Five South Alabama Softball Players Earn All-Sun Belt Honors; Jaguars Win Team Academic Award

LAFAYETTE, La. — Five South Alabama softball players were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team Tuesday night, and the Jaguars also received the league’s Team Academic Award, as the conference unveiled its postseason honors at a Family Night event at Lamson Park ahead of the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Four Jaguars earned first-team All-Sun Belt recognition: pitchers Farish Beard and Hannah Campbell, outfielder Stephanie Pilkington and designated player Chloe Rathburn. Outfielder Blair Johnson was a second-team selection. The awards are voted on by the conference’s eight head coaches.

Pitching Duo Leads the Way

Beard was chosen to the first team as an at-large selection after going 20-5 with a 1.04 ERA during the regular season. She was named one of 25 finalists for the 2014 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award earlier this spring and was a three-time Sun Belt Player of the Week. For a three-week stretch she led the nation in ERA, and for two weeks she led the country in hits allowed per seven innings. Beard finished the regular season first in the Sun Belt in opposing batting average, hits allowed and runs allowed, and second in ERA, strikeouts and walks allowed.

Campbell took the first-team spot at pitcher after a 16-5 season with a 0.94 ERA. She was also a top-25 finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award and became the first player in South Alabama softball history to be selected in the National Pro Fastpitch draft. Campbell ranks fourth in NCAA Division I in ERA and in walks allowed per seven innings, and she leads the Sun Belt in ERA, saves, fewest walks allowed and fewest home runs allowed.

Offensive Honorees

Pilkington, a first-team outfielder, led the Jaguars in batting average, hits, sacrifice hits and triples, and ranked second on the team in RBI. She also led USA in multi-hit and multi-RBI games and was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on March 31.

Rathburn, a freshman, earned first-team honors at designated player. She leads the team in RBI, slugging percentage, total bases and sacrifice flies and ranks second in home runs. She enters the tournament on a 16-game hitting streak. Rathburn homered and drove in three runs while going 1-for-2 in her collegiate debut.

Johnson, a junior, made the second team at outfield after hitting a team-best .354 in Sun Belt play. She ranks second on the team in hits, sacrifice hits and sacrifice flies and has posted 11 multi-hit games and six multi-RBI games. Johnson was the Sun Belt Player of the Week on Feb. 24 after a 4-for-4, four-RBI game against Lehigh at the Citrus Classic in Orlando, Fla., setting single-game records in both categories.

Academic Recognition

The Jaguars also received the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Team Academic Award after posting a 3.36 team grade-point average during the previous academic year. The award recognizes a team’s overall classroom performance and is calculated by multiplying grades by credit hours and dividing by the number of student-athletes.

Tournament Outlook

South Alabama enters the Sun Belt Tournament as the No. 2 seed and will open play Thursday as it seeks a third consecutive conference tournament title. The Jaguars are ranked No. 22 and No. 23 in the two major national polls released at the end of the regular season.

The tournament begins Wednesday with four single-elimination games before switching to a double-elimination format Thursday. All games will be streamed live on the Sun Belt Digital Network. Games eight and nine, along with Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game, will be shown on ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN app.