Duffield’s bat comes alive in second half of season for UTEP
Kacey Duffield
An excellent ending to the softball season helped the junior first baseman turn in a terrific season in her first year after transferring to the NCAA D1 school in Conference USA.
In the last month, Duffield raised her batting average from .220 to .290, drove in 11 of 22 RBIs, smashed two of five home runs and collected 20 of 38 hits.
Her late-season hitting surge was on display during the final series of the season when she went 7-for-10 against Louisiana Tech University.
In Game 2, she drove in the tying run with an RBI single in the fifth inning. The hit came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. UTEP won the game 7-4 after trailing 4-0.
In Game 3, she doubled in her team’s first run in the fifth inning and then doubled again in the seventh to set up the winning run in a 6-5 victory after the team fell behind 4-0 for the second straight day.
Duffield, of Lathrop High fame, was among the UTEP leaders in extra-base hits, runs batted in and slugging percentage.
She played her first two seasons of college softball at Indian Hills Community College, where she produced impressive power numbers with 31 home runs and 126 RBIs in 105 games.