The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hall of Honor
- Induction:
- 2011
- Class:
- 2007
A three-time National Player of the Year, four-time All-American and 2004 Olympic Gold medalist, Osterman is one of the most decorated student-athletes to ever compete at The University of Texas. During her freshman year in 2002, she earned second-team Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-America honors while posting a 36-8 mark and a 0.83 ERA. Osterman also tossed the first perfect game in UT softball history, the first of her nine career perfect games. As a sophomore in 2003, she was named USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year while registering a 32-6 mark and 0.38 ERA and leading Texas to its second-ever appearance at the Women’s College World Series. Osterman took a year off from college in 2004 to train with the USA National Team, and she was the only collegian and youngest member of the Olympic Team that earned a gold medal in Athens. She returned to campus for her junior season (2005) and posted a 30-7 mark with a 0.36 ERA, including 22 shutouts, six no-hitters and three perfect games. Osterman again earned National Player of the Year honors in addition to the 2005 ESPY Award as “Best Female College Athlete” and led Texas back to the WCWS. In her senior season (2006), she tallied a 38-4 record with a 0.42 ERA, including 28 shutouts and five no-hitters, while earning National Player of the Year accolades and helping Texas reach the Women’s College World Series for the third time in her career. The only softball individual ever to win National Player of the Year honors three times, Osterman also earned the 2005-06 Honda Softball Player of the Year Award, the 2006 ESPY Award as “Best Female College Athlete” and the 2005-06 SportsWoman of the Year Award for a Team Sport by the Women’s Sports Foundation. On the conference level, she won Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honors in each of her four seasons and remains the only athlete in league history to win a major award four times. Osterman earned 25 career Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors, the most by a Big 12 athlete in any sport, and was named Big 12 Conference Female Athlete of the Year a record three times (2003, 2005 and 2006). Osterman still holds UT career records in victories (136), ERA (0.51), shutouts (85) and no-hitters (20) and holds the NCAA record for career strikeout ratio per seven innings (14.35). She also ranks second in NCAA history in career strikeouts (2,265) and career shutouts and fifth in career wins. Osterman posted the lowest ERA in the NCAA during three of her seasons (2003, 2005 and 2006) and remains the only player in NCAA history to lead the nation in ERA three times. She also found success in the classroom, earning ESPN The Magazine third-team Academic All-America accolades as a sophomore and three Academic All-Big 12 honors (2003, 2005 and 2006). In addition, Osterman was a two-time recipient (2004-05 and 2005-06) of the UT Women’s Athletics Department’s highest endowed scholarship honor, the V.F. “Doc” Neuhaus Endowed Presidential Scholarship, and earned a Big 12 Conference Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship in 2006. She also was a recipient of the NCAA Today’s Top VIII Award in 2006, an honor presented to the top eight senior student-athletes in the country. Osterman became just the fifth UT student-athlete to earn the award, joining Football’s Kenneth Sims (1982), Swimming’s Betsy Mitchell (1989), Diving’s Vera Ilyina (1999) and Soccer’s Kelly Wilson (2004). The No. 1 pick in the 2006 Pro Fastpitch X-Treme Draft and the No. 1 pick in the National Pro Fastpitch Draft, she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from The University of Texas in 2007. Following her graduation, she competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won a silver medal with Team USA. Osterman served as an assistant coach at DePaul University for three years (2008-10) while pursuing her Master’s Degree and is currently playing professionally in Japan and in the National Pro Fastpitch with the USSSA Pride of Orlando, Fla.
