Drexel Softball's Linda Rush Sets Home Run Record

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Drexel University softball standout Linda Rush is having quite the freshman campaign.

Rush, a shortstop, is hitting a team high .412 this season for the Dragons. She leads the team in hits (40), runs (24), doubles (12) and RBI (40).

She also leads the team in home runs, and her power has already earned her a spot in the Drexel record book. When she hit her tenth home run of the season on Wednesday (her second of the game, which came in a loss to La Salle in the first game of a doubleheader) she set the Drexel record for home runs in a season.

"It was very exciting," Rush tells KYW Newsradio. "I knew I was coming close to it within the last couple of games, so when I hit it I was very excited."

Listen to the entire interview with Drexel's Linda Rush:

Rush says that record-setting run around the bases was quite special.

"I heard my team cheering for me because they were happy that I got it," she says. "So it was fun to just run into home with them standing there."

Rush, who hails from Pittsburgh, says softball has been a passion for her for quite some time.

"I started fast-pitch softball when I was eight," she says. "I always was on a travel team and I always had fun with it and had a great team. So I always had a passion about it, ever since I was eight."

In addition to now owning the single-season home run record, Rush is on target to set the Drexel single-season records for RBI (needs two) and doubles (also needs two). Her ten home runs by the way, already has her seventh on Drexel's CAREER list. She also has been named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I National Freshman of the Year Top 25 finalist. All this has come during a season where the Dragons have struggled with a record of 12-24. But Rush knows brighter days are ahead.

"Our team is building and we're going to be good within the next few years," she says. "So I know me having these accomplishments, will have the younger girls coming in knowing that it's possible."

Rush and the Dragons return to action on Friday with a road doubleheader at Towson.