O’Reilly, Fehrenbach, Leonard Are Big Ten Distinguished Scholars – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
July 8, 2015
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Three members of the Ohio State softball team – Olivia O’Reilly, Kirstie Fehrenbach and Erika Leonard – earned the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award for having a grade-point average of 3.7 or better during the 2014-15 academic year.
For O’Reilly, a native of Sylvania, Ohio who graduated in May with a degree in biology, she is one of 117 student-athletes in the conference who maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA last year. She is a four-time OSU Scholar-Athlete and three-time NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete who has plans to attend medical school in the fall. On the field, O’Reilly led the Buckeyes this year in wins (14), innings pitched (144.0), appearances (36) and ERA (4.23). In the career record books, finished ranked seventh in wins (40), seventh in strikeouts (274) and 10th in innings pitched (416.1).
Fehrenbach, who earned her BA in marketing this May, battled injuries for much of her career but bounced back to have a memorable final campaign in 2014, hitting .385 with two triples, two doubles and 21 runs scored. A transfer who started her career at Miami (Ohio), Fehrenbach played in 43 games this season and made 27 starts in left field. In a stretch between March 6 and March 24, Fehrenbach was one of the team’s hottest hitters, batting .417 in 11 games (10-for-24) with six runs scored.
A coaching education major from Cincinnati, Leonard matched her strong year in the classroom with a historically good season on the field. Overall, she hit .414 with a team-best 15 home runs and 60 RBI. In 23 Big Ten games, Leonard drove in a conference-record 37 runs (1.61 per game), hit .420 and had a slugging percentage of .913.
Leonard’s ascent to becoming one of the best hitters in the conference began in late March. In the final 24 games of the season, she batted .512 with 53 RBI, 15 home runs, 43 hits and a 1.083 slugging percentage. At the Big Ten Tournament, she set Ohio State’s single game record with 10 RBI in a 24-1 quarterfinal round win over Indiana, going 4-for-4 with two grand slams.
O’Reilly, Fehrenbach and Leonard are among 76 Ohio State student-athletes in 25 different sports to earn the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award.
