Carly Thomas - Softball Coach - Bowling Green State University Athletics

McCoy - Coaches - Senior Day - May 2 2021 v Miami

Carly Thomas

Title:
Assistant Softball Coach
Email:
carlynt@bgsu.edu

Carly Thomas completed her second season on the BGSU softball coaching staff in 2021. Thomas joined the Falcons in early 2020 after a standout playing career at the University of Illinois.

BGSU ended the 2021 season with an overall record of 27-27, and the Falcons went 19-20 in MAC action. BG, picked to finish eighth in the MAC in the preseason coaches' poll, ended the season in fifth place in the 11-team league. BGSU was one of two conference teams to finish as many as three places higher than predicted.

The Falcons finished with the program's highest winning percentage in MAC play since 2012, and BGSU's overall total of 27 wins is the highest since the 2013 campaign.

Individually, senior Madi McCoy and redshirt freshman Payton Gottshall each earned All-MAC First-Team accolades in 2021. Gottshall was also named the MAC's Freshman Pitcher of the Year, and fellow redshirt freshman Greta L’Esperance was chosen to the MAC's All-Defensive Team.

Gottshall and McCoy were the Falcons' first all-conference first-team selections since 2014, and BGSU had multiple first-team picks for the first time since 2012.

Gottshall had one of the finest seasons in the circle in BGSU softball history. Despite missing nearly a month of the season due to injury, she had a 20-12 record and shattered the school records for strikeouts (282) and strikeouts per seven innings (9.79). She had a pair of no-hitters, including a perfect game, and allowed opponents to hit just .185 against her. Gottshall became just the fourth pitcher in school history, and the first since 1995, to win 20 games in a season.

McCoy hit a team-leading .380, and the shortstop also paced the Falcons in doubles (15), homers (11), runs batted in (43) and several other categories. The first player in BGSU history to record three multiple-homer games in a season, she hit .423 in MAC games, the highest average by a BGSU player since 2006. In addition to the All-MAC Team, McCoy was named to the All-Region Team.

The Falcons excelled in the classroom as well. BGSU was named an Easton/NFCA Top 10 Academic Team for the 2020-21 academic year, as the Falcons were ranked 10th in the nation among NCAA Division-I schools with a GPA of 3.704.

Individually, no fewer than 16 Falcons were named 2021 Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athletes. And, a school-record 12 BGSU student-athletes were named to the Academic All-MAC Team.

Nikki Sorgi earned one of the most prestigious individual awards given out by the Mid-American Conference, as she was named the female recipient of the MAC's Bob James Memorial Scholarship Award. That honor is given to just one male and one female across the conference.

McCoy received the MAC Medal of Excellence – presented annually to just one male and one female student-athlete at each of the MAC’s 12 schools – for the 2020-21 academic year.

In her first season with the program, Thomas helped the Falcons post a record of 11-6 in the shortened 2020 season. That included a 5-0 mark at the Clearwater Spring Break Invitational on what proved to be the final weekend of the campaign.

Gottshall fired a one-hitter in her BG debut, and posted an 11-5 record in the circle, striking out 128 hitters in 87 innings of work. And, at the plate, BG batted .259 as a team. Sammy Dees returned after missing the bulk of the 2019 season due to injury, hitting .474 with an on-base percentage of .565 in 14 games in the '20 campaign.

Thomas, a native of Fontana, Calif. (Los Osos H.S.), was named to the Big Ten All-Conference Team on multiple occasions during her career with the Fighting Illini, then went on to play professionally.

During her collegiate career, she played in 224 games, starting all but one, and hit .343. Her 251 career hits included 68 doubles – a school record – four triples and 32 homers. Thomas had a career slugging percentage of .579 and an on-base pct. of .405, and she scored 163 runs and drove in 160.

Thomas burst onto the scene with the Illini, earning All-Big Ten First-Team honors as a freshman in 2015. She started 51 games in center field and put together one of the most spectacular rookie campaigns in program history. Thomas hit .365, the highest batting average by a freshman in school history, and she also set Illinois freshman records for slugging percentage (.629), home runs (nine), RBI (42) and total bases (100).

She led the Big Ten in batting average during league play, hitting .487 vs. conference competition, and she broke a 21-year-old Big Ten record with 71 total bases against league foes. She was the first Illini ever to earn two Big Ten Freshman-of-the-Week awards and three total conference weekly awards. Additionally, Thomas was the first freshman in school history to hit two grand slams.

Thomas started all 59 of her team’s games in center field as a sophomore in 2016, batting .301 with a team-leading 19 multiple-hit games. She was named to the Big Ten’s All-Defensive Team. After recording 15 doubles as a freshman, she had 12 more two-base hits as a soph. Thomas missed the 2017 season due to injury, but was named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team for the second-straight year.

She had a stellar season in 2018, as she was named to the All-Big Ten First Team for the second time in her career, and also was chosen to the NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team. Thomas started all 55 games and hit .363 with 47 runs, 46 RBI and 114 total bases.

In that redshirt junior campaign, Thomas reached base in 24 consecutive games, and led the team with 12 multi-RBI contests. Her total of 17 doubles on the season ranked fourth in the conference and was also the fourth-highest single-season total in program history at the time. Thomas was a repeat selection to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team and also was named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team. She was an Easton/NFCA All-American Scholar-Athlete as well.

As a senior, Thomas hit .351 with 49 runs and 44 RBI, and she broke the school records for doubles in a season (24) and a career. She started all 58 games for the Orange and Blue, and was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team. Thomas also earned conference all-defensive team accolades for the third-straight spring. She was also named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District First-Team, selected by CoSIDA.

In the summer of 2019, Thomas played for the Cleveland Comets of National Professional Fastpitch, helping the team double the win total from the previous year. The Comets went 20-22 in 2019, and the team partnered with Team Mexico and participated in numerous international competitions in addition to the NPF schedule.

Off the field, Thomas served as a teaching assistant in the Department of Applied Health Science at Illinois, and she also was a part of the Fighting Illini Leadership Academy for several years during her undergraduate tenure.

Thomas earned a Bachelor of Science in Community Health Degree in December of 2017, with concentrations in health administration and health education and a cumulative grade-point average of 3.54. She earned a Master of Science degree in health administration from Illinois in December of 2019.

Thomas graduated from Los Osos H.S., where she was an all-league performer for coach Mike Randall. She played travel ball for both the Corona Angels and the Explosion 18 Gold.