08/18/2015
Cat Osterman became a softball legend in Texas.
This week, Osterman will pitch in Texas for the final time.
Osterman announced in May that she is retiring from competitive softball at the end of the National Pro Fastpitch season. Osterman and the USSSA Pride will finish their regular season by playing the Dallas Charge on Monday and Tuesday at Constellation Field in Sugar Land and in a Thursday doubleheader and single game Friday at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
At the age of 32, Osterman has been as dominant as ever this season in NPF. But she has been working as an assistant at Texas State University and wants to focus on coaching.
“I just know it’s time,” Osterman told the San Antonio Express-News. “I have, at some point, to devote my time to coaching. I’ve always wanted to coach, and to do it I have to do it full time.
“I can still pitch. But I think the time commitment it takes to play at that level and be able to throw as well as I want is beginning to wear on me.”
Osterman will pitch in Monday’s 7 p.m. game. The games Monday and Tuesday will be televised by CBS Sports Network.
The left-hander is 12-2 with a 1.30 ERA and 151 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings in her eighth season in National Pro Fastpitch. She leads NPF in wins and strikeouts, and she has led the USSSA Pride to a league-best 30-13 record.
Osterman played at Cypress Springs High School near Houston and was named the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year. She was a four-time NFCA All-American and three-time USA Softball National Player of the Year at the University of Texas, and she set the NCAA record for career strikeouts.
As a member of the USA National Team, Osterman won an Olympic gold medal (2004) and two world championships (2006, 2010). She earned an Olympic silver medal in 2008.
Along the way, Osterman has inspired even the elite players.
“That was my idol when I was little,” Dallas Charge rookie pitcher Lauren Haeger said earlier this season.
Haeger was the 2015 USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year as Florida won its second straight national championship. Haeger was the first player in college softball history with at least 70 career wins and 70 career home runs.
The NPF playoffs begin Aug. 14 in Hoover, Ala. The Charge is 15-25 in its first season in NPF and is in fourth place in the five-team league. The top four teams make the playoffs.
Offensively, Dallas’ Renada Davis leads the league in doubles, and Brianna Cherry is among the league leaders with a .333 batting average. Haeger ranks fourth in strikeouts, and Jolene Henderson is sixth in ERA (1.83).
