Senior right fielder
Ashley Strick had a final season to remember at Hillsdale College, playing a significant role in the team's best record in 34 years and its longest-ever NCAA Tournament run.
2025 Rawlings NCAA DII Gold Glove Team presented by NFCA
Her sure-handed defense and cannon arm in the outfield caught the eyes of not just her teammates and opponents, but those on the national level as well. As a result, Strick closes out her career with the Chargers with an unprecedented and singular accomplishment in the program's history.
On Thursday afternoon, Strick was named as one of nine recipients of the 2025 NCAA DII Rawlings Gold Glove Award. Recipients of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, presented by the NFCA, were selected by the NFCA's NCAA Division II All-America Committee, following regional voting to identify the finalists at each position. The group utilized fielding statistics and school-submitted video to closely examine finalists and select the winners at every defensive position. Any student-athlete that competed in the current championship year and was nominated by their head coach who is a member in good standing with the NFCA was eligible for consideration for this prestigious accolade.
The honor identifies Strick as the top defensive right fielder in the country at the NCAA DII level. It's the first time in the four-year history of the award a Hillsdale player has earned the Gold Glove distinction.
Throughout a stellar senior season in the outfield, Strick put up numbers worthy of the award. She was responsible for 85 outs including 69 putouts, and boasted a perfect fielding percentage through the regular season and G-MAC Tournament. While Strick played the outfield at an elite level, what separated her from other candidates was her arm.
Strick threw out 14 baserunners from the outfield with on-target missiles, an extremely high number for an outfielder. That included at least four runners thrown out at home plate, directly saving runs for the Chargers. The number could have been even higher, but by the final third of the season teams mostly stopped trying to advance more than one base on balls hit into right field out of respect for Strick's arm.
The Gold Glove caps a dream senior season for Strick and a fitting one after a nightmarish junior year that saw her go down early with a shoulder injury that limited her to just 11 contests. Undeterred, Strick built herself back up over the summer and fall and returned better than ever this season, not only playing the best defense of her career but also posting career highs in virtually every hitting category as well. Her power hitting in the nine spot for the Chargers made an ordinarily unthreatening spot in the lineup into a minefield for opposing pitchers.
