Cal State Fullerton Athletics

“Curly” returns for her fourth season (7th overall) with the Titans after joining Cal State Fullerton for the 2017 season. She serves as the coach of the offense for Titan softball.

The 2022 Titans reclaimed the Big West Title and went to the Tempe Regional.  The squad went 37-22 overall and 20-7 in Big West Play.  The Titans garnered 9 Big West Accolades including Megan Delgadillo being named the Field Player of the Year. Delgadillo and Hannah Becerra were both named ot the NFCA All-West Region Second Team and Jessi Alcala was named to the third team. Megan Delgadillo had 80 hits for the season for the first time sicne 2015 a Titan had 80 or more hits. Both Delgadillo (57 runs) and Hannah Becerra (49 runs) entered the record book in individual runs scored i na season. Daisy Munoz had 49 RBIs for the 5th most by a Titan in a single season. Hannah Becerra had 44 walks for the third most in a single Titan season. And Megan Delgadillo shattered the individual single season stolen base record with 50.

Offfensively, the Titans batted .304 for the season. They scored 306 runs, had 485 hits, 79 doubles swatted 40 home runs, and had 268 RBIs. They had a .371 on-base percentage and a .435 slugging percentage. They also had 93 stolen bases for the season.  They were 29th in the nation in batting average, 72nd in doubles per game (1.34), 65th in on-base percentage, 65th in runs per game (5.19), 83rd in slugging percentage, 39th in steals per game (1.58).  The 2022 squad recorded the third best batting average in school history, they were third in runs per game (5.186), fourth in runs batted in (268), fourth in hit by pitches (45), second in stolen bases (93)

After the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Titans fell one game short of claiming the program's fifth-straight Big West Conference Championship. The squad went 38-15 overall and 21-3 in Big West play. Individually, the Titans were quite successful as the team collected 16 yearly Big West accolades, including Kelsie Whitmore as Player of the Year, Hannah Becerra as Freshman Field Player of the Year and Julia Valenzuela as Defensive Player of the Year. That trio plus KK Humphreys earned NFCA All-West Region honors and Becerra also went on to be named an NFCA Third Team All-American.

Offensively, the Titans were ninth nationally and first in the Big West in batting average at .328. The team also led the league in doubles (85, 11th in the nation), home runs per game (1.13, 37th in the nation), slugging percentage (.535, 17th in the nation) and stolen bases per game (2.02, 13th in the nation). Becerra was the league's home run queen with 14 on the year, also a single-season freshman record. Whitmore had one of the best offensive seasons in school history. She reached base safely in 29 straight games and had a 18-game hitting streak, tied for the second-longest streak in program history. She finished the season with a slash line of .395/.507/.824 overall and an outstanding line of .492/.612/1.062 in league play including 18 walks.

The 2019 season proved to be a very powerful season for Grimes' hitters posting the fifth highest slugging percentage in program history with a .445 mark. The team also belted 48 homers which is tied for fifth most in a single-season. The Titans had three players finish with a .300 batting average or higher led by the Big West Player of the Year, Ari Williams. The senior center fielder led the team in just about every offensive category including a .380 average, .451 on-base percentage, and a .620 slugging percentage. Alexa Neil (.345) and Daisy Munoz (.316) were also key pieces in the Fullerton offense as Neil finished just shy of the freshman program records for runs (44; three shy) and hits (59; five shy) while Munoz tied the freshman program record with 10 home runs.

In 2018, Grimes' offense improved their batting average by over 20 points finishing at a .289 mark from last season. The lineup's on-base percentage and slugging percentage both increased by 25 points from the previous season as well. Arguably, the biggest note of the 2018 Titan offense was the grit and determination in the later innings which collected 11 walk-off victories, three of which were walk-off home runs.

Grimes started her coaching career at North Texas working with the bullpen as well as the hitters from 2012-2013. She then left her alma mater and went on to be the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach and Director of Operations for the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana Lafayette where she won the Sun Belt Conference and made it all the way to the Super Regionals before falling to Auburn.

In 2015, she came back home and served as the Director of Operations for Titan Softball before becoming the Volunteer Assistant Coach last season. She has been instrumental in working with the offense as well as the pitchers and catchers as a part of the back-to-back conference championship teams.

As a player, Grimes saw a lot of success. In 2012, the North Texas alum started all 55 games at catcher for the Mean Green. She finished third on the team with a .317 bating average and second with 10 home runs and 32 RBI. She was named to the All-Tournament Team for the Fairfield Inn and Suites Classic as well as the Sun Belt Conference Co-Player of the Week. She graduated from North Texas ranking fifth all-time in career RBI, sixth in career home runs, tenth in total bases, and sixth on the single-season home run list. She was named to the Dean’s List and Sun Belt Academic Honor Roll as well.

Prior to college, she played at Arcadia High School and was named team MVP in her senior year. She earned All-Pacific League First Team honors in all four seasons at Arcadia and helped lead her team to two league championships while there batting over .500 in her sophomore, junior, and senior campaigns.

Born in Arcadia, Caitlin is the daughter of John and Sylvia Grimes. She has one brother Sean and one sister Mackenzie.