Lewis softball great Robin Martz selected to GLVC Hall Of Fame

ROMEOVILLE — The Great Lakes Valley Conference announced Feb. 2 that former Lewis University softball great Robin (Martz) Hammer has been inducted into the Great Lakes Valley Conference Hall of Fame.

A 2002 graduate of Eastland High School, she is the third Lewis inductee into the GLVC Hall of Fame, joining both Larry Tucker (men’s basketball, 2010) and Duane Chappell (men’s track and field, 2015).

As a freshman, Martz played second base for the Eastland Cougars in their 1999 second-place finish in the IHSA Class 1A state softball championship. Hammer also was inducted in the Northwest Illinois Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

“I am very honored to be chosen as a Hall of Fame inductee for the GLVC,” Hammer said. “Our team strived to be competitive, which provided more opportunities for me to succeed and get better each year. Without my teammates and coaches pushing me, this wouldn’t have been possible.”

The GLVC Hall of Fame Class of 2016 will be honored May 24 at the Enterprise Rent-a-Car/GLVC Spring Awards Banquet at the Drury Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.

Hammer dominates the Lewis record books as she is the all-time leader in career batting average (.408), hits (289), total bases (356) and single season batting average (.480, 2005) and hits (82, 2004 and ‘05).

She is a two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association First Team All-American (2004, ‘05) and three-time NFCA All-Great Lakes First Team Selection (2004, ‘05, ‘06). She was a three-time All-GLVC First Team nominee and was tabbed the GLVC Player of the Year in 2005.

“In my long association with Lewis University and GLVC softball, I feel that Robin Martz was one of the finest softball players I have ever seen,” former Lewis University head softball coach George DiMatteo said. “Robin was a tenacious competitor on the field, who was well liked and respected by all of her teammates.”

“I am so happy for Robin on this most prestigious honor,” DiMatteo continued. “It was my honor and privilege to have been her coach at Lewis.”