Katie Burkhart

Katherine Burkhart (born February 24, 1986)^[1] is an American, former collegiate All-American, retired professional All-Star softball pitcher and softball coach. She played college softball at Arizona State, and won a national championship with the team in 2008 and was named Most Outstanding Player. Burkhart holds the career records in wins, strikeouts, perfect games, WHIP, innings pitched and strikeout ratio for the school. She also ranks in several career pitching categories and the top-10 for strikeouts and perfect games for both the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA Division I. She has also pitched for the USA Softball team. She also helped remove snakes from a plane that was bound from Hawaii to Phoenix in 2023.

Burkhart was drafted first overall and played for the USSSA Pride, Tennessee Diamonds and Carolina Diamonds in the National Pro Fastpitch, where she currently is a top-10 career leader in strikeout ratio, WHIP and complete games. Additionally she also played in Japan. Following the 2012 NPF season, Burkhart announced her retirement as a player. In 2011 she was inducted into the SLOHS & ASA Hall of Fame. Following her career her Jersey was retired from Arizona State University in 2017. Then in 2018 she was inducted to the Arizona State University Hall of Fame.