Eight years after she pitched her final game for the Terrier softball team, Shannon Downey still is ranked among the top five all-time Terriers in six career pitching statistics. She is third in complete games with 56, fifth in shutouts with 19, fifth in innings pitched with 423-and-a-third, third in strikeouts with 544, third in wins with 51, and second in ERA with 0.66.
Those were just her pitching totals. At the bat, she had a .291 career batting average, which still ranks as the sixth best average in school history, while her .433 slugging percentage ranks fourth.
She played just two years for the Terriers.
A native of Oceanside, California, located in San Diego County, Downey transferred to Boston University after her sophomore year.
"I wanted to move in order to experience life on the East Coast," Downey said. "I also wanted to go to a school where I could focus on more than just softball."
She made an impact from her first game as she compiled a 25-5 record along with an 0.82 ERA. She also had 256 strikeouts, 23 complete games and seven shutouts, as the Terriers finished with a 29-12 record, won the conference title as well as the ECAC tournament.
For her efforts, she was named Northeast Region First Team All-American, First Team All-Conference as well as the Conference Pitcher of the Year and the Conference tournament's MVP.
As hard as it might seem to believe, she improved on her totals her senior year. Downey was 26-5 with an 0.52 ERA. She had 288 strikeouts, 12 shutouts and completed an incredible 31-of-32 games she started.
Again, she was named First Team All-Conference, as well as its Pitcher of the Year. She was also named First Team All-ECAC and All-New England. The team compiled a 35-7 record and repeated as the conference tournament winner. They advanced to the ECAC tournament but lost in the semifinals.
