Alabama, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas dominate single-season listings.
Already the source for national high school records for football, volleyball, basketball and baseball, MaxPreps is now adding softball to its list of comprehensive national record books.
The MaxPreps National High School Softball Record Book launches this week with entries for single-season performances in pitching, hitting and baserunning. Categories include pitching wins, strikeouts, no-hitters, perfect games and in addition to hits, runs, RBI, doubles, triples, home runs and grand slams for hitting as well as walks and stolen bases for baserunning.
Career and single-game records will post in the upcoming weeks along with coaching records, winning streaks, state championships and various consecutive hitting and pitching records.
Due to the high number of games played in states like Alabama, California, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas, those states dominate the single-season records. Alabama, which has some teams playing as many as 60 games in a season, has players holding many of the top spots in the various categories.
Sources for the record book include the National Federation of State High School Associations record book, state association websites, coaches association websites and independent record websites like Cal-Hi Sports by Mark Tennis. The MaxPreps leaderboards were also utilized along with articles from Newspapers.com.
Fortunately, the state associations in Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and Nebraska have outstanding record books chronicling the athletes in those states with deep lists of accomplishments in numerous categories. Cal-Hi Sports' record book is also a valuable independent resource. Meanwhile Oklahoma and Iowa also have extensive record books, although we have not tracked down a recent update to those lists.
States like Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas do not have record books affiliated with their respective state associations. As a result, there may be a gap in knowledge for those states. We have made an effort to fill that gap with the MaxPreps leaderboards along with research via Newspapers.com.
The softball record book is a fluid document and MaxPreps needs the help of all softball coaches (and fans) to help maintain its accuracy. Please contact Kevin Askeland at kevinaskeland65@gmail.com for any corrections or additions.
Here is a quick "by the numbers" look at some of the single season records that can be found in the MaxPreps National High School Softball Record Book.
659 — Strikeouts in a season by Cathleen Hosfield of
Riverdale (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) in 2007.
129 — Stolen bases in a season by Bailey Vrazel of
Danbury (Texas) in 2010.
127 — RBI in a season by Jennifer Ergle of
Sumiton Christian (Sumiton, Ala.) in 2014. She is also No. 2 on the list with 124 in 2017.
122 — Basehits in a season by Cadi Oliver of Sumiton Christian in 2012.
52 — Pitching wins in a season by Holly Currie of
Pisgah (Ala.) in 2002.
40 — Shutouts in a season by Kasha Kolb of
Chelsea (Okla.) in 2007.
37 — Home runs in a season by Olivia Baker of
Long (Skipperville, Ala.) in 2019
11 — Perfect games in a season, also by Kolb of Chelsea in 2006.
