Video Tribute: The CMS Softball Class of 2021

As part of NCAA Division III week (Apr. 5-11), we will be honoring the senior classes for all 21 of our varsity sports. A number of our student-athletes elected to take a semester or a school year off and could return to action next season, but we have chosen to honor the senior classes as they would have been, without the COVID-19 interruption. The members of the Class of 2021 lost so much of what they had built towards in their first 2-3 years of competition when the pandemic hit, but still clearly left their mark on CMS Athletics.

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The members of the CMS Softball senior class had two NCAA appearances under their belt in their first two seasons, winning the 2018 SCIAC Tournament as a four seed and then taking the regular season title in 2019, while earning the right to host one of the NCAA Division III Regionals at Athena Field.

This year's seniors had a key role in all of that success, with all five serving as regular starters in the 2019 lineup which went 24-4 in league play and reached the top 10 of the NCAA Division III rankings. They had a 72-37 record in their two-plus years of competition, reaching the 30-win plateau twice, while their 24 conference wins in 2019 tied a program record. 

CMS Softball won its first 18 SCIAC games in 2019 to run away with the regular season title and earn the top seed in the conference tournament. After an untimely injury to senior pitcher/utility Chloe Amarilla, the Athenas came up short in the tournament, but still had a strong enough resume to earn an at-large bid and host a three-team regional.



The five members of the CMS Softball Class of 2021 are as follows: 

Jessica Fox (Utility, Sherman Oaks, Calif. - CMC, Economics-Accounting)
Fox has had a vital role for the CMS Softball team in her career, playing multiple defensive positions, including third base, shortstop and outfield. She played in all 46 games as a first-year, then 37 more as a sophomore and all 19 as a junior. She had a huge doubleheader against Cal Lutheran as a sophomore, batting 4-for-6 with four runs scored, and then hit 3-for-3 in a game against Pomona-Pitzer. As a junior, she was 5-for-8 in a doubleheader sweep of Whittier. She had a three-run homer as a first year against Pacific, one of her four three-RBI games. An economics-accounting major at CMC, she has been working at EY in the assurance department since July, and served as president of the Claremont Accounting Association on campus. 

Megan Perron (OF/DP, Morgan Hill, Calif. - CMC, EEP)
Perron earned second-team All-America status from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association as a sophomore, after a breakthrough season which saw her hit .442 with 16 doubles, three homers and 42 runs batted in. Her .442 average ranked No. 5 on the CMS all-time list, while her doubles total ranked fourth, her RBI total sixth, and her hits total (61) seventh. She had a 14-game hitting streak when she hit .500, including a walk-off RBI double in a win over Pomona-Pitzer. She finished her abbreviated junior season sporting a .394 carer batting average with 58 RBI, including seven RBI in a doubleheader sweep of Occidental. An environment, economics and politics major at CMC, she worked last summer as an international development specialist at South North Nexus, writing research briefs summer summarizing trends related to the relationship between environmental degradation, climate change, and conflict.

Kawai Scanlan (OF, Honolulu, Hawai'i - Scripps, Psychology/Indigenous Studies)
Scanlan was a second-team All-SCIAC Selection as a first-year, and earned a spot on the NFCA All-West Region team. She started all 46 games, batting .381 with 48 hits and 30 RBI, including a 4-4 performance at Chapman. During her abbreviated junior season, she was named the SCIAC Hitter of the Week after a strong performance in a series with rival Whittier, hitting 2-for-4 with a double and a triple in the opener, and then adding another RBI triple in a 4-2 win in the nightcap. A psychology major at Scripps, Scanlan has earned NFCA/Easton All-America Scholar-Athlete distinction, as well as SCIAC All-Academic Team honors. She interned with the Kamehameha schools community and government relations division under the 2019 summer Kapili 'Oihana Internship program, authoring a paper on climate change advocacy. She also helped draft a proposal at Scripps to introduce a minor in Native American/Indigenous Studies.

Molly Spaniac (OF, Sammamish, Wash. - CMC, Science Management)
Spaniac was a second-team All-SCIAC selection as a first-year in 2018, when she helped the Athenas win the SCIAC Tournament. She batted .343 on the year with 32 runs scored, including 5-for-7 in a doubleheader sweep of Western Connecticut, and batted 3-for-6 in two SCIAC Tournament wins over top-seeded La Verne. An NFCA/Easton All-America Scholar Athlete selection, and a member of the SCIAC All-Academic team, Spaniac majors in science management at Claremont McKenna. She has spent the last year doing an internship with Stategy& in the San Francisco Bay area and has been an accounting tutor at the Robert Day School of Economics and a research assistant in the Keck Science Department. She has also served as a first-year guide at CMC, intergrating first-year students into the community. 

Maddie Valdez (C/IF, Ontario, Calif. - CMC, Neuroscience)
Valdez was a second-team NFCA All-West Region as a sophomore, when she batted .373 with a single-season school record 12 home runs, to go along with a .373 batting average and 40 RBI, including a home run against Linfield in the NCAA Regionals. She added two more home runs in her shortened junior season, which came against nationally ranked opponents Central (Iowa) and Linfield, to tie the all-time school career record with 18 round-trippers in just over two seasons. One of her biggest homers came as a first-year, breaking a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning of a 2-1 SCIAC Tournament win over Pomona-Pitzer. Her career stats stand at .362 with 18 homers and 93 RBI, placing her sixth in career RBI. A neuroscience major at Claremont McKenna, Valdez has served for two years as a research assistant with the Umanath Memory and Aging Lab.