(Story Courtesy of Texas Lutheran University Sports Information Department)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Two members of the No. 4 Texas Lutheran softball team were named National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Americans, the organization announced Tuesday.
Sophomore Ashlyn Strother was named a First Team honoree while Kelly Jurden collected Second Team accolades.
Texas Lutheran joins Berry, Bethel (Minn.), Concordia Wisconsin, DePauw, Linfield, and Millikin with two selections each. Eastern Connecticut State led the way with four honorees - including three on the First Team.
Strother receives her second career All-America honor after being a Third Team All-American last season and her first first-team accolade. Jurden receives her third career All-America honor and second second-team accolade after garnering the status as a sophomore.
Strother has paced the dominant Texas Lutheran pitching staff in 2022. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Pitcher of the Year holds the nation's lead in earned run average (minimum 80 innings pitched) with a 0.65 ERA and is in the top fifteen in strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.14). Strother is 23-0 on the year and is credited with nine shutouts and an additional three combined shutouts. In 139.2 innings of work, she has limited her opponents to a .156 batting average - striking out 192 batters in the process. Strother's 23 wins sets a new season-high mark for a Texas Lutheran pitcher and her current earned run average would surpass the single season record set by Taylor Grissom in 2015 (0.77 ERA).
Jurden, a First Team All-SCAC selection and Top 25 Finalist for NFCA/Schutt Sports Division-III Player of the Year, is the NCAA Division-III All-Time Stolen Base Leader and is currently second in the country with 69 stolen bases this season. She is first in the SCAC in walks and currently eighth nationally. This season, Jurden has also set the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference all-time hits (255) and walks (105) records, the TLU all-time at-bats (608), walks (105) and runs scored (229) records in addition to the TLU and SCAC single-season stolen base record - breaking her previous record of 61 stolen bases in 2019. Jurden, the 2022 Seguin, Texas Regional's Most Outstanding Player, is currently batting .379 with 23 RBIs.
The NFCA All-American list can be viewed in full here.
The TLU All-Americans and the rest of the team set its sights on the Division-III Women's College World Series, beginning Thursday in Salem, Virginia. Four-seed Texas Lutheran meets No. 5 Berry College Thursday afternoon at 12:30 PM CST/1:30 PM EST.
The game can be seen on ncaa.com with Lincoln Rose and Sydney Gerbracht on the call and heard on KWED 1580 AM Radio with play-by-play announcer Mike McBride calling the action for fans in the Guadalupe County area.
