Scarlet Knight Wingert Named Big Ten Player of the Week

February 13, 2024

Rutgers catcher Katie Wingert was named the Big Ten Player of the Week by the conference office on Monday.

Last week’s best @bigten 🏀 and 🥎 players are Scarlet Knights. #GoRU pic.twitter.com/sL5kQKemcD

— Rutgers Scarlet Knights (@RUAthletics) February 12, 2024

The graduate student helped the Scarlet Knights to a record of 4-1 for opening weekend. She hit .444 with five home runs in four of the five games. With those homers, Wingert moves into second all-time at Rutgers in home runs. Wingert also had eight hits, five runs, and ten RBIs along with a 1.33 slugging percentage in wins over Houston, Colgate, and Indiana State.

Wingert opened the weekend hitting her second pitch of the season deep for a two-run shot in a game that saw the Scarlet Knights beat Colgate 9-1. Against host Houston, Rutgers would win 10-2 with the catcher going 3-for-4 and her first hit coming at her first pitch of the third inning. Later against Colgate Wingert would get two hits, starting a comeback back from a four-run deficit.

With the five home runs scored Wingert is now tied for second all-time in home runs and now has 34 for her career. If she can hit six more, she will then be tied with Jackie Bates for the top spot in Rutgers Softball history for career home runs. She also moved up to fifth all time in RBIs at Rutgers with 115 in her career.

All this comes on at the Houston Invitational, that saw the Scarlet Knights go 4-1 overall. With two wins each day, entering the last game 4-0, Rutgers would eventually lose 6-3 to the Houston.

The Scarlet Knights return to the field on Feb. 16 at the Panther Invitational in Miami Florida. Their first game against Army West Point is at 10 a.m. followed by a game against Duke at 3 p.m. on the same day.