Monica Abbott

Monica Abbott
Personal information
Full name Monica Cecilia Abbott
Nationality American
Born July 28, 1985 (1985-07-28) (age 31)
Santa Cruz, California
Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Sport
Team
Medal record
Women's softball
Representing  United States
Olympic Games
2008 Beijing Team
ISF Women's World Championship
2006 Beijing Team
2010 Caracas Team
World Cup of Softball
2005 Oklahoma City Team
2006 Oklahoma City Team
2007 Oklahoma City Team
2009 Oklahoma City Team
2010 Oklahoma City Team
Pan American Games
2007 Rio de Janeiro Team
Canada Cup
2005 South Surrey Team
2006 South Surrey Team
2007 South Surrey Team
2009 South Surrey Team
National Pro Fastpitch
1st 2007 season Washington Glory
1st 2011 season Chicago Bandits
1st 2015 season Chicago Bandits

Monica Cecilia Abbott (born July 28, 1985) is an American athlete who pitched for the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers softball team from 2004 to 2007. In 2008, Abbott participated in the Beijing Olympics with Team USA. On May 4, 2010, she and catcher Shannon Doepking were traded by the Florida Pride to the Tennessee Diamonds in exchange for pitcher Cat Osterman and catcher Megan Willis.

During her senior season in college, she set the record for the most strikeouts in a Division I softball season and became the NCAA Division I Softball all-time leader in career wins, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, games started and games pitched. She was the recipient of the 2007 Honda Sports Award for the Top Collegiate Softball Player in the country and was named the 2007 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. She was also named the 2007 Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year.[1]

Early life

Abbott was born in Santa Cruz, California and attended North Salinas High School from 1999 to 2003; her parents are Bruce and Julie Abbott, and her siblings are Jessica (born 1984), Jared (born 1988) and twins Bina and Gina (born 1991).

College career

Abbott pitched for the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers softball team from 2004 to 2007.

On April 21, in Abbott's 33rd game started of the season, she struck out her 500th batter of the season, thus becoming the first pitcher in NCAA Division I history to record 500 strikeouts in all four years of her collegiate career. Before Abbott started her collegiate career, only two pitchers had ever reached the 500-strikeout mark in any season (Courtney Blades and Cat Osterman). During Abbott's career from 2004 to 2007, Alicia Hollowell, Brooke Mitchell, Taryne Mowatt, Angela Tincher (twice) and Cat Osterman (twice more) would end up surpassing the 500-strikeout mark as well.

Abbott finished her college career with significant season awards as the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and the winner of the Honda Award for Top Collegiate Softball Player.[1]

On October 16, 2007, Abbott won the Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year award for Team Sports athletes.[1][2]

2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China

Abbott was selected for the final 15-person Olympic squad as one of three pitchers. On August 11, 2008, Abbott made her Olympic debut for Team USA, pitching the final inning (in relief of starter Jennie Finch) of a 5-inning no-hit victory by Team USA over Venezuela. On August 18, 2008, Abbott pitched 5 perfect innings, striking out 8, as Team USA defeated the Netherland 8–0 to extend its Olympic winning streak to 20 games. In its first six matches of the Beijing games, the USA pitching staff (Finch, Osterman, Abbott) had allowed a total of one hit. Team USA finished with a silver medal, losing to Japan in the championship game, which was started by Osterman and finished by Abbott.

Post-college career

On February 2, 2009, Abbott announced her signing with Toyota Motor Corporation on a six-month contract to play professional softball in Japan.

On July 23, 2015, Abbott pitched her second perfect game as a member of the Chicago Bandits, beating the Dallas Charge, 10–0.[3]

On August 3, 2015, Abbott pitched a no-hitter against the Pennsylvania Rebellion, winning 3–0. The pursuit of a perfect game ended in the seventh inning, on a Chicago error and later a walk.[4]

In May 2016, the Scrap Yard Dawgs, a National Pro Fastpitch team, signed Abbott to a six-year contract, believed to be worth $1 million; the contract is believed to be the most lucrative ever paid by an individual American professional franchise to an active female athlete in any team sport.[5]

Career statistics

United States National Team

YEAR W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
2004 5 1 8 5 3 2 1 32.0 19 4 2 3 46 0.43 0.68
2005 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 7.0 6 4 4 2 8 4.00 1.14
2008 6 0 12 5 1 0 0 37.0 10 3 3 6 71 0.56 0.43
TOTALS 13 1 22 12 4 2 1 76.0 35 11 9 10 125 0.83 0.59

University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers

YEAR W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
2004 45 10 59 47 44 24 4 352.0 165 72 52 57 582 1.03 0.63
2005 50 9 69 56 47 34 3 392.0 162 37 29 45 603 0.52 0.53
2006 44 10 62 51 42 25 4 345.2 186 64 47 48 531 0.95 0.68
2007 50 5 63 52 45 29 5 358.1 136 36 35 63 724 0.68 0.55
TOTALS 189 34 253 206 178 112 16 1448.0 649 209 163 213 2440 0.79 0.59

National Pro Fastpitch

YEAR NPF Team[6] W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
2007 Washington Glory 2 0 — 3 2 — 2 23.2 19 10 5 2 37 1.51 0.90
2009 USSSA Pride 2 3 — 6 5 — 0 45.1 30 15 10 9 69 1.55 0.86
2010 Tennessee Diamonds 7 11 19 17 17 3 0 127.1 89 30 19 13 161 1.04 0.80
2011 Chicago Bandits 15 4 22 14 12 5 1 125.0 58 25 20 17 170 1.12 0.60
2012 Chicago Bandits 16 3 26 17 15 7 4 140.0 72 25 21 37 209 1.05 0.78
2013 Chicago Bandits 18 5 25 18 17 9 1 142.2 99 25 21 25 207 1.03 0.87
2014 Chicago Bandits 10 7 20 — — — 3 105.2 62 24 16 30 144 1.06 0.87
2015 Chicago Bandits 16 1 20 15 15 13 2 112.1 39 6 5 26 175 0.31 0.58
2016 Scrap Yard Dawgs 19 3 26 20 13 7 3 142.2 81 23 20 33 185 0.98 0.80
TOTALS 105 37 +158 +110 +96 +44 16 964.2 549 183 137 192 1357 0.99 0.77

Single-game accomplishments

Season accomplishments

Career accomplishments

Awards

High school

Collegiate

References

  1. 1 2 3 Murphy, Melissa (2007-10-15). "Golfer Lorena Ochoa, softball star Monica Abbott win Sportswomen of the Year awards from WSF". USATODAY.com. Gannett Co. Inc. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Sportswoman of the Year Award". Women's Sports Foundation. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
  3. ↑ NPF (July 24, 2015). "Bandits Rout Charge Behind Abbott's Perfect Game". SportsPageMagazine.com. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Bandits Get Another No-Hitter From Monica Abbott". Journal & Topics Newspapers Online. August 4, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  5. ↑ Hays, Graham (May 5, 2016). "Monica Abbott Wants Change After Signing $1 Million Contract with NPF Expansion Team". ESPNW.com. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Historical Rosters". profastpitch.com. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
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