Softball Romanda Noble-Watson, SID

Former Claflin Softball Player Kayla Cato Named a HBCU Awards Female Athlete of the Year Finalist

Lady Panthers Softball Team Named Women’s Team of the Year Finalist

Orangeburg, S.C. -- Former Claflin University softball player Kayla Cato has been named 1-of-5 HBCU Awards Female Athlete of the Year Finalist. The Claflin University softball team was named Women's Team of the Year Finalist.  The finalists were announced Monday (June 17).
 
4779Winners will be announced on August 2 at the awards ceremony to be held at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in downtown Baltimore, Md.
 
Cato is a May 2019 Cum Laude graduate of Claflin University with a degree in Mass Communications with a minor in Marketing.  She finished her four-year career at Claflin career with a batting average of .344 and a slugging percentage of .692.  She accumulated 216 runs, 230 hits, including 51 homeruns, and 197 RBIs and 209 stolen bases in 212 attempts.  She was named the 2019 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Player of the Year, All-CIAA First Team and to the 2019 CIAA All-Tournament Team. She is also a 2019 Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) Softball All-Atlantic Region First Team Selection, a Google Cloud Academic All-District® Softball Team (District 2) selection and was named to the 2019 Easton/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) 4780Academic All-America Scholar Athlete Team. She finished the regular season ranked second in sacrifice flies, sixth in RBIs, 21st in total bases and RBIs per game, 30th in slugging percentage and 40th in runs per game in the nation.
 
The Claflin softball team finished the season with a 37-19 overall record and was a perfect 18-0 in its first season as a member of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).  The Lady Panthers finished as the 2019 CIAA Tournament Runner-up.
 
The HBCU Awards is the first and only national awards ceremony honoring individual and institutional achievement at historically black colleges and universities throughout the country. Winners are selected by a panel of previous winners, journalist, HBCU executives, students and alumni for the merit of accomplishment and for generating positive coverage for HBCU campus communities.
 
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Players Mentioned

Kayla Cato

#24 Kayla Cato

IF
5' 10"
Senior
R/R

Players Mentioned

Kayla Cato

#24 Kayla Cato

5' 10"
Senior
R/R
IF