Kincaid, Gulick Making Arkansas Softball a Hit
In the last few years Arkansas has intensified recruiting on the West Coast for its women’s teams and it has paid dividends.
Senior pitcher Tammy Kincaid, formerly of Villa Park High, and senior outfielder Dana Gulick, formerly of El Toro, have been mainstays since Arkansas added softball four years ago.
Kincaid, a right-hander, ranks 16th on the NCAAcareer list with 972 2/3 innings pitched. She has a lifetime earned-run average of 1.79 in 171 appearances, with 108 complete games and 697 strikeouts. Kincaid is a two-time all-Southeastern Conference pick and was a 1999 SEC all-tournament selection.
On Saturday Kincaid (16-10) pitched a 12-inning, 4-3 victory over No. 19 South Carolina.
Gulick is considered the fastest player in Arkansas’ short softball history. She has stolen a school-record 62 bases in her career and has been thrown out just nine times.
A left-handed hitter, Gulick had the team’s highest batting averages in 1998 and 1999, batting .312 and .311, respectively.
Gulick, who is batting .270 this season, began her career as a center fielder, but is now in right field.
Razorback Coach Carie Dever-Boaz, who has a four-year record at Arkansas of 111-130 and a lifetime mark of 216-168, has an Orange County connection. A three-time All-American pitcher at Fresno State, Dever-Boaz played for the Orange County Majestics, a fast-pitch travel ball team, in 1988 when the Majestics were the American Softball Assn. national open champion.
MORE SEC SOFTBALL
Of 10 Southeastern Conference schools, only Alabama hasn’t dipped into Southern California for softball talent.
Tennessee Coach Jim Beitia had this to say about former Kennedy catcher Adrianna Wilson before the season began: “Adrianna is looking to become the first player from our program to be named All-South Region two years in a row. After an impressive freshman campaign, it will be interesting to see how she responds to being our full-time catcher over 70 games.”
Wilson has responded. Entering last week she had started 31 of 35 games, was batting .258 and had not committed an error.
Auburn junior infielder Mary Petrie, formerly of Bolsa Grande, set single-season school records in 1999 with 12 home runs and led the Tigers with 40 runs batted in, 22 walks, 92 total bases, 356 putouts and a .564 slugging percentage. She’s hitting .440 this season and has six home runs and 31 RBIs.
Auburn Coach Tina Deese, a two-time all-Southeast Region selection at Florida State, pitched for Marina from 1978-81 and led Golden West College to back-to-back state titles. She had a 363-230-1 record in eight seasons as coach at NAIA power Huntingdon College in Alabama before starting the Tigers’ program in 1997. Her record at Auburn is 77-107-1.
Florida senior outfielder Nicole Kreipl of Huntington Beach is the Gators’ career leader with 249 games played and 731 at-bats. She’s one of the team’s top players in several career categories including batting average (.278), runs (100), hits (192), RBIs (60), doubles (28), total bases (227), walks (47) and putouts (380).
Teammate Ashley Boone, a junior first baseman/outfielder from Woodbridge who is batting .320 for Florida this season, has the Gators’ best career batting average (.329) and has 181 hits and 96 RBIs. She is the career doubles leader (49) and has the most putouts (1,047). Last year her .355 batting average, 72 hits, 43 RBIs, 15 doubles, eight home runs and 111 total bases were single-season bests in Florida history.
Kentucky pitcher Keary Camunas, who attended Fountain Valley, holds the Wildcats’ single-season record for victories (14). A senior, she was named SEC pitcher of the week in late March and currently has a 1.76 ERA.
Former Mater Dei pitcher Collen Boddy has appeared in 24 games as a designated player or pitcher for the Wildcats. She is batting .109 with a home run and six RBIs.
Sophomore Heather Culver, a third baseman/pitcher from Villa Park, has appeared in 30 games at South Carolina as a designated player and pitcher. She is batting .128 and has an ERA of 2.33.
Former Mission Viejo outfielder Alyssa Mauro, a sophomore at Georgia, is batting .221 with 11 RBIs. Last season she played in 50 games and did not make an error. She has committed just three errors in 49 games this season.