SHREVEPORT, La. -- In exclusive 2019 all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the league's head coaches, Kelly Jurden of Texas Lutheran University was selected the conference's Player-of-the-Year and Lindsey Longuet of Southwestern University was tabbed as Pitcher-of-the-Year. In that same balloting, Casey Martin of Texas Lutheran was named SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year and Southwestern's Angela Froboese was voted Coach-of-the-Year. Complete Release
Jurden, a sophomore outfielder from Brenham, Texas, who is making her second-straight appearance on the all-conference team after being named second-team as a freshman, is currently ranked in the top two of nearly statistical category heading into this weekend's conference tournament. She is second in the SCAC in batting average (.453) and hit a league-best .485 in conference games. She is also first in on-base percentage (.535), first in walks (19), first in runs scored (44), second in hits (48) and first in the SCAC with 33 hits in league play. Jurden also set a new SCAC mark for stolen bases in a single season with 44. She was the SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week in Week 5 of the regular season when she hit .583 over four games and posted an on-base percentage of .706 with six stolen bases and five runs scored to lead the Bulldogs to a 3-1 series win over Southwestern. She is the sixth different Texas Lutheran student athlete in the last six years to earn SCAC Player-of-the-Year honors.
Jurden received four votes in the SCAC Player-of-the-Year balloting, while junior utility Katie Bricarell of Southwestern University received the remaining three first-place votes.
Longuet, a junior right-hander from Missouri City, Texas, returned to the top team and is making her third-straight all-conference appearance after earning first team accolades as a freshman and second team recognition as a sophomore. Longuet leads the league in both wins (14) and complete games (13) with the third-most appearances (21) and is ranked near the top of nearly every statistical category heading into this weekend's conference tournament. She is currently first in strikeouts (86), first in innings pitched (107.0) and third in ERA (1.50) with a sub-one ERA in SCAC play (0.99). She earned SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Week three times during the regular season bringing her career total to six through her first three seasons. Longuet's selection marks the second time that a Pirate has earned the league's Pitcher-of-the-Year honor, joining Lauren Zearfoss who garnered the award back in 2011.
Longuet received five votes for SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year, while junior Kayla Oliveira of Texas Lutheran University received the remaining two votes.
Martin, a freshman second baseman from Pearland, Texas, is the third TLU student-athlete to win SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year honors in the last four years. She ranks in the top five in a handful of statistics leading into the weekend's conference tournament including first in batting average (.464), second in on-base percentage (.526), third in slugging percentage (.595) and tied for fourth in both stolen bases (20) and RBI (19) in SCAC play. Defensively, Martin carries a .989 fielding percentage with just one error heading into tournament action. She was the SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week in Week 9 when she hit .667 (8-for-12) with six runs scored, 10 RBI, three walks, six stolen bases and a pair of three-hit games in the Bulldogs' four-game sweep of Austin College.
Martin received six votes in the balloting for SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year. Freshman pitcher Hannah Scoggin of Centenary picked up the remaining vote.
Froboese, who is in her 11th season at Southwestern, has been named SCAC Coach-of-the-Year for the fifth time her in career and first since 2013. She guided the Pirates to a 33-4 overall regular season mark, which is currently tied for the second-most wins in a single season in program history, an 18-3 record in SCAC play and the second seed heading into this weekend's tournament. This year marks the sixth time in her career she has led Southwestern to 25 or more wins in a season. Heading into this weekend's conference tournament, the Pirates are ranked No. 22 in the nation according to the latest NFCA Top 25 poll. Froboese has amassed an overall record of 278-174-1 in her tenure at Southwestern, which includes a 136-66 (.673) mark in SCAC regular season play. She is now tied for second all-time in softball league history in Coach-of-the-Year honors, and her 136 conference wins represent the most by any coach since softball became a conference sport prior to the 1999 season.
To view the entire 2019 All-SCAC Softball Team, click here.