[ HAWAII GROWN ]
Baldwin alum earns
national honorEldredge celebrates with a win
in the College World Series
California softball center fielder Kaleo Eldredge of Maui was named second-team All-America on Wednesday night.
The Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America team for NCAA Division I was announced at a banquet in Oklahoma City for players in softball's College World Series, which started yesterday.
Eldredge, a 2001 Baldwin graduate from Kahului, is the starting center fielder and clean-up batter for Cal, which opened with a 4-2 win over Florida State yesterday. Eldredge went 1-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI.
Kaleo Eldredge
BY THE NUMBERS
Through Sunday
58 games, 58 starts
Batting average .350 Home runs 7 Slugging average .541 RBIs 30 Stolen bases 16-17 On-base average x-.460 Fielding average .953 Strikeouts y-3
x-Leads team
y-In 195 plate appearances
Eldredge has started in 192 of the 193 games she has played for the Golden Bears in the past three years -- including two previous World Series. This season, many of her 61 starts have required her to play with a painful foot injury.
"Some days, I feel like I can just fly. Other days I can hardly run," Eldredge said.
She suffers from plantar fasciitis, a swelling of the sole of her right foot -- her take-off foot.
Despite the sometime painful problem, Eldredge has been one of the main reasons Cal made it to the World Series for the sixth year in a row.
"She digs in deep when things are on the line and finds a way to come up with a key hit or key catch to help us stay on the winning side," Cal softball coach Diane Ninemeyer said.
The All-America selection Wednesday topped a trophy-wall full of honors accorded Eldredge in the past eight days. She was chosen first-team All-Pac-10 by coaches, all-tournament at the NCAA Regional that Cal won at Nebraska, and first-team All-Pacific Region by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Her play in the past four months has led to statistics that are spectacularly improved over the previous two years.
Despite the pain in her foot, Eldredge has stolen more bases this season (16 in 17 attempts) than in her first two years at Cal combined.
The former leadoff hitter has been moved to No. 4 in the batting order and has acted like a classic clean-up hitter, belting seven home runs -- compared to one in each of the previous two years.
Eldredge's .350 batting average this season is 47 points over her average for her first two seasons.
And her .541 slugging average is 181 points above her career slugging before this season.
