Sara Groenewegen

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Sara Groenewegen
Canadian Wild – No. 17
Pitcher
Born: (1995-04-12) April 12, 1995 (age 26)[1]
White Rock, British Columbia
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Women's softball
Representing  Canada
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2020 Tokyo Team
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2015 Toronto
Silver medal – second place 2019 Lima
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Chiba, Japan
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Surrey, B.C.

Sara Angeline Groenewegen (born April 12, 1995) is a Canadian, former collegiate All-American, medal-winning Olympian, professional softball pitcher for the Canadian Wild of the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF).[2][3][4] From 2014 to 2017, Groenewegen pitched for the University of Minnesota, where she hold the all-time strikeouts and strikeout ratio records.[5] She also currently still ranks for both the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA Division I in the ratio category.[6][7] She has played for the Canadian Wild in the NPF since being drafted second overall in 2017. She has been a member of the Canada women's national softball team since 2013. Groenewegen helped Team Canada win a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[8][9]

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[]

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.[10] Groenewegen has also become a feared hitter, hitting 36 career home runs in her time at Minnesota.

Groenewegen debuted on February 8 defeating the Murray State Racers with 7 strikeouts and six shutout innings; she also drove in a run with a hit.[11] From February 8–23, Groenewgen posted a career best 10 game hit streak: she batted .414 (12/29) and accumulated 9 RBIs, four home runs, three doubles, 5 walks, scoring 5 runs for a .931% slugging percentage and striking out 5 times.[12] Later on April 26, she no hit the Penn State Nittany Lions.[13] In her sophomore campaign, Groenewegen achieved a career high of four hits to help defeat the Stetson Hatters on February 13, hitting two home runs and a double.[14] On March 20, she also tallied two more home runs in a match with the Illinois Fighting Illini, collecting a career best six RBIs.[15] Finally, on May 2 she struck out 19 batters vs. the Purdue Boilermakers in 8 innings for another career best total.[16]

On February 13, the junior tossed 15 strikeouts against the Texas Tech Red Raiders to win the 7-4 game, the strikeouts were her high in regulation.[17] Groenewegen would pitch her first perfect game over the FAU Owls on March 12.[18] In her senior year, Groenewegen whiffed 9 of the California Golden Bears on March 15 to cross 1,000 for her career.[19] She also had two career best streaks: beginning on April 2 to May 13, she won 16 consecutive games. During the streak she threw 98.1 innings, allowing 48 hits, 9 earned runs, 15 walks and fanned 155 batters for a 0.64 ERA and WHIP. In one of the games on April 28, she won her 100th game by no-hitting the Purdue Boilermakers in 5 innings with 12 strikeouts.[20] During the same time on April 14–26, she also pitched 38.0 consecutive scoreless innings with 23 hits, four walks and 59 strikeouts for a 0.71 WHIP.[21] Groenewegen made her last appearance as a Gopher on May 21 in a loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, going for four innings, allowing a run and totaling 8 strikeouts during the NCAA Regionals.[22]

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.[23] 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.[24]

Groenewegen started for Team Canada throwing three shutout innings in the Bronze medal game, eventually defeating Team Mexico 3-2 on July 27, 2021. She posted a win and had two hits for the team at the Tokyo games.[25][26]

Professional career[]

Groenewegen was drafted in the first round of the 2017 NPF Draft by the Akron Racers as the second overall pick.[27] 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.[28]

Personal life[]

Groenewegen has revealed she is gay.[29]

Statistics[]

[30] [31]

Minnesota Golden Gophers[]

YEAR W L GP GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
2014 14 3 28 17 9 5 3 116.1 70 38 37 42 192 2.23 0.96
2015 31 7 44 39 28 10 2 234.1 141 69 56 78 379 1.67 0.93
2016 31 7 43 39 23 7 2 234.2 169 85 68 55 336 1.64 0.95
2017 31 4 37 30 22 9 1 211.2 107 29 19 30 307 0.63 0.65
TOTALS 107 21 152 125 82 31 8 797.0 487 221 180 205 1214 1.58 0.87
YEAR G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
2014 55 157 21 47 .299 42 11 1 11 93 .592% 28 24 0 0
2015 60 180 26 67 .372 44 12 1 12 117 .650% 27 18 0 1
2016 55 142 30 42 .296 41 11 0 7 82 .577% 38 21 0 0
2017 61 164 22 40 .244 30 2 0 7 53 .323% 23 22 2 2
TOTALS 231 643 99 196 .305 157 36 2 37 345 .536% 116 85 2 3
Year W L GP GS CG SHO 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

References[]

  1. ^ "Sara Groenewegen Bio :: University of Minnesota Official Athletic Site :: Softball". Gophersports.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  2. ^ "2015 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I All-America Teams". Nfca.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  3. ^ "2016 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I All-America Teams". Nfca.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  4. ^ "2017 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I All-America Teams". Nfca.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  5. ^ "Career Records". Gophersports.com. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  6. ^ "2020-21 Big Ten Records Book" (PDF). Bigten.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  7. ^ "Division I Softball Records" (PDF). Ncaa.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  8. ^ "Sara Groenewegen". Gophersports.com. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  9. ^ "Sara Groenewegen". Olympic.ca. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  10. ^ http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/051017aaa.html
  11. ^ "Gophers Win Twice in Baton Rouge". Gophersports.com. 2014-02-08. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  12. ^ "2014 SOFTBALL SCHEDULE". Gophersports.com. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  13. ^ "Gophers Sweep Senior Day Twin Bill". Gophersports.com. 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  14. ^ "Gophers Sweep Stetson, Improve to 7-0". Gophersports.com. 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  15. ^ "Gophers Power Way to 14-2 Win over Illinois". Gophersports.com. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  16. ^ "Gophers Win Twice on Senior Day". Gophersports.com. 2015-05-02. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  17. ^ "Gophers Split Second Day in Vegas". Gophersports.com. 2016-02-13. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  18. ^ "Groenewegen Throws Perfect Game". Gophersports.com. 2016-03-12. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  19. ^ "Groenewegen Hits 1,000 Career Ks In Top-25 Win". Gophersports.com. 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  20. ^ "Macken, Groenewegen Come Up Big". Gophersports.com. 2017-04-28. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  21. ^ "2017 SOFTBALL SCHEDULE". Gophersports.com. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  22. ^ "Historic Season Comes To An End". Gophersports.com. 2017-05-21. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  23. ^ "Pitcher Sara Groenewegen leads way as Canada beats USA for gold in women's softball".
  24. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/pan-am-games-softball-canada-1.5236648[bare URL]
  25. ^ "MEX 2, CAN 3". Olympicssoftball.wbsc.org. 2021-07-26. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  26. ^ "Groenewegen". Olympicssoftball.wbsc.org. 2021-07-26. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  27. ^ "FSU's Burroughs picked first in NPF draft". 24 April 2017.
  28. ^ "STATS".
  29. ^ Sara Groenewegen (@saragroe) on TikTok, retrieved 2021-10-04
  30. ^ "Canada | Summer 2016 | Adult Softball | GameChanger". Gc.com. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  31. ^ "Team Canada | Summer 2014 | Adult Softball | GameChanger". Gc.com. Retrieved 2017-04-25.

External links[]

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