Sara Angeline Groenewegen (born April 12, 1995) is a Canadian professional

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. From 2014 to 2017, Groenewegen pitched for the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where she hold the all-time

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

and strikeout ratio records. She also currently still ranks for both the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

and the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

in the ratio category. She played professionally for the

Canadian Wild The Canadian Wild, officially the Canadian Wild of Southern Illinois, were a professional women's softball team based in Marion, Illinois. They were founded in 2019 as part of National Pro Fastpitch and are partnered with the Canada women's nation ...

in the NPF since being drafted second overall in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. She most recently played for

Athletes Unlimited Softball Athletes Unlimited Softball is a women's professional softball league in the United States, founded in 2020. League history Athletes Unlimited was founded by Jonathan Soros and Jon Patricof. There are no team owners, and league investors are c ...

. She has been a member of the

Canada women's national softball team Canada's Senior Women's National Softball Team represents Canada in international softball. They are overseen by Softball Canada, the governing body of softball in Canada. They are one of the top-ranked soft ...

since 2013. Groenewegen helped Team Canada win a bronze medal at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Early life

Groenewegen was born on April 12, 1995, in

White Rock, British Columbia White Rock is a city in British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It borders Semiahmoo Bay to the south and is surrounded on three sides by Surrey. To the southeast across a footbridge lies the ...

, where she attended Elgin Park Secondary school, from where she graduated in 2013. Groenewegen was diagnosed with

Type 1 Diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar for ...

at the age of nine, but did not let this disease control her, persisting to become a member of the

at the age of 17. She has two sisters and comes from a 'softball family'.

College

Groenewegen finished her senior season at the

in 2017, where she developed a reputation as one of the most feared pitchers in the entire country, winning Big Ten Pitcher of the Year as a freshman, and repeated her senior year. She also won Big Ten Player of the Year her sophomore season for both her stellar offense and pitching performance throughout the season. Groenewegen has also become a feared hitter, hitting 36 career home runs in her time at Minnesota. Groenewegen debuted on February 8 defeating the

Murray State Racers The Murray State Racers are the athletic teams that represent Murray State University (MSU), located in Murray, Kentucky, United States, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks (for football, the Football Championship Su ...

with 7 strikeouts and six shutout innings; she also drove in a run with a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization in ...

. From February 8–23, Groenewgen posted a career best 10 game hit streak: she batted .414 (12/29) and accumulated 9

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

, four

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

, three doubles, 5 walks, scoring 5 runs for a .931%

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

and striking out 5 times. Later on April 26, she no hit the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interco ...

. In her sophomore campaign, Groenewegen achieved a career high of four hits to help defeat the

Stetson Hatters The Stetson Hatters are composed of 18 teams representing Stetson University in intercollegiate athletics. The Hatters compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the ASUN Conference for most sports, ...

on February 13, hitting two home runs and a double. On March 20, she also tallied two more home runs in a match with the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

, collecting a career best six RBIs. Finally, on May 2 she struck out 19 batters vs. the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname is also used as colloquial designation ...

in 8 innings for another career best total. On February 13, the junior tossed 15 strikeouts against the

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raide ...

to win the 7–4 game, the strikeouts were her high in regulation. Groenewegen would pitch her first

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

over the FAU Owls on March 12. In her senior year, Groenewegen whiffed 9 of the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

on March 15 to cross 1,000 for her career. She also had two career best streaks: beginning on April 2 to May 13, she won 16 consecutive games. During the streak she threw 98.1 innings, allowing 48 hits, 9 earned runs, 15 walks and fanned 155 batters for a 0.64 ERA and WHIP. In one of the games on April 28, she won her 100th game by no-hitting the

in 5 innings with 12 strikeouts. During the same time on April 14–26, she also pitched 38.0 consecutive scoreless innings with 23 hits, four walks and 59 strikeouts for a 0.71 WHIP. Groenewegen made her last appearance as a Gopher on May 21 in a loss to the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a mem ...

, going for four innings, allowing a run and totaling 8 strikeouts during the NCAA Regionals.

International career

Groenewegen has been a member of the

since 2013, straight out of high school. Groenewegen has played a key role as mainly a pitcher on Team Canada. She led Canada to a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, which was the first gold medal for Team Canada softball in 32 years. Winning that game also made Sara the youngest starting pitcher to earn a gold medal. At the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, Groenewegen became Canada's first pitcher to throw a perfect game on August 5, 2019, versus Venezuela. Groenewegen started for Team Canada throwing three shutout innings in the bronze medal game, eventually defeating

Team Mexico Team Mexico is a professional wrestling stable that was first formed in 2004 to compete in TNA Wrestling's America's X-Cup Tournament and has since returned to compete in other TNA X Cup Tournaments. History 2004 The original team consisted of ...

3–2 on July 27, 2021. She posted a win and had two hits for the team at the Tokyo games.

Professional career

Groenewegen was drafted in the first round of the

2017 NPF Draft The 2017 NPF College Draft is 14th annual collegiate draft for NPF. It took place April 24, 2017 7:00 CT in Nashville, Tennessee at Acme Feed & Seed, a downtown entertainment venue. It was available for internet viewing via NPFTV, the league's st ...

by the

Akron Racers The Akron Racers were a women's softball team based in Akron, Ohio. They have moved to Cleveland and been renamed the Cleveland Comets in 2018. The team was started by Joey Arietta in 1999 to participate in the Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL). ...

as the second overall pick. In her second season in the National Pro Fastpitch league, Groenewegen was one of the league's top pitchers, earning All-NPF honors. She ended the 2019 season with a 1.52 ERA going 6–4 with three saves. She made 17 appearances, 11 starts, had 73.2 innings pitched, and struck out 64. She threw four complete games and one shut out. Groenewegen also plays in Athletes Unlimited and was one of the first athletes to sign their contract in 2019. After not competing in 2020 due to COVID, she debuted in the league's second season. She will return in 2022 for the third season.

Statistics

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

References

External links