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D1 Catcher of the Year: Kinzie Hansen

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Now that everyone caught their breath after the longest Women’s College World Series on record, it’s time to sit back and celebrate the best and brightest of the 2021 season. We’ll hand out a slew of D1Softball awards in the coming days, leading up to the reveal of the first D1Softball Nine — the most exclusive club in college softball. 

Catcher of the Year: Kinzie Hansen, Oklahoma

We take catching seriously around here. So we had to call in some additional expertise to determine the D1Softball Catcher of the Year. Some of the best catchers who ever framed a pitch or sent a would-be base thief scurrying back to the dugout cast their votes for this award. 

But it’s a sign of just how good Hansen was behind the plate (and with a bat in her hand, of course) that the debate required no alliances or marathon debates. There were plenty of good candidates. It’s just that none of them were Hansen. Not since Aubree Munro has a catcher shut down the running the game quite the the way Hansen did. And truth be told, as brilliant as Team USA’s current catcher was at throwing runners, even fewer dared test Hansen this season. 


Nor do we discount that even in splitting time behind the plate with Lynnsie Elam, Hansen had to manage more pitchers — in games and over the course of the season — than just about anyone else in the country. Patty Gasso’s pitching changes were another test aced. 

And look, as many ways as a catcher can influence a game without ever swinging a bat, that is also part of the job. If sometimes overshadowed by Jocelyn Alo and others, Hansen does that about as well as anyone in the country. Really. Only two players who weren’t her teammates had more than her 24 home runs in 2021. And no one who played for another team had more than her 66 RBIs. Throw in an .893 slugging percentage and someone with Munro-like skills with the glove starts to look downright Nuveman-ish with the bat. 

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