IRVING, Texas – After dominating the
regular season with a 21-1 league mark in its inaugural season in
the conference, Texas Lutheran University was rewarded with three
of the league’s four major awards in exclusive 2014
all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the
league’s head coaches. Complete Release
The Bulldogs’ Ashley Jacobsen was selected as the conference
Offensive Player-of-the-Year and teammate Taylor Grissom was
selected the conference’s Pitcher-of-the-Year. TLU head coach
Wade Wilson was named the SCAC Coach-of-the-Year. In addition,
Texas Lutheran tied a conference record with eight First Team
All-SCAC selections – equaling the eight First Team
selections Trinity had in 2000 and 2001.
In the only major award category not won by Texas Lutheran, Katie
Castillon of Trinity University was named SCAC
Newcomer-of-the-Year.
Jacobsen, a junior second baseman from Marion, Texas, led the SCAC
during the regular season with a .489 batting average and also
leads the league in on-base percentage (.496), slugging percentage
(.664), hits (64), runs scored (39), triples (3) and stolen bases
(17). She is third in the league with 11 doubles. Her 64 hits are
already the fourth-most in a SCAC single season and her current
batting average puts her on pace for the fifth-best season in that
category in league history. An ASC All-West Division First Team
selection last season, Jacobsen stole 42 bases and scored 59 runs
– both school records – as a sophomore.
Jacobsen received six votes in the SCAC Player-of-the-Year
balloting, while junior catcher Caitlynn Dykes, the 2012 SCAC
Player-of-the-Year, received the remaining first-place vote.
Grissom, a sophomore right-hander from Spring, Texas, leads the
SCAC with a 1.07 ERA, and has compiled a 7-2 record with four
shutouts in five complete games, which included a perfect game with
a career-high seven strikeouts on March 10 against Austin College.
It was just the fifth perfect game in program history. In 58.2
innings of work, Grissom has struck out 35 batters with only 11
walks while holding opponents to a .230 batting average (fourth in
the SCAC).
In a tightly contested vote, Grissom received four votes for SCAC
Pitcher-of-the-Year, while sophomore right-hander Kaci Wellik of
Trinity received the remaining three votes.
Castillon, a sophomore right-hander from San Antonio, Texas, went
11-8 during the 2014 regular season (second in wins in the SCAC)
with a 2.97 ERA (seventh in the SCAC). She struck out 86 (fourth in
the SCAC) in 115.2 innings of work (seventh in the SCAC) while
allowing opposing batters to hit .287. Castillon led the SCAC with
16 complete games. She is the second Trinity player to earn
Newcomer-of-the-Year honors, following current teammate Caitlynn
Dykes, who won the award in 2012.
In the balloting for SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year, Castillon received
four votes while sophomore outfielder Jacquelyn Brown of Texas
Lutheran received two votes and freshman pitcher Victoria Herrera
of Austin College received one vote.
In his third season at Texas Lutheran, Wilson has led the Bulldogs
to a dominant debut in the program’s inaugural season in the
SCAC. Texas Lutheran has won 21 of its 22 conference games (29-7
overall) and outscored its SCAC opponents 194-29 while batting .393
as a team and notching a 1.34 ERA in conference competition. The
team’s .955 conference winning percentage is the highest
since the DePauw University team went 14-0 in the SCAC East in
2009. In his three years at the helm of the Bulldog program and
heading into this weekend’s conference tournament, Wilson has
amassed an 81-36 overall record, which includes a 33-10 overall
mark (22-2 in the American Southwest Conference) last season when
Texas Lutheran garnered its first West Division title. This is the
second consecutive conference Coach-of-the-Year honor for Wilson as
he was honored as ASC Coach-of-the-Year last season.
Wilson garnered four votes from his peers for SCAC
Coach-of-the-Year, while Beth Krysiak of the University of Dallas,
Jessica Peterka of Schreiner University and Brandi Crnkovic of
Trinity University received one vote each.
2014 SCAC Player-of-the-Year
Ashley Jacobsen, Texas Lutheran University, Junior,
Second Basemen, Marion, Texas
2014 SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year
Taylor Grissom, Texas Lutheran University,
Sophomore, Pitcher, Spring, Texas
2014 SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year
Katie Castillon, Trinity University, Sophomore,
Pitcher, San Antonio, Texas
2014 SCAC Coach-of-the-Year
Wade Wilson, Texas Lutheran University, 29-7
Overall Record (21-1 SCAC)
To view the entire 2014 SCAC All-Conference Team, click here.