Aug. 26, 2015
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State softball team has added Sam Duran as a volunteer coach, head coach Kathy Van Wyk announced today. Duran will work with the outfielders and will assist in the office for the Aztecs.
Duran comes to The Mesa after a four-year playing career at UCLA (2012-15), helping the Bruins to a 179-60 (.749) record over that span. While at UCLA, Duran and the Bruins advanced to the 2015 Women's College World Series, earned a 2014 Super Regionals appearance and two trips to the NCAA Regionals.
At UCLA, Duran played in 145 games, starting 22. Five of her starts came in 2014, while 17 came in 2013, where she hit .154 (4-for-26) with 11 runs, three walks and a stolen base. For her career, Duran batted .118 with 51 runs, a stolen base and three walks.
Duran, who graduated from UCLA in June with a degree in political science, also worked as a UCLA softball camp instructor since June of 2010, organizing camp functions, developing weekly lesson plans and camp schedules, while teaching communications, teamwork and mental approach skills to ages 5-to-16. She also has experience working at the Pure Fast Pitch Softball Hitting Facility from 2009-11, instructing young athletes, specifically pertaining to their mental and physical skills.
Duran is a native of Whittier, Calif., where she was a four-year letterwinner at California High School. She was a four-year all-Del Rio League honoree, including a first-team pick each of her final three seasons and co-MVP as a senior. Duran was also a three-time all-Area selection - first team her final two years - while helping the Condors to back-to-back, undefeated league titles during her sophomore and junior seasons.
The Aztecs finished 2015 with a 38-20 record, advancing to the NCAA Regional final for the third time since 2011 and fifth time in 11 tournament trips before being eliminated by Duran's Bruins. SDSU, one of just 20 schools in the country to play in a NCAA tournament at least eight consecutive years, finished the year with seven school records, including batting average (.312), slugging percentage (.486), runs (324), home runs (63), RBIs (293), total bases (758) and hits (484).