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California's newest record holder seems unstoppable

danielle elliot

A California high school senior has set a new record for career hits, slapping hit number 247 last Thursday. She added three more on Tuesday, for a cool 250. It's a tremendous number of hits – yet that's not even her most impressive accomplishment.

According to the San Bernardino Sun, Zoe Casas has only struck out twice – that's right, less than once each year – in her four-year career at Aquinas (San Bernardino, Calif.) High. This year she's batting .740.

“Her work ethic is second to none,” coach Chris Ybarra told the local paper. “I may never have someone like that again.”

Casas is a weapon in more ways that one. Once she reaches base, she's adept at stealing another base – actually, she's perfect. She's stolen 74 bases in 74 attempts. She told the Sun that as a freshman, she actually expected stolen bases to be her strongest suit.

"My goal was to set a stolen-base record for myself and then beat it every year,” she said. “I never came into high school thinking hitting was going to be my strong point. I always thought it was going to be running, bunting, but hitting progressed very well.”

She entered the May 21 game with 244 hits, tied for the state record. She took the outright crown by going 3-4 with a double and an RBI. That was only the first round of the playoffs.

On Tuesday, she once again went 3-4 with an RBI in her team's second-round win. That's 250 hits, with a few rounds left in the playoffs. Aquinas plays in the third round on Thursday.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, only the 14 softball players have had more than 250 career hits. Interestingly enough, all 14 have hailed from Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, and Michigan.

The national record belongs to Holly Currie, who finished her Alabama high school career in 2003 with 365 hits.

Casas plans to play at Florida State next year.

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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or find her on Twitter and Facebook.