ARLINGTON, Texas – UT Arlington shortstop
Whitney Walton was named to the 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 "Watch List" as the group of student-athletes in the running for this season's most prestigious individual honor in NCAA Division I softball was unveiled on Wednesday.
Walton is heading into her senior season coming off one of the best individual Maverick performances in UTA history. She hit an astounding .393 at the plate while leading her team in doubles (16), triples (3), total bases (113), runs scored (66), walks (43), on-base percentage (.508) and slugging percentage (.562).
The Lake Jackson, Texas, native also led the Sun Belt Conference in four statistical categories, including runs, triples, total bases and on-base percentage while the 66 times she crossed home plate was tied for the 8th-most in the nation.
The shortstop made a big jump at the plate from her sophomore season to her junior campaign. In 31 more plate appearances, she struck out five fewer times while increasing her on-base and slugging percentages, OPS and batting average all by 100 points or more.
With those 31 more plate appearances, the senior finished the 2019 season with exactly 31 more hits (79) then she had the season prior. Of those 79 hits, 23 of them went for extra bases including four home runs.
Only three SBC student-athletes made the cut as the other two represent Louisiana. In all, 33 universities and 19 conferences were represented on the "Watch List."
Walton will lead the Mavericks into the 2020 season beginning February 7 when they'll take part in the Aggie Classic and square off for three games against Texas A&M before concluding the weekend tournament with two tilts against Abilene Christian.
Whitney Walton's Awards & Honors
2017 NFCA Scholar Athlete
2019 All-Sun Belt First Team
2019 All-Sun Belt Tournament
2019 NFCA All-Region Second Team
2019 NISC Nacogdoches All-Region Team
2019 Google Cloud Academic All-District VII First Team
2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team
2020 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 "Watch List"
