the year her sophomore season for both her stellar offense and pitching performance throughout the season.[2]. Groenewegen has also become a feared hitter, hitting 36 career home runs in her time at Minnesota.

Statistics

Pitching
Year W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA
2014 14 3 28 17 9 5 3 116.1 70 38 37 42 192 2.23
2015 31 7 44 39 28 10 2 234.1 141 69 56 78 379 1.67
2016 31 7 43 39 23 7 2 234.2 169 85 68 55 336 2.03
2017 31 4 37 30 22 9 1 211.2 66 29 19 30 307 0.63

Batting
Year G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO
2014 55 157 21 47 .299 42 11 1 11 93 .592% 28 24
2015 60 180 26 67 .372 44 12 1 12 117 .650% 27 18
2016 55 142 30 42 .296 41 11 0 7 82 .577% 38 21

International career

Groenewegen has been a member of the Canada women's national softball team since 2013, straight out of high school. Groenewegen has played a key role as mainly a pitcher on Team Canada. She led Canada to a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, which was the first gold medal for Team Canada softball in 32 years [3]. Winning that game also made Sara the youngest starting pitcher to earn a gold medal. At the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, Groenewegen became Canada's first pitcher to throw a perfect game on August 5, 2019 versus Venezuela[4].

Statistics

[5] [6]

Year W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA
2014 6 1 14 8 1 0 0 38.1 38 21 18 17 39 3.29
2015 1 1 7 2 1 0 1 21.2 13 4 3 6 25 0.97
2016 4 3 12 6 1 1 2 38 36 14 14 8 59 2.58

Professional career

Groenewegen was drafted in the first round of the 2017 NPF Draft by the Akron Racers as the second overall pick[7]. In her second season in the National Pro Fastpitch league, Groenewegen was one of the league's top pitchers, earning All-NPF honors. She ended the 2019 season with a 1.52 ERA going 6-4 with 3 saves. She made 17 appearances, 11 starts, had 73.2 innings pitched, and struck out 64. She threw 4 complete games and 1 shut out[8].

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References
  1. "Sara Groenewegen Bio :: University of Minnesota Official Athletic Site :: Softball". Gophersports.com. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  2. http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/051017aaa.html
  3. https://torontosun.com/2015/07/26/pitcher-sara-groenewegen-leads-way-as-canada-beats-usa-for-gold-in-womens-softball/wcm/26eabe90-b202-4407-952a-a9196f7ff1f6
  4. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/pan-am-games-softball-canada-1.5236648
  5. "Canada | Summer 2016 | Adult Softball | GameChanger". Gc.com. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  6. "Team Canada | Summer 2014 | Adult Softball | GameChanger". Gc.com. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  7. http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/19234566/2017-npf-draft-florida-state-seminoles-pitcher-jessica-burroughs-taken-no-1-overall-national-pro-fastpitch-draft
  8. https://profastpitch.com/stats/
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