by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kacy Tillery got an early Christmas present for her Kansas City Kansas Community College softball team with the signing of pitcher Shannon Greene of McLouth, Kan.
A three-time all-state selection at McLouth, Greene is a transfer from Saint Mary University and will be eligible for the upcoming spring softball season, the first to be played on KCKCC’s new softball field, the first all-weather field in the Jayhawk Conference.
“I was pretty happy with the pitching staff we have but Shannon will be a great addition, plus she can swing the bat,” Tillery said. Greene will also be a candidate at first base when not pitching,
In her four years at McLouth, Greene set school records for 1) Most no-hitters – 10; 2) Perfect games – seven; 3) Career wins – 41 with 11 losses; and 4) Career strikeouts – 408 in 254 innings. She also finished with the third lowest career earned average of 1.43 per seven innings. In addition, she had a career batting average of .526 with 117 runs-batted-in and just 10 strikeouts in 241 times at bat.
An all-conference first team selection in each of her four years at McLouth, Greene was named to the first all-state team in 2015 and second team in 2014 and 2016. She was also named to the Lawrence Journal-World’s all-area softball team four times including twice on the first team.
In her sophomore year in 2014, McLouth won the regional championship and earned a place in the eight-team Kansas 2A state championship. The following year, Greene pitched McLouth to a repeat regional championship and third place in the Kansas 2A state tournament.
An outstanding student, Greene graduated No. 1 in her class with a 4.0 grade point average and was class co-valedictorian. A Gold Honor Roll student all four years and a National Honor Society her final three years, she was honored as a Kansas City Star Student-Athlete for 2015-16 and an honorable mention selection on the Topeka Capital-Journal’s 2016 Academic All-State Team.
Her non-athletic participation also included finishing second in forensics and third in dynamic planet categories in the State Science Olympiad; a third in the Regional High School Science Olympiad; and two years as editor of the yearbook.