Team co-captain Sarah Fetters speaks to her team before a 2008 game.
pringfield, Ohio — Wittenberg University softball standout Sarah Fetters, class of 2008 from Maumee, Ohio, put the finishing touches on a phenomenal collegiate career with second-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine College Division Academic All-America honors. She becomes just the seventh student-athlete in Wittenberg history to earn more than one Academic All-America accolade.
Fetters, who started all 36 games at shortstop in 2008, led the Tigers to records of 23-13 overall and 7-7 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), good for fifth place in the regular season title chase. A team captain in 2008, Fetters led Wittenberg in runs scored (29), hits (40), total bases (53), on-base percentage (.424) and stolen bases (8-for-8). She ranked second in batting average (.345), doubles (7), home runs (2) and runs batted in (26) while committing just eight errors in nearly 200 official chances.
All that came on the heels of her finest collegiate season, a 2007 campaign in which Fetters topped the team with a .448 batting average, three home runs, 22 doubles, 65 hits and 98 total bases. She ranked third in the nation and first in the NCAC in doubles per game as she picked up second-team All-NCAC and second-team all-region honors.
Fetters, who graduated summa cum laude from Wittenberg on May 10 with a degree in communication, is a member of the prestigious national academic honorary Phi Beta Kappa and Wittenberg's chapter of the student-athlete honorary Chi Alpha Sigma. She served as an intern in the Office of University Communications for three years at Wittenberg, and she worked as an intern with the West Virginia Power, the Class A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers in Charleston, W.Va., in 2007.
"Sarah accurately defines what it takes to be a student-athlete here at Wittenberg," said Becky Hall, Wittenberg's softball head coach and assistant director of athletics. "Her ability to balance both academics and athletics is evidence of the well-rounded and incredible individual that she is.
"It has been an honor to coach her and watch her mature and grow over the last four years. She is a true ambassador for the game of softball and Wittenberg University."
Fetters broke school records for career at-bats (484), hits (176), doubles (41) and assists (331) during the 2008 season, and she equaled her mark in season assists (102) established a year ago. She also finished with 112 career runs scored, one shy of the record. She ranks in the top 10 in NCAC history in career hits, at-bats, doubles and assists.