Aimee Murch

Aimee Murch (born June 1983 in Sydney) is an Australian softball player. She plays for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in national competitions, and for a local ACT club. She plays for the Australia women's national softball team. She is trying to earn a spot on the roster that will allow her to compete at the 2012 ISF XIII Women's World Championships. She plays professional softball in Italy for Nuoro.

Aimee Murch
Murch in March 2012 during a photo shoot
Personal information
BornJune 1983
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportSoftball
Event(s)Women's team
ClubSutherland
TeamNuoro

Personal

Murch was born in June 1983 in Sydney.[1] She is from the Australian Capital Territory.[2][3][4]

Softball
The 19 March 2012 game at Hawker International Softball Centre between the ACT representative side and the Japanese national team. No. 19 is Aimee Murch. No. 2 is Clare Warwick.

Murch is a pitcher.[5][6][7] She played in the 8–0 loss to the United States.[7][8]

Murch plays for the Australian Capital Territory team in the national competition.[2] In 2009, she competed in the Gilleys Shield and was named the Best Pitcher.[5] She was a member of the team in 2011.[2] She also plays club softball in the territory. In 2011, she was playing club softball for Sutherland in the ACT women's fast-pitch competition. In October, she helped her team beat the Boomerangs who had the returning international Clare Warwick on their side.[8]

University team

Murch played university softball in the United States for Lynn University. In 2005, she was named to the First Team All-American. She was also named the Female Athlete of the Year by the Sunshine State Conference, and was named the Most Valuable Player at the DII National Championship. In 2005 and 2006, she was named the athlete of the year by her university. Her university inducted her into their hall of fame in 2010, making her the first softball player to be inducted.[5][9] While pitching for the university, she held several school records. These records include most strikeouts in a game at 22, having an ERA of 0.45, the most wins at 39, pitching the most complete games with 38, having the most shutouts with 21 and having the most strikeouts during a single season with a total of 428 for a season. She finished her university career with an ERA of 0.55, a total of 62 wins, having pitched 69 complete games, had 37 shutouts and striking out 737 batters.[9]

National team

Murch plays for the Australia women's national softball team. She made her national team debut and first earned a softball scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport in 2009 and held on to both in 2010.[5] In March 2011, the Australian side was selected that would represent the country during international competitions in 2011. She was one of four players from the Australian Capital Territory to gain selection.[10] In 2011, she was a member of the Australian side that competed at the World Cup of Softball.[7] She played in the 8–0 loss to the United States.[7] She is a member of the 2012 Australia women's national softball team and is trying to secure a spot on the team that will allow her to compete at the 2012 ISF XIII Women's World Championships .[3] The removal of softball from the Olympic programme in 2012 and 2016 has had a negative impact on her ability to compete internationally as Softball Australia received less funding from the government, which meant it was harder to fund travel for her and other national team members to attend top-level international competitions.[10]

Professional softball

Murch first played professional softball in 2006 for an Italian team. She stayed with them for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 season. While she was with the team, they won the Italian Championship, Italian Cup and European Cup.[5] She played for the Dutch side Terravogels in 2009 where she was named the Best Pitcher in the Dutch Softball League.[5][9] With Terravogels, she won a European Cup.[5] She played softball for an Italian professional team in 2011.[2][9][10] She signed with an Italian Nuoro side during the 2011/2012 off season.[6] Previously, she had played for Italian sides from Legnano and LaLoggia.[6] She departed from Australia in late March 2012 to join her Italian side.[4]

References
  1. "AIS Softball — Aimee Murch". Bruce, Australian Capital Territory: Australian Institute of Sport. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  2. "Canberra Times: Canberrans in pitch for national selection". The Canberra Times. Canberra, Australia: Financial Times Limited — Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. 14 May 2011. WCTS87588650. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  3. "Australian Open Women's Squad 2012". Australia: Softball Australia. 24 February 2012. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  4. Rees, Courtney. "Swapping London games for Canberra". The Canberra Times. Canberra, Australia. p. 20.
  5. "Aimee Murch". Australia: Bears Softball Club. Archived from the original on 29 November 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  6. "La off-season dell'Italian softball league è ormai al termine" (in Italian). fibs.it. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  7. Latzke, Jeff (20 July 2009). "US keeps cruising through softball World Cup". Associated Press Archive. D99HTIB81. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  8. Smith, Edwin (23 October 2011). "Canberra Times: Warwick returns after 'chasing the sun'". The Canberra Times. Canberra, Australia: Financial Times Limited — Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  9. "Aimee Murch to be inducted into Lynn University Hall of Fame". Australia: Softball Australia. 28 June 2010. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  10. "Canberra Times: Diamonds could lose chance to sparkle". The Canberra Times. Canberra, Australia: Financial Times Limited — Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. 6 March 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.