PATCHOGUE, N.Y. - St. Joseph’s College star softball pitcher Jennifer Martinez has been invited to play on the Puerto Rico National Softball Team and will have a chance at participating in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

The senior will compete in the Americas Olympic Qualifier August 18-26 in Valencia, Venezuela, to determine the eighth and final participant in next year’s Summer Olympic Games.

Jennifer was recently summoned to return by the management and coaches of the Puerto Rican National Team after impressing them with her pitching prowess in tournament competition for the team last summer. The Bay Shore, N.Y. native accepted the invitation and now waits to pitch in the four-team qualifier which features national teams from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Martinez, has had a spectacular two-year stint at St. Joseph’s College as she has set NCAA Division III records in three categories - strikeouts in a game, strikeouts in a seven-inning game and strikeout ratio per seven innings for a season. In both the 2006 and 2007 seasons, she was crowned the NCAA statistical champion in both strikeouts and ERA. She has virtually reset all SJC softball program’s pitching records during her time at the college.

Jennifer was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America Team, the Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches All-Region Team and won NFCA Player of the Week in 2007. She is also a two-time Skyline Conference Pitcher of the Year and was named the 2007 ECAC Metro Co-Pitcher of the Year.

The biology/secondary education major has appeared in Sports Illustrated twice during the past two seasons and has been profiled by SportsNet New York, Newsday, the Long Island Press and the Long Island Advance. She has thrown two-career perfect games, seven no-hitters and has struck out 19 or more batters in a game on five separate occasions (including an NCAA record 21 K’s twice).