Caitlin Faith Lowe-Nagy (born February 6, 1985) is the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats softball team. Lowe is a former collegiate four-time first team All-American and medal winning Olympian. She played college softball for Arizona and led her team in back-to-back Women's College World Series championships in 2006 and 2007. She won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Lowe played with National Pro Fastpitch's USSSA Pride for six seasons, winning three titles and being named 2012 Player of the Year, before officially retiring in 2015.
She is one of select players in NCAA Division I history to have accumulated over 300 hits, 200 runs and 100 stolen bases while batting .400 in her career. Recently, she was only one of 3 named by both the fan vote and experts to the Greatest College Softball Team All-Time, in the outfield.
Early years
At Foothill High School in North Tustin, California, Caitlin was selected as an All-American four years in a row, and helped lead her team to state and national championships in 2000. In addition, she led the school to league championships in 2001, 2002 and 2003. In 2001, she received the All-League and Foothill High School MVP Awards and in 2003, she received the Orange County "Player of the Year" Award.
Arizona Wildcats
For her freshman season at the University of Arizona, Lowe earned First Team All-American status and was named the Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year and was a top-10 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. She jumped into top-10 rankings in Wildcat history for her run and stolen base totals and posted career highs in doubles and base on balls; Lowe also led the conference in stolen bases.
The sophomore continued her success by earning all-season honors from both the NFCA and the Pac-10, including being named conference Player of the Year. Her career best season batting average still ranks second all-time and her hits total top-10 at Arizona (both topped the conference year), leading to a finalist spot for the Honda and USA Softball National Collegiate Player of The Year. She also set career highs in home runs, triples and slugging percentage.
On February 26, she hit a career high four hits against the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters in a 7–0 win. The next month on March 27, Lowe would drive in four RBIs for another career high over Louisiana–Lafayette.
Lowe was named 2006 First Team All-American and Pac-10 for a third consecutive year. She posted another top-10 school record for her 33 stolen bases and was caught just twice that year while also achieving a high in RBIs and again leading the conference for stolen bases.
From February 25 through March 18, Lowe achieved a 15 consecutive game hit streak. She batted .510 (26/51) and had 12 RBIs, a home run, four triples and two doubles to accompany a slugging percentage of over .750%, eventually ended by Cat Osterman on March 19. Starting in a doubleheader sweep of the Oregon Ducks on May 12, Lowe stole two bags in the games to begin a consecutive stolen bases streak that would reach into her senior season.
The Wildcats made it into the Women's College World Series as the No. 2 seed and eventually trumped the Northwestern Wildcats in the finals, outscoring them a combined 13–0 over the two-game series; Lowe scored four of those runs. Lowe went 2/4 in the June 6 finale and was named to the All-Tournament Team scoring a then new series record 8 runs.
For a final season Lowe was named All-American, all-conference and newly bestowed with the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year award. She also stole a career high, school season second best and Pac-10 leading 49 bags, being caught just once. Her resumed streak of consecutive stolen bases concluded on May 19 when the one time she was thrown out was by Chelsea Bramlett of Mississippi State Bulldogs. To that point, Lowe had amassed 47 consecutive stolen bases and 54 overall for the NCAA ninth best streak all-time.
Lowe and the Wildcats returned to defend their title at the 2007 WCWS. After riding the arm of tournament MVP Taryne Mowatt and escaping elimination through four games (three straight), Lowe won another National Championship defeating the Tennessee Lady Vols 5–0 on June 6. Lowe ended her career with a perfect day at the plate going 4/4 off USA Softball Collegiate Player of The Year Monica Abbott. She was named All-Tournament hitting .345 with two RBIs and three doubles.