Lisa Fernandez is Arguably the Greatest Female Softball Player of All Time

It’s one thing to dream about being the best in the world at something, and it’s something completely different to actually go out and do it. By any measure, Lisa Fernandez is arguably the greatest female softball player of all time.

Born and raised in Long Beach, California, the 51-year-old Fernandez was born to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother. She played college ball at UCLA and set numerous pitching records that stand to this day.

She is a two-time National Champion with the Bruins. She played in Westwood from 1990-93, and was named a First-Team All-American four times.

She holds the UCLA records for most shutouts, WHIP, and winning percentage.

“I accomplished pretty incredible things,” she told NCAA.com in 2020. “I’ve always been one who’s motivated by goals.”

While her collegiate accomplishments are impressive, they truly pale in comparison to her performances for Team USA in the Olympics.

A four-time Olympian, Fernandez won three gold medals for the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2004. Moreover, she was was on the mound to close out all three gold medal games.

Her Olympic pitching performances are the stuff of legend. In her Olympic career, she went 7-1 with one save and an 0.37 ERA with 93 strikeouts in 74 2/3 innings. 

She still holds the Olympic record for strikeouts in a game, fanning 25 Australians on September 21, 2000.

Fernandez wasn’t bad with the lumber, either. She batted .302 with three homers and 15 RBIs in 27 games, including a ridiculous .545 average and .818 slugging percentage in the 2004 Athens Games.

Throughout her career, she won numerous awards, including the Honda-Broderick Cup in 1993, which is given the best collegiate female athlete in all sports. She was inducted into the Team USA Hall of Fame in 2012.

Fernandez embraced her position a prominent Latina athlete, and made sure she was someone all children could look up to. 

“When you choose to be an athlete and choose to put yourself in that situation, I take it with a lot of pride,” she told Long Beach Magazine in 2011. “I want to be that role model. I think it’s neat when you can bring happiness to other people and help them when it looks like things are getting tough. There’s a way to excel. To be a role model, I’ve just been blessed. God has given me some incredible physical and mental abilities, but I’ve also been very fortunate to put myself into positions which allowed me to prosper. You have to be thankful and be able to give back. If I can help these kids in any way, that’s the way it should be.”

Fernandez is currently an assistant coach with the UCLA Softball team. She married Michael Lujan in 2002, and they have two sons.

All this is pretty impressive for someone who was once told she would not make it as a pitcher because she didn’t have the proper size or build. Still, she never let the negativity affect her.

“The greatest things are the challenges; that’s what you remember the most, or at least I do. When you have your worst moments and come back and overcome and what you do those are the best.