INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. | Young Harris College softball player
Jeanie Perrucci is among the record 543 nominees for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year.
Established in 1991 and now in its 27th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
Perrucci, who is the Mountain Lions' first-ever NCAA Woman of the Year nominee, is one of six student-athletes from the Peach Belt Conference to be nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year. Perrucci was one of 87 softball players nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year. Only indoor and outdoor track and field had more nominees than softball.
Perrucci, a senior outfielder/pitcher from Duluth, Georgia, led the Mountain Lions to a program best (NCAA era) 43 wins to date as Young Harris qualified for its second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II Softball Tournament. The three-time All-Peach Belt performer finished the season ranked 25th in NCAA Division II in runs per game (1.05). She was ranked second in the PBC in at-bats (203), in runs scored (59) and games started (28), third in plate appearances (220), fourth in hits (71), in triples (4) and pitching appearances (34), fifth in ERA (2.24), sixth in wins (17) and in strikeouts (130), and 10th in innings pitched (146.2).
In the YHC NCAA-era records books, the 2017 YHC Female Athlete of the Year is first in runs scored (149), second in batting average (.378), on-base percentage (.421). stolen bases (44), wins (32), appearances (81), games started (68), complete games (23), innings pitched (357), strikeouts (266), batters faced (1,608), hits (198) and shutouts (6), third in triples (7) and ERA (3.53), and fourth in slugging percentage (.435), at-bats (524), and total bases (228).
Perrucci, who graduated from Young Harris in May with a 3.95 cumulative grade point average as an interdisciplinary studies major, was twice named to the prestigious CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division II Softball team, being named to the second team in 2016 and to the first team in 2017. She was also named to the Peach Belt All-Academic Softball Team twice and named to the PBC Presidential Honor Roll three times in her career. She also earned the PBC Elite 15 Award for softball as a junior.
The school nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, with 229 from Division I, 117 from Division II and 197 from Division III. The nominees competed in 21 different women's sports, and 122 were multisport athletes during their time in college.
The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award.
Next, conferences will select up to two conference nominees each from the pool of school nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.
From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.
The top 30 honorees will be recognized and the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 22 in Indianapolis.
