By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Colorado Springs, Colo.---Brittany George (Elmwood/Wayne, Ohio), a freshman shortstop for the Owens Community College softball team, has been named a Second Team All-American and a Marucci Elite Hitter by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).

The Marucci Elite Hitter award goes to the player with the highest batting average in each of the nation's regions. George, who hit .549, finished the season fourth in the nation in hitting.

George also became the first Owens softball player since 2011 (Alaina Haubert) to capture NJCAA All-American honors. Haubert earned Third Team honors, while George is the highest ranked All-American since Amanda Temple (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio) earned First Team All-American honors in 2009. George joins Temple in that they each won the award as freshmen.

Prior to this announcement, George was named First Team All-Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC), the OCCAC Player of the Year and First Team All-Region XII. She broke the program's single season records for batting average (.549), on base percentage (.607) and slugging percentage (1.059). In fact, she became the first player in program history to slug over 1.000 in a season.

Aside from those three stat categories, George had team-highs in runs (48), hits (56), doubles (16), triples (3), homers (10) and walks (17). She struck out only twice all year and finished second on the team in RBIs (45) and stolen bases (9).

George and the Owens softball team finished 27-9 this past season, won the OCCAC championship with an 11-1 record and advanced to the Region XII tournament.

Notes

George joins Bikramjit Gill (Our Ascension of the Lord/Toronto, Ontario, Canada) as one of two Owens student-athletes to earn All-American honors so far this year. Golf All-Americans have not been announced yet by the NJCAA.