Texas college softball pitcher Hope Trautwein tosses 7-inning, 21-K perfect game
North Texas Softball pitcher Hope Trautwein made history on Sunday tossing the first-ever NCAA Division I 21-strikeout perfect game. “I just never thought I’d actually do it.” It was the first perfect game in North Texas history.
“I think I was able to hit my spots very well,” Trautwein told The Dallas Morning News. “And hitting them hard, with close misses. I know I’m having a good game when I’m surprised when I miss a spot.”
Not a single batter could put the ball in play in the game against Trautwein: 21 batters faced, 21 strikeouts. And none of them reached a 3-ball count.
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She said she really didn’t realize she just made history. “I was like, ‘OK, another win down, on to the next one.’”
Trautwein had already struck out 21 on 13 February, in a 6-2 win over Southeastern Louisiana recording every possible out with a K. Only two other pitchers had recorded before 21 strikeouts in seven innings in the NCAA, but none of them was a perfect game. Alabama’s Alexis Ocasio issued a leadoff walk and served a 2-run homer before striking out 21 Fordham’s hitters in 2018. In 1991, softball legend and WBSC Softball Hall of Fame member Michele Granger was the first to collect 21 Ks in a game, in one of her 25 no-hitters in college ball.
Baylor’s Cristin Vitek and Northwestern’s Eileen Canney hold the NCAA single-game record for strikeouts with 28. Vitek did so in 16 innings against North Carolina in 2004, while Canney did it in an 18-inning game against Minnesota in 2006.
