Softball's Wright, Bruggeman named All-Americans

May 14, 2009

Click here to view D-III All-American softball team:

http://www.nfca.org/pagebank/?id=1320

St. Thomas has two of the 15 players named to the first team of the National Fastpitch Coaches' Association Division III All-America team. Junior OF Alison Wright was a repeat All-American, while senior outfielder Missy Bruggeman was honored for the first time.

Wisconsin-Whitewater, Christopher Newport and UST all had two first-teamers. After having no softball All-Americans in the program’s first 20 years, the Tommies have won the honor 17 times in the last seven seasons.

Wright, an All-American as a junior, is on pace to be a four-time All-MIAC honoree and the conference career hits leader. She had a 34-game hitting streak earlier this season -- the third longest in D-III history) -- from April 2008-April 2009. That included hits in her first 23 games this season. In all 46 games she had 76 hits, 49 runs, 16 doubles, 10 home runs, 59 RBI, 10 walks and 13 steals. the 76 hits were four shy of the MIAC season record set in 2006 by UST's Carrie Embree.

Wright hit .493 last season with 68 hits, 45 runs, 37 RBI, nine HRs, 17 doubles. On her three-year career, she's helped UST post a 124-15 record (73-2 vs. conference teams). She's batting .465 on her career with 197 hits, 119 runs, 126 RBI, 23 homers, 44 doubles and two triples in 136 games. Wright has 65 career multi-hit games. Her 23 career HRs ranks sixth in MIAC history. She was named MVP of the April 30-May 1 conference tournament.

Wright made her third straight appearance on the All-MIAC team after leading the conference in runs scored with 31 and finishing third in the conference with a batting average of .500. In 22 conference games she notched 36 hits, 21 runs, seven doubles, three homers, 29 RBI and five walks.

Bruggeman had 72 hits and 45 runs in 46 games and batted a team-best .514. Last season, in 42 games overall, Bruggeman batted .400 with 40 hits, 26 runs, 10 RBI, seven doubles, four walks and eight steals. In 185 career games she had 184 hits, 126 runs, 67 steals and batted .419.

Missy Bruggeman