OKLAHOMA CITY - Following a four-day selection process, Utah's Hannah Flippen was one of 20 athletes selected to represent the United States as a member of the 2017 USA Softball Women's National Team (WNT). These athletes will compete at the World Cup of Softball XII this July in Oklahoma City and at a Pan American Games/World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Championship Qualifier.
Flippen, a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American, was also named Pac-12 Player of the Year and tabbed as an Academic All-America First Team selection by CoSIDA.
The Utah second baseman paced the Pac-12 with a .542 batting average, a 1.034 slugging percentage and a .667 on-base percentage. She also ranked second in a number of categories including total bases (61), walks (21), runs scored (24), hits (32) and stolen bases (7). Flippen also finished third in the conference with eight homers.
For her career, she owns the highest batting average of any Ute ever at .382 (Cyndee Bennett, .371, 1994-97) and is fourth all-time with 151 runs scored.
Click here to see the athletes selected to the 2017 USA Softball Women's National Team
Representing the U.S. this summer will be 16 returning veterans from the 2016 roster which reclaimed the Gold Medal at the WBSC Women's World Championship in Surrey, B.C., Canada after defeating Japan 7-3 in the Gold Medal Game. Four rookies also join the squad, with three of those rookies having previously worn the Red, White and Blue either as a member of the USA Softball Junior Women's National Team (JWNT) or USA Softball Women's Elite Team.
Led by Head Coach Ken Eriksen, a full list of National Team events, including exhibition games, will be released at a later date.
"It is very obvious that the future talent pool of USA Softball players is very deep," said Eriksen. "The high level of play and skill assessment displayed at the 2017 National Team trials, not only by the former players but also by the first time trial attendees, was fantastic."
Follow along all summer with all of the USA Softball National Teams at USASoftball.com.
