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Clarisa Crowell
Clarisa Crowell enters her third year at the helm of the Nittany Lion softball program following a historic 2022 season that saw her named ECAC Coach of the Year.
Penn State finished the 2022 campaign with a 25-win improvement from the previous season, marking the biggest turnaround for a team in NCAA Division I. The Nittany Lions also reached the 30-win mark and finished above .500 in Big Ten Conference play for the first time since 2016. Penn State finished with 32 wins, the most the program has posted since 2008.
The Blue and White registered 12 shutouts on the season, the most by a Nittany Lion squad since the 2008 team. At the plate, the Nittany Lions' 75 doubles ranked tied for second in program history, while their 43 home runs and 207 RBI rank third in program history.
Bailey Parshall led the way by earning NFCA All-American third team honors to go along with NFCA first-team all-region and first-team All-Big Ten accolades plus Penn State Athlete of the Year recognition. She is just the fifth NFCA All-American in program history and the first Penn State pitcher to earn All-American status since Ashley Esparza in 2005. Parshall was dominant in the circle for the Nittany Lions, posting a 22-9 record with a 1.68 ERA and nine shutouts in 212.1 innings.
Junior catcher Cassie Lindmark collected NFCA All-Region third team and All-Big Ten second team laurels. Lindmark provided immediate pop for the Nittany Lion lineup, hitting .400 from the leadoff spot with a .508 on-base percentage. She is the sixth Nittany Lion (seventh occurrence) to hit .400 in a season and ranks tied for sixth on the program's single-season charts.
The Nittany Lions maintained success in the classroom, tying the program record by placing 16 student-athletes on the Academic All-Big Ten list for the second consecutive year. Six student-athletes were designated Big Ten Distinguished Scholars.
14 student-athletes made the Dean’s list during spring semester, and with a 3.45 GPA, the team posted the highest cumulative GPA of the program in the past 10 years.
Claire Swedberg was the 2022 Big Ten Postgraduate Award Winner, recipient of the Fulbright grant and was selected to be the Grand Marshal for the Health and Human Development Department.
In her first season at the helm in Happy Valley in 2021, Crowell led the Nittany Lions to a win over No. 23 Minnesota, the program’s first win over a ranked opponent since 2017. Penn State also had wins over four other Big Ten programs in a conference-only season due to COVID-19, including three-straight wins and the series victory over Rutgers. It marked the first time Penn State won three consecutive Big Ten games since 2017.
Crowell also mentored Parshall in her ongoing success in the circle, as the junior pitcher recorded two double-digit strikeout games and moved into sixth all-time in the Penn State record books with 396 career strikeouts and third all-time with seven career saves.
In the classroom, a program-record 16 student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in Crowell’s first season of leadership.
Prior to Penn State, Crowell spent eight years as head coach at Miami (Ohio). Crowell, the RedHawks made a MAC Tournament appearance every season a tournament was held, winning the tournament title in 2016.
Crowell coached 12 student-athletes to first team All-MAC honors, 10 to second-team honors, nine All-MAC Freshman Team recipients and six National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region honorees. RedHawks student-athletes also excelled in the classroom with 40 NFCA Scholar-Athletes and 32 Academic All-MAC honorees during Crowell’s tenure.
In the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, Crowell’s RedHawks were the MAC preseason favorites. Junior pitcher Courtney Vierstra was fifth in the nation and first in the conference in strikeouts with 140 in 18 appearances and tied for fifth nationally in strikeouts per seven innings with 12.5.
In 2019, Crowell led Miami to a 35-16 overall record and a 16-4 record in conference play as the RedHawks captured their first regular-season title in program history. Miami posted 10-straight wins against MAC opponents, the longest win streak in conference play in program history, en route to the crown. The team also ranked first in the MAC for pitching and defense with a team ERA of 2.55 and .972 fielding percentage.
Crowell was named the 2019 MAC Coach of the Year while seven student-athletes earned All-MAC selections and two were named NFCA All-Region honorees, including Vierstra who had the third-best strikeout-per-seven innings ratio in the country (10.3).
Crowell’s 2017 team excelled offensively, ranking second all-time in runs (265), runs per game (5.00), RBI (235), doubles (74) and home runs (47). Crowell led Michaela Schlattman to a NFCA All-Region honor, marking the third-straight season a RedHawk player garnered such award. The RedHawks went 29-24 in 2017, including an impressive 16-2 record at home.
In 2016, Crowell led Miami to a 35-23 overall record and 15-7 record in MAC games, just half a game short of the MAC regular-season title. The RedHawks made up for that with a perfect 4-0 record in the MAC Tournament to earn their fourth conference crown and a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. Miami went on to beat No. 23 Notre Dame, 3-2, in the opening game of the NCAA Regional in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The 2016 RedHawks broke six offensive school records: runs (302), runs per game (5.21), RBI (274), doubles (83), home runs (56) and walks (200). Miami also held a .977 fielding percentage for a school record and seventh-best fielding percentage in the nation.
Crowell coached senior outfielder Taylor Shuey to be the first softball player in school history to be named MAC Player of the Year after breaking Miami’s career RBI record with 114. Senior pitcher Amber Logemann was also named the overall MAC Tournament MVP after going 4-0 with a 0.65 ERA in 32.1 innings pitched.
In Crowell’s third season in 2015 she helped senior outfielder Tiyona Marshall to NFCA All-Mideast Region first-team honors after Marshall set school records in hits (86), runs scored (50) and batting average (.446).
Prior to Miami, Crowell spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State where she primarily worked with the pitchers and catchers. In 2010, both of her pitchers earned spots on the All-Big 12 and NFCA All-Midwest Region teams. In 2011, Crowell coached catcher Courtney Totte to an All-Big 12 first-team selection and a third team All-American. She helped lead the Cowgirls back to national prominence as Oklahoma State returned to the College World Series for the first time since 1998. The coaching staff was named Midwest Region Coaching Staff of the Year that season.
Crowell also made stops at Syracuse as an assistant coach in 2006 where she had four players earn All-Region recognition and five All-Conference honorees, led by All-American and Big East Player of the Year Alexis Switenko and Tonye McCorkle, the Big East Co-Rookie of the Year. Crowell started her coaching career at Ohio where she was an assistant for two years.
Crowell was a decorated student-athlete at Virginia Tech as a four-year letterwinner and a three-time all-conference performer for the Hokies. In 2013, Crowell was inducted into the Virginia Tech All Sports Hall of Fame.
Crowell graduated from Virginia Tech in 2002 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. She earned a master of science in recreation and sports sciences from Ohio University in 2005.
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