Defending national champion Texas Lutheran picked to win 2020 SCAC Championship

SEGUIN, Texas – Texas Lutheran Softball, the defending NCAA Division III National Champion, is the unanimous selection to win its seventh consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship.

The Bulldogs received all seven first-place votes in the 2020 SCAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

TLU opens defense of its national championship on Monday in Seguin with a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Huston-Tillotson University. The doubleheader will be played at TLU's Ed Kruse Stadium (Morck Softball Field).

TLU is the six-time defending champion in the SCAC. In 2019, TLU qualified for the NCAA postseason by winning the SCAC Championship tournament. The Bulldogs then won the Marshall, Texas Regional (going 3-0) and the McMinnville, Ore. Super Regional (defeating Linfield College two games to one) before a perfect 5-0 run at the National Championship Finals in Tyler, Texas.

TLU won a best 2-of-3 series with Emory University (Ga.) in the championship round of the Finals. On May 27, 2019, the Bulldogs won 12-4 (in five innings) and 6-1 against Emory to capture TLU's first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship in a team sport.

Counting team national championships in the NAIA and the AIAW and individual championships in the NAIA and NCAA DIII, the national title by TLU Softball was the university's 12^th overall national championship.

In the SCAC Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Bulldogs were followed in the poll by 2019 conference runner-up Southwestern, which advanced to its third-straight SCAC Tournament final and set a program record for wins in a season (35).

Trinity, looking for its first 20-win season since 2016 and first conference championship since 2007, checked in at third with 28 points. Centenary, which has advanced to the final game prior to the championship series at the SCAC Tournament three of the last four years, rounds out the top four with 27 points.

Schreiner, which posted in 2019 its third-straight 17-plus-win season, closed out the top five with 22 points. The Mountaineers were followed in the poll by University of Dallas, with 17 points, and Austin College with 11.

TLU returns four batters that recorded 40 or more hits out of a lineup that in total returns 410 of an SCAC-leading 469 total hits last year.

Junior outfielder Kelly Jurden, the 2019 SCAC Player of the Year, and sophomore second baseman Casey Martin, last year's SCAC Newcomer of the Year, senior first baseman Madisyn Cates, and junior outfielder Skylar Ouellette combined for 214 hits and a .419 batting average.

The quartet also accounted for 116 of the Bulldogs' 304 RBI, 148 of 348 runs scored, 31 of 85 doubles, and 100 of an SCAC-record 195 stolen bases.

A playing All-American and an Academic All-American in 2019, Jurden was named the 2019 NCAA Division III recipient of the New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe Award, an award given the best base stealer in each collegiate division.

Jurden stole 61 bases in 63 attempts in 2019 and set new school and SCAC records for stolen bases in a season. She led NCAA Division III in total steals and in stolen bases per game (1.30).

In addition to her stolen base records, Jurden tied the school record for runs scored in a season (59), came within one walk (with 28) of the single-season walks record, posted the second-best single-season on-base percentage (.543), and recorded the third-best single-season batting average (.458).
 
Jurden came within three hits of the single-season hits record. She ended the year with 66. She moved into second on the TLU career batting average record chart for players with at least 250 career at-bats. Jurden is hitting .413 in her Bulldog career.
 
With 90 stolen bases in just two seasons, Jurden is now third all-time on the TLU career steals list. She is just 10 steals from tying, and 11 from breaking, former Bulldog Ashley Jacobsen's career steals mark of 100.

The Bulldogs return all but one position starter – graduate Kassie Maddox, who starred at third base – and bring back 10 batters that hit at least .350 last season.

In the circle, First Team All-SCAC performer Kayla Oliveira is the leading returner on the Bulldogs' pitching staff after posting a league-best 18 wins in a conference-high 131.0 innings pitched. Oliveira finished the year with 99 strikeouts and a 1.44 ERA. Oliveira was 18-3 overall and held opponents to a .210 batting average.

TLU also returns Chassety Raines and Jordaine Bishop to the circle. Raines went 10-0 in 2019 and was named the NCAA DIII Championship Most Outstanding Player. Rained posted an ERA of 1.03 in 12 appearances (all starts), and she held opponents to a .179 average. She was the winning pitcher in the national-title clinching victory against Emory. She tossed a complete-game, three-hitter against Emory.

When she wasn't in the circle, Raines started in center field and hit .372 with nine doubles, three triples, 20 RBI, and 24 runs scored.

Bishop, the Super Regional Most Outstanding Pitcher, missed most of 2019 with an injury, returned to the lineup late in the year, and became a major factor in the Bulldogs' push to the national championship. She went 4-1 with a 2.74 ERA in 30.2 innings pitched.

Last season, TLU went 18-5 against teams that were ranked or received votes in the NFCA Top 25. The Bulldogs collected wins over Birmingham-Southern College (twice), Eastern Connecticut State University, East Texas Baptist University (twice), Emory University (twice), Linfield (twice), Southwestern University (five times), Transylvania University (twice), Trine University, and Williams College.

Head Coach Wade Wilson and his coaching staff were named the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year after winning the national championship.

Wilson enters his ninth season as head coach of the Bulldogs. He holds an overall mark of 282-66 (.810) with the Bulldogs. Wilson is the all-time wins record holder at TLU and is the most successful coach by winning percentage for any sport in school history.

In conference play, with two seasons in the American Southwest Conference and six seasons in the SCAC, Wilson has a 164-16 (.911) mark in league play. In the SCAC alone, Wilson is 129-3 (.977).

With Wilson as head coach, TLU has won six consecutive SCAC tournaments. The Bulldogs are 19-1 all-time in SCAC Tournament play.

TLU has played in six consecutive NCAA Division III Softball Championships. The Bulldogs are 17-11 all-time in NCAA postseason games. TLU has played in six consecutive NCAA regional rounds. The Bulldogs advanced to the Super Regional and Championship Finals rounds in 2019 for the first time in school history.

Since the SCAC began sponsoring softball as a championship sport in 1999, seven different teams have claimed conference championships. Trinity leads the way in that grouping with seven titles (1999, 2000-02, 2005-07), while Texas Lutheran is currently second with six (2014-19).

DePauw captured three (2008-09, 2011), Southwestern two (2010, 2013) and Millsaps (2003), University of the South-Sewanee (2004) and Birmingham-Southern have each secured one title.

The 2020 SCAC softball season begins on Saturday, and the first conference series of the season are scheduled to start on Friday, Feb. 28.

The 2020 SCAC Softball Championship will be held in April on the campus of Schreiner University. The double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday, April 24.