University of Tennessee Athletics
Abbott Leads Chicago To 2015 NPF Championship Series Title
August 18, 2015 | Softball
The last out of the Championship Series, a strikeout by the Championship Series MVP Monica Abbott to claim the Cowles Cup. Your 2015 NPF Champions the Chicago Bandits!!! CatchOn NPFCS #NPFonCBS
Posted by NATIONAL PRO FASTPITCH (NPF) on Monday, August 17, 2015
HOOVER, Ala. -- Tennessee softball legend Monica Abbott tossed an eight-strikeout, two-hit shutout to lead the Chicago Bandits to a 1-0 victory in Game 2 of the National Pro Fastpitch Championship Series on Monday, clinching the league title in a best-of-three series.
Abbott and the Bandits defeated the reigning champions, the USSSA Pride, which featured fellow UT great Madison Shipman. Abbott was named 2015 Championship Series MVP.
Abbott followed her five-strikeout, two-hit shutout in Sunday's 1-0 Game 1 win with another gem on Monday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. In both wins, she outdueled fellow legendary NCAA and NPF pitcher Cat Osterman.
Abbott has now won the NPF Championship Series three times in her illustrious pro career. She led the Washington Glory to the 2007 title in her rookie season and previously hoisted the Championship Series trophy with the Bandits in 2011.
During the NPF regular season, Abbott went 13-1 and posted a league-best 0.31 ERA over 15 appearances. She also led the NPF with 11 shutouts and a .108 opposing batting average during that span and ranked second with 149 strikeouts. The Salinas, Calif., native continued to dominate in the postseason, going 3-0 with a 0.32 ERA, 26 strikeouts and a save over four appearances.
Abbott starred at Tennessee from 2004 to 2007 and still holds every major NCAA Division I pitching record, including career strikeouts (2,440), wins (189), shutouts (112), games pitched (253), starts (206) and innings pitched (1448). The 6-3 lefty was the 2007 Honda Sports Award for Softball winner, 2007 USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year and a four-time NFCA All-American. In 2013, she became the first UT softball player to have her jersey retired.
