Rawlings Sporting Goods Company Inc. announced the nine recipients of the 2024 NCAA Division I Rawlings Gold Glove Award, presented by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, on Wednesday at the NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Senior infielder Peyton Toto and freshman outfielder Kate Verhoef are the first Titans to receive the honor.
The award honors the top nine defensive players from NCAA Division I programs. The award was established in 2022 for DI softball athletes and was expanded to include all the collegiate divisions in 2023. The NFCA All-America Committees select honorees of the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
Toto was named to the Rawlings Gold Glove Recipient for first base. Toto set new career bests this season, making 357 putouts at first base and seven assists. She committed a personal all-time low one error from the field for a career-high .997 fielding percentage. Toto participated in completing 17 double plays.
Verhoef became the first freshman ever to receive the Division I Rawlings Gold Glove Award. Verhoef made all 50 starts in the 57 games played in right field for the Titans. She made 53 putouts and five assists from the outfield this season without committing an error.
Toto and Verhoef were the only Big West representatives to receive a Rawlings Gold Glove Award. They were accompanied by catcher Jocelyn Ericksen (Florida), second baseman Sydney Kuma (Georgia), third baseman Riley Love (Texas Tech), shortstop Paige Sinicki (Oregon), left fielder Dakota Kennedy (Arizona) and center fielder Kendra Falby (Florida).
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association also announced senior outfielder Megan Delgadillo as the 2024 New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe Award recipient. Delgadillo is the first student-athlete from Fullerton and The Big West to win the award, which dates back to 2005.
The NFCA All-West Region first-team honoree leads NCAA Division I with 44 stolen bases in 46 attempts and ranks fourth at .76 per game. She collected 23 of them before conference play started and had seven multi-stolen base games overall.
Delgadillo led the Titans with a .417 batting average, 86 hits, 49 runs, a .515 slugging percentage and a .957 OPS. She sits atop the Titans record book in career hits (272), runs scored (172) and holds the program and Big West conference record for stolen bases (151).
Her 86 hits this season broke her season-best record (80), posting a .442 on-base percentage and the ability to show her speed on the bases.
Delgadillo became the all-time stolen base leader for The Big West against Toledo on March 7, stealing her 15th bag of the season and 122 overall. She passed UC Santa Barbara’s Leslie Simien (121 SB), who had held the record since 2004.
She was perfect in stolen base attempts (23-for-23) throughout the tournament season, tying her career-high with four stolen bases in a single game against Princeton on March 8. She matched that personal best for a third time 20 days later, stealing four more bases against UC Riverside on March 28.
Delgadillo also worked her way to the top of the Titans record book in runs scored, scoring her 151st run at Cal State Bakersfield on March 23 to pass Titan alumna and current assistant coach Gina Oaks Gracia (150 R). She recorded nine multi-runs scored games and entered the season with the ninth most runs scored in program history (123 R).