LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – In exclusive all‐conference voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), Texas Lutheran University teammates Kelly Jurden and Ashlyn Strother were selected SCAC Player‐ and Pitcher-of‐the‐Year, respectively, while TLU head coach Wade Wilson was named SCAC Coach‐of‐the‐Year. Complete Release
In that same balloting, Emma Garrett of University of St. Thomas was selected SCAC Newcomer‐of‐the‐Year.
A junior outfielder from Brenham, Texas, Jurden currently leads the SCAC in runs scored (51), walks (25), stolen bases (47) and on-base percentage (.597) and is second in hits (47). The 2019 SCAC Player-of-the-Year and a NFCA Second Team All-America selection, Jurden earned the Golden Shoe award from the NFCA that season when she led all of Division III in stolen bases. Heading into this year’s NCAA tournament, she is already the league’s all-time leader in runs scored (169) and stolen bases (160), second in walks (73) and seventh in career hits (189). A three-time Offensive POTW this season, her career batting average of .432 would be the second highest in league history among players with 180 or more at bats.
Jurden is one of just two softball players in league history to earn multiple Player-of-the-Year awards and the only player to earn the honor over consecutive seasons. Rachel Gill of DePauw University won the award in 2007 and 2009. Jurden’s selection marks the sixth consecutive year a TLU player has won or shared the award. She received seven first-place votes from the coaches in this year’s balloting for Player-of-the-Year while Trinity University’s Sammie Whitman received the remaining first-place vote.
In her first full year in the circle, Strother made an immediate impact for the Bulldogs. The freshman hurler from Seabrook, Texas is currently 10-1 with a league-best 0.91 ERA with 85 strikeouts in 69.0 innings of work. Her 8.62 per game ratio also leads the league and would be the ninth best single-season total in SCAC history. She had four shutouts this season (second in the conference) and her .169 batting average against also led the league. Strother was a two-time SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Week during the regular season.
Strother is the fourth freshman to earn SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year honors and the first since Birmingham-Southern College’s Bethany Fronk was so honored in 2012. She picked up six first-place votes in the balloting with St. Thomas’ Lindsey Longuet, the league’s reigning Pitcher-of-the-Year, receiving the remaining two first-place votes.
St. Thomas’ Emma Garrett, a first-year outfielder from Danbury, Texas, finished the regular season ranked in the top six in the league in several offensive categories, including batting average (.423 – sixth), slugging percentage (.640 – sixth), doubles (nine – fifth), triples (three – third), hits (47 – second), runs batted in (31 – second), runs scored (32 – fourth) and total bases (71 – third). As part of a lineup made up of predominantly first-year players, Garrett helped lead the Celts to a 15-5 conference mark and a second-place regular season finish in the program’s first year of existence.
Garrett, who received five first-place votes in the balloting, is obviously St. Thomas’ first Newcomer-of-the-Year recipient. Mackenzie Cox of Centenary picked up two votes and Jordyn Williams of Trinity received the remaining first-place vote.
Texas Lutheran head coach Wade Wilson led his Bulldogs to a 28-4 overall mark and the program’s seventh consecutive SCAC tournament title with a 2-1 win over Centenary College in Monday’s championship game. Preceding this past weekend’s conference tournament, Texas Lutheran posted a perfect 18-0 mark in league play – the fifth time TLU has gone undefeated during regular season conference play.
Over the last eight years, few head coaches have been as successful as Wilson. Since joining the SCAC prior to the 2014 season, he has led his Bulldogs to an overall record of 277-42 and an incredible 152-3 conference mark, winning SCAC games at a .981 clip. The program is currently riding a 41-game conference regular winning streak, is the No. 1 ranked team in the nation (according to the most recent NFCA coaches’ poll) and has not lost in SCAC play since March 2, 2019 at Southwestern. Texas Lutheran is the NCAA Division III defending national champion, having won the 2019 championship, making them the 10th program in league history to bring home a national title.
This is the sixth SCAC Coach‐of‐the-Year honor for Wilson and seventh overall as he was honored as ASC Coach‐of‐the-Year in 2013 before earning the award the six of the last seven in the SCAC.
To view the entire 2021 All-SCAC Softball Team, click here.