Aug. 24, 2005
AUSTIN, Texas - When Texas senior Cat Osterman (Houston, Texas) arrives at the softball field this weekend, she won't be wearing Texas' burnt orange and white, or even the red, white and blue of Team USA. Instead, she will trade in her game jersey for a polo shirt, her game shorts for khaki shorts and her cleats for sneakers as she steps off the field and into the television booth.
Osterman will be the color analyst for ESPN2's broadcasts of the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) championship game and All-Star competition on Sunday, Aug. 28. She will join play-by-play man Eric Collins in the booth for the league's season-ending games, which will be played at the Sports Complex in Lisle, Ill.
The championship game will be aired at 5 p.m. Central on ESPN2, followed immediately by the All-Star game at 7 p.m. Central.
"I'm really excited for this opportunity to try broadcasting," Osterman said. "I'm a little nervous, but it's something I'm interested in down the line after my college days, so I am glad to get a shot at it now. This should be an exciting weekend to showcase pro softball and show the nation how exciting our sport is."
The single elimination championship tournament will be played on two days - Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27-28 - and will conclude with the All-Star Game on Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday, August 27th the first round of playoffs will be split into two games - at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. - and the winners will face each other in the 2005 NPF Championship Game on Sunday. The first-place Chicago Bandits with all-stars Jennie Finch, Jaime Clark and Vicky Galindo will take on the fourth-place New York/New Jersey Juggernaut, with all-stars Natasha Watley and Peaches James in the first game. The second-place Akron Racers with all-stars Crystl Bustos, Jenny Topping and Jamie Southern will face off with the third-place Texas Thunder, which features all-stars Christa Williams (a Texas Ex, 1998-99) and Amanda Freed.
At 3 p.m. on Sunday, the top players in the league will face off in a game between NPF East and West. Players from the New York Juggernaut, the New England Riptide and the Akron Racers have been selected to play on the East All-Star Team. The West All-Star Team will consist of players from the Chicago Bandits, the Arizona Heat and the Texas Thunder and includes Williams.
Osterman is one of the most decorated softball players ever, winning national player of the year honors as a sophomore and a junior, an Olympic gold medalist in 2004 and an ESPY Award as the female collegiate athlete of the year in 2005 becoming the first non-basketball player to win the award.
She has led the nation in earned run average in each of her last two collegiate seasons (0.38 in 2003 and 0.36 in 2005) and holds both the single-season (15.2 in 2005) and career (14.0) NCAA records for strikeouts per seven innings. Osterman, who has 1,635 career strikeouts, enters her senior season at Texas just 138 shy of the all-time NCAA career record (1,773), held by Courtney Blades.
The NPF was created to give elite female fastpitch players the opportunity to pursue professional careers while providing quality family entertainment and excellent role models for young girls. NPF has operated since 1997 under the names Women's Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL). NPF is in its third year as the Official Development Partner of Major League Baseball in the category of professional women's fastpitch softball.