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Luginbuhl is Horizon
pitcher of the year

By June Kwitkowski

She winds up her right arm holding the ball. She’s ready to pitch. Here comes the ball. Strike three. Batter is out.
As a student at Cleveland State University, Grace Luginbuhl was pitcher for the Division One Horizon League softball team for four years.
She was named the Horizon League Pitcher of the year in 2006 for the second consecutive season and also earned Second-Team All-Great Lakes Region honors from the NationalFastpitch Coaches Association for the second year in a row.
She is the first CSU student-athlete to receive the Coleman Medal of Honor since swimming and diving standout Dmitri Ponomarev in 1998-99.
“It was exciting,” Luginbuhl said. “However, I would like to win the tournament. In league play we did really well. It’s always great to win as a team.”
The Coleman Award is presented annually to the Horizon League’s top male and female student-athletes who best exemplify the dignity and high purpose of the Horizon League and its membership, according to the Horizon League. The individuals demonstrate outstanding achievement in academics, athletics and extracurricular activities. Candidates must be a senior and a participant on the varsity level in a league-sponsored sport. In addition, nominees must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00 on a 4.00 scale, or its equivalent.
“Grace is the epitome of what the Coleman Medal stands for, “CSU Director of Athletics Lee Reed said in a statement. “She is a winner in everything that she does, be it academics, athletics or life in general and I am proud that she has represented Cleveland State for the last four years.”
Luginbuhl led the CSU softball team to a 38-15 overall record and a second-place finish (14-7) in the league during the regular season. She topped the league statistical charts with her 23 victories, including seven shutouts among 25 complete games, and 226 innings pitched, while her 224 strikeouts were second-best in the circuit this year and ninth in loop history, Robert Hester of the Horizon League said in a statement.
The senior right-hander concluded her collegiate career with 659 strikeouts – ninth in League history – while her 716 innings pitched and 59 victories are among the League’s all-time top ten in those respective categories. The three-time First-Team All-League choice also hit .302 with 30 runs scored and 16 runs batted in this year, while her 68 career stolen bases are the seventh-most in league history.
She earned First-Team ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America honors for her efforts on the field and in the classroom, where she maintained a 3.72 grade-point average as a chemical engineering major.
During her eight semesters at CSU, she was a member of the Dean’s list and graduated magna cum laude in May.
Luginbuhl is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
She has worked with the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities’ SOAR! Program, and also participated in a clinic for the Avon Challenger Youth Baseball League.
Luginbuhl has played softball since the fourth-grade. She lives with her parents and younger brother who is 21 in Lima, Ohio. She hopes to stay in the Lima or Cleveland area so she could coach softball and give pitching lessons.
She has some advice for all other athletes out there: “When you enjoy a sport, play it a lot and you’ll get better at it.
“Besides, the better you are, the more fun it is.”

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