| Keilani Ricketts | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaze | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pitcher | ||||||||||||||||||
| Born: (1991-09-01)September 1, 1991 (age 33)[1] San Jose, California | ||||||||||||||||||
Bats: Left Throws: Left | ||||||||||||||||||
| Professional debut | ||||||||||||||||||
| NCAA: 2010, for the Oklahoma Sooners | ||||||||||||||||||
| NPF: 2013, for the USSSA Pride | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Medals
| ||||||||||||||||||
Keilani Johanna Ricketts Tumanuvao (born September 1, 1991)[2] is a professional Americansoftball player for the Blaze of theAthletes Unlimited Softball League. She played pitcher for theOklahoma City Spark. She playedcollege softball atOklahoma from 2010 to 2013, where she was the starting pitcher and helped to lead the Sooners to thenational championship in2013.[3] As a member of theUnited States women's national softball team she won2011 World Cup of Softball.[4] Ricketts currently plays for theUSSSA Pride in theNational Pro Fastpitch. She is the Sooners career leader inwins andstrikeouts. She also ranks for career records in both theBig 12 Conference and theNCAA Division I, where she is one three players to win 100 games with 1,000 strikeouts and hit 50home runs.[5]
Ricketts debuted on February 10, 2010 tossing three scoreless innings to beat theFlorida Atlantic Owls.[6] She was named Second-Team National Fastpitch Coaches' Association All-American along with First-Team All-Big 12 honors.[7][8] As a freshman, she would break the record for strikeout ratio and then rank second for strikeouts overall at the school. Ricketts would lead the team into a Super Regional with theWashington Huskies and opened the series by beating National Player of The YearDanielle Lawrie before dropping the next two to be eliminated that year.
In her sophomore year, Ricketts would be named a First-Team All-American and earned her second conference honors.[9] Ricketts would break her own and set the school record for strikeout ratio with a career best 11.1 per 7-innings. She also broke the school strikeouts record, which now ranks second all-time.
On April 16, 2011, Ricketts lost a 9-inning contest vs. theMissouri Tigers and combined with Tiger pitcherChelsea Thomas to record 33 strikeouts, an NCAA top-10 record.[10] In the NCAA tournament, the Sooners opened up that year against theIona Gaels and Ricketts set a career and school high with 19 strikeouts in regulation, winning 7-1 on May 20.[11] The Sooners made theWomen's College World Series that year by defeating theArizona Wildcats but did not win a game.
As a junior, Ricketts again earned First-Team honors from both the NFCA and the conference, this time being named 2012Big 12 Conference Player of the Year while also achieving a pitching Triple Crown.[12][13] She was also chosenUSA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and recognized with theHonda Sports Award for softball.[14] She would break her own strikeout record with a career and school best total, while her career high in wins ranks second all-time for the Sooners; Ricketts also had her bestERA andWHIP. Ricketts would also lead the team inbatting average anddoubles with career highs, which she also tallied inhome runs,RBIs,hits,triples andslugging percentage.
Ricketts fired aperfect game over theKansas Jayhawks on March 30 and struck out 10 batters to cross the 1,000 career benchmark, becoming one of the elite to reach that milestone in three seasons.[15] On May 19, Ricketts hit a grand slam to help reach a career high with 6 RBIs vs. theLehigh Mountain Hawks.[16] At that year's WCWS on June 1, for her second game Ricketts pitched a 16-strikeout, 2 hit shutout over the No.1California Golden Bears.[17] The Sooners would go on to defeat the defending champs to meet theAlabama Crimson Tide in the championship final. Ricketts won game one but then lost back-to-back games to drop the series. Ricketts would be named All-Tournament for her performance, tying the third best record for WCWS strikeouts with 64.[18]
For a final season, Ricketts claimed her fourth First Team all-conference and third First-Team and fourth overall All-American honors, simultaneously winningBig 12 Pitcher of the Year.[19][20] She would also earn her second USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and Honda Sports Award for softball to accompany theHonda Cup Award.[21][22] Ricketts had a career best inshutouts and winning percentage with a near perfect season while also throwing 6 no-hitters, a top-5 NCAA record for a single season.
February 9, 2013 she won her 100th game, no-hitting theOregon Ducks.[23] Beginning on March 27-June 3, she had a career best 21 game win streak. Ricketts led her team to a No. 1 seed and culminated in winning the National Championship by besting theTennessee Lady Vols in a 12-inning game one and then driving in all the runs, three of them the winning runs coming via her 50th career home run off Ivy Renfroe, in game two to seal the title. This would give her the Most Outstanding Player Award and her second All-Tournament recognition.[24]
Ricketts would also become one of the most prolific and winning pitchers in WCWS history going 8-4 with 112 strikeouts and allowing 19 earned runs in 80.1 inning for a 1.00 WHIP in three trips.[25] For her career she holds the school records in wins, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeout ratio.[26] In the Big 12 she ranks second in career wins, strikeouts and shutouts, third in strikeout ratio, fourth in innings and 7th in ERA; offensively she stands third in walks, fifth in home runs and 10th in slugging percentage.[27] In all of the NCAA she is 7th in wins all-time.[28]
On January 29, 2025, Ricketts was drafted twenty first overall by the Blaze in the inauguralAthletes Unlimited Softball League draft.[29][30]
Ricketts is ofSamoan descent.[31] She has three siblings that include Richard, a formerAir Force Falcons football player, Stephanie, a former All-AmericanHawaii Rainbow Wahine softball player, and Samantha, a former All-AmericanOklahoma Sooners softball player and current Head Softball Coach for Mississippi State University.[32] In December 2017, Ricketts married Sean Tumanuvao inSan Jose, California.[33]
| Year | W | L | GP | GS | CG | Sh | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
| 2010 | 32 | 10 | 48 | 38 | 29 | 14 | 2 | 259.2 | 136 | 63 | 46 | 91 | 346 | 1.24 | 0.87 |
| 2011 | 29 | 15 | 50 | 42 | 33 | 9 | 2 | 284.1 | 195 | 79 | 60 | 82 | 452 | 1.48 | 0.97 |
| 2012 | 37 | 9 | 49 | 43 | 34 | 15 | 2 | 292.0 | 163 | 64 | 45 | 51 | 457 | 1.08 | 0.73 |
| 2013 | 35 | 1 | 45 | 40 | 27 | 16 | 2 | 238.1 | 123 | 47 | 42 | 63 | 350 | 1.23 | 0.78 |
| TOTALS | 133 | 35 | 192 | 163 | 123 | 54 | 8 | 1074.1 | 617 | 253 | 193 | 287 | 1605 | 1.26 | 0.84 |
| YEAR | G | AB | R | H | BA | RBI | HR | 3B | 2B | TB | SLG | BB | SO | SB | SBA |
| 2010 | 52 | 86 | 15 | 21 | .244 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 38 | .442% | 28 | 35 | 0 | 1 |
| 2011 | 57 | 133 | 27 | 38 | .285 | 45 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 79 | .594% | 38 | 39 | 1 | 1 |
| 2012 | 63 | 160 | 42 | 64 | .400 | 49 | 17 | 2 | 13 | 132 | .825% | 53 | 31 | 6 | 7 |
| 2013 | 61 | 153 | 44 | 58 | .379 | 60 | 15 | 0 | 8 | 111 | .725% | 51 | 33 | 9 | 9 |
| TOTALS | 233 | 532 | 128 | 181 | .340 | 174 | 50 | 2 | 25 | 360 | .676% | 170 | 138 | 16 | 18 |
| YEAR | W | L | G | GS | CG | Sh | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
| 2013 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 35.0 | 35 | 25 | 22 | 21 | 43 | 4.40 | 1.60 |
| 2014 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 65.0 | 53 | 25 | 18 | 16 | 56 | 1.94 | 1.06 |
| 2015 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 76.0 | 62 | 34 | 28 | 16 | 83 | 2.58 | 1.02 |
| 2016 | 8 | 6 | 21 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 96.0 | 85 | 40 | 33 | 15 | 90 | 2.40 | 1.04 |
| 2017 | 11 | 4 | 18 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 80.2 | 67 | 21 | 17 | 12 | 82 | 1.48 | 0.98 |
| 2018 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 41.0 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 51 | 0.00 | 0.46 |
| TOTAL | 41 | 24 | 86 | 65 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 393.2 | 314 | 147 | 118 | 87 | 405 | 2.10 | 1.02 |
