LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference softball coaches have selected Texas Lutheran as the favorite entering the 2022 season based on balloting in the annual preseason coaches’ poll. Complete Release
After advancing to its second-straight National Championship Series and finishing as last year’s National Runner Up, Texas Lutheran picked up seven of the possible eight first-place votes to total 63 points and sit atop the poll. The Bulldogs, who are the seven-time defending SCAC Champions and finished last year ranked second in the final NFCA Division III Coaches’ Poll, return four batters that recorded 35 or more hits a season ago and four First Team All-SCAC performers from 2021. Leading the way is senior outfielder Kelly Jurden, the back-to-back SCAC Player-of-the-Year, who topped all Bulldog hitters with 60 hits while posting a .472 batting average, with 56 stolen bases, 62 runs scored and 18 runs driven in en route to being named First Team NFCA All-America. Seniors Chassety Raines, the 2021 NCAA Elite 90 winner and First Team All-SCAC performer at utility, and Casey Martin, a Second Team All-SCAC honoree at second base, along with First Team All-SCAC catcher, junior Sarah Metzer, round out the returning 35-plus hit performers in the lineup. That trio combined for 112 hits, 84 runs scored, 69 RBI and 23 extra base hits in 2021.
In the circle, sophomore Ashlyn Strother, the reigning SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year and NFCA Third Team All-American, is the fourth First Team All-Conference performer from the 2021 National Runner Up squad to return in 2022. Strother finished the year with a league-best 1.43 ERA in 97.2 innings pitched with 99 strikeouts. She finished the 2021 season with a remarkable 13-2 record, nine complete games and four shutouts.
Leading Texas Lutheran from the dugout will be Wade Wilson who enters his 11th year as head coach. He has posted a 337-73 (.821) mark at TLU after leading the Bulldogs to a 36-6 record a year ago in the program’s second consecutive run to the National Championship series. Willson has guided Texas Lutheran to seven SCAC titles, earned six SCAC Coach-of-the-Year accolades and added NFCA Division III National Coaching Staff of the Year to his resume following the run to the National Championship in 2019.
After finishing last season with the second-best record in SCAC play at 15-5 and posting 20 wins for the first time in program history, the University of St. Thomas received the final first-place vote and finished second in the year’s preseason poll with 54 points. The Celts will be led by a pair of 2021 All-SCAC performers led by First Team pitcher, senior Lindsey Longuet. Longuet returns to the circle for the Celts after leading the league in strikeouts (101), complete games (15) and shutouts (6) a season ago. Joining Longuet as a returning All-Conference performers is sophomore Mallarie Munson. Munson earned Second Team honors at third base after batting .299 with 29 hits, 31 RBI, 15 runs scored and a team leading four home runs last year as a rookie.
Rounding out the top three in the preseason rankings is Trinity University, which is slated third after accumulating 44 total points in the poll. The Tigers are coming off their first winning season since 2016 and will be led by a pair of All-SCAC sophomores in First Team honoree Marina Delaluna and Second Team performer Jordyn Williams. Delaluna tied the school record with seven home runs last season and finished second on the team with a .349 batting average. She was also second with six doubles and 23 RBI. Williams led the Tigers with nine doubles, 29 RBI, and 10 walks in her first season in San Antonio.
Schreiner University checked in at fourth in the preseason rankings with 40 points as the Mountaineers welcome in a new era of coaching with the hiring of Melissa Hansen. Hansen will lean on Second Team All-SCAC performer, senior Bri Wodtke, who made her presence felt both at the plate and in the circle last year for the Mountaineers. Offensively, Wodtke led Schreiner in slugging percentage (.695) and home runs (5) and finished second in RBI (21) and fourth in hits (34). On the rubber, she was tops on the squad in wins (9), strikeouts (59), ERA (1.76) and starts (17).
Southwestern University landed in the fifth position with 35 total points. A familiar face in the conference, Alexis Lynn takes over the reins of the Pirates’ program after spending the previous two seasons at Schreiner. On the field, senior Maddie Mefford will lead Southwestern following a First Team All-SCAC junior season when she paced the Pirates in nearly every offensive statistical category including hits (43), batting average (.387), doubles (10), runs scored (20) and stolen bases (16).
Following its first-ever appearance in the SCAC Tournament championship game a season ago, Centenary College was selected to finish sixth in this year’s preseason poll with 24 points. Whitney Patterson takes over as interim head coach for the Ladies after serving as an assistant the previous seven seasons. The Ladies return three of their top four batters in the lineup in terms of hits from 2021 in sophomore Mackenzie Cox, junior Kaylea Patridge and senior Jaymee Wilkinson. That trio combined for 106 hits, 55 runs scored, 47 stolen bases and 36 RBI. Centenary also returns Honorable Mention All-SCAC catcher senior Erin Lewis who led the Ladies with four home runs and 19 RBI last year.
University of Dallas, led by Honorable Mention All-SCAC performer Madison Coutts who had 11 hits, scored eight runs, and accounted for three RBI last season, earned 15 total points to finish seventh in the preseason rankings.
Austin College rounds out the 2022 softball coaches’ preseason poll with 13 points. The ‘Roos welcome back Honorable Mention All-SCAC honoree Elizabeth Preston, who led the team with 18 runs scored last season and finished tied for the team lead in hits (25) and home runs (2).
Since the SCAC began sponsoring softball as a championship sport in 1999, seven different teams have claimed conference championships. Trinity (1999, 2000-02, 2005-07) and Texas Lutheran (2014-19, 2021) lead the way in that grouping with seven titles each. DePauw University captured three (2008-09, 2011), Southwestern two (2010, 2013) and Millsaps College (2003), University of the South-Sewanee (2004) and Birmingham-Southern College have each secured one title.
The 2022 SCAC softball season begins on February 4th, while the first conference series of the season are scheduled for Saturday, March 5th. The 2022 SCAC Softball Tournament will be held at the end of April and the beginning of May on the campus of the University of Dallas as the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday the 29th.
| 2022 SCAC Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll (first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points) |
||
| 1. | Texas Lutheran University (7) | 63 |
| 2. | University of St. Thomas (1) | 54 |
| 3. | Trinity University | 44 |
| 4. | Schreiner University | 40 |
| 5. | Southwestern University | 36 |
| 6. | Centenary College | 24 |
| 7. | University of Dallas | 15 |
| 8. | Austin College | 13 |
