The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hall of Honor
- Induction:
- 2024
- Class:
- 2012
A four-year softball letterwinner from 2009 to 2012, Lexy Bennett Skaggs was an instrumental piece of the Longhorns’ Big 12 Conference championship-winning team in 2010 as well as three top-25 ranked squads (2010-2012). A first-team All-America and three-time first-team All-Big 12 selection at second base, the 2011 Top 25 finalist for USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year helped lead the Horns to 40 or more wins in each of her four seasons capped off by a 47-13 senior season in 2012 that saw Texas advance to the NCAA Super Regionals. She was the third overall pick in the 2012 National Pro Fastpitch League (NPF) draft by the Akron Racers in 2012. As well as she performed on the field, Bennett Skaggs excelled just as well off it by earning Academic All-Big 12 honors on three separate occasions as well as CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades in 2012, the last Longhorn softball student-athlete to earn such recognition. She was also a four-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region selection and used a stellar senior season in 2012 to earn herself NFCA All-American honors, becoming — at the time — the first Longhorn position player since 2000 to be selected as an NFCA All-American. Easton-Bell also bestowed All-American status to Bennett Skaggs for her on-the-field productivity throughout the 2012 campaign, a year that saw Texas finish ranked No. 9 nationally. Bennett Skaggs was an All-Big 12 performer in each of her four years on the Forty Acres. Despite concluding her collegiate softball career more than 10 years ago, her name is still found 14 different times throughout the program’s single-season records as well as 11 times in the program’s career record section. She was credited with two walk-off plate appearances and hit back-to-back home runs with a teammates six different times. Bennett Skaggs began her freshman season with a six-game hitting streak, which is tied for the fourth-longest such streak, and was a foreshadow of things to come as she recorded hit streaks of 10, 11 and 12 consecutive games throughout her career in addition to an 18-game on-base streak. She left UT with single-season school records in batting average (.438/2011), total bases (132/2012), slugging percentage (.792/2011), on base percentage (.510/2011) and RBIs (57/2012) to her credit. Over the course of her four-year career, Bennett Skaggs appeared in 221 career collegiate softball games and earned a starting assignment in 217 of them. Her career .385 batting average, 166 runs scored, 245 hits, 155 RBI and .464 on base percentage were all tops in the record book at the conclusion of her career in 2012. She also belted 36 home runs in 637 career trips to the dish. A native of Kingwood, Texas and four-time all-state selection at Second Baptist High School, Bennett Skaggs earned her bachelor’s degree in Physical Culture and Sports in 2012.
