Texas Lutheran Softball's DeAnna Hernandez named SCAC's Elite 19 award winner

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- In an announcement made today from Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference headquarters, Texas Lutheran University's DeAnna Hernandez was named the 2020 SCAC Softball Elite 19 award winner.

Hernandez, a senior outfielder from Sugar Land, Texas, holds a 4.0 grade point average as a biochemistry major. She is a May 2020 graduate of TLU.

The 2019-20 TLU Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Hernandez was a four-year letter-winner for the NCAA Division III national champion Bulldogs. She also claimed TLU's Junior-Year Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in 2019.

Hernandez was named the 2019 Elite 90 Award Winner for NCAA Division III Softball at the national championship finals banquet. The Elite 90 award is given during each NCAA sport's national championship event. The NCAA conducts 90 national championships each year.

The Elite 90 is awarded to the top student-athlete at each national championship. The award is given to the participating student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average. Ties are broken by the number of hours a student-athlete has earned.

The SCAC Elite 19 awards are modeled after the NCAA's Elite 90 awards.

Hernandez and the Bulldogs were 19-1 and ranked second in the DIII when the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A three-time SCAC Academic Honor Roll award recipient and a 2019 SCAC First Team All-Conference selection, Hernandez is a career .340 hitter with a career on-base percentage of .412. She has 37 stolen bases in 42 career attempts.

In the Bulldogs' national championship season, Hernandez hit .367, stole 17 bases, and scored 30 runs. She posted a 2019 on-base percentage of .451.

Hernandez was a First-Team All-SCAC selection in 2019. Last season, Hernandez batted .367 from the plate with 30 runs scored, 29 hits and nine RBI to help lead the Bulldogs to their sixth-straight SCAC Softball Championship.

Hernandez played a key role in the program's first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship. The Bulldogs defeated Emory twice on May 27, 2019 in the best-of-three championship series to earn the title and complete a stretch during which they won 19 of 20 games.

In their run to the national championship, TLU went undefeated in the NCAA Marshall (Texas) Regional and 2-1 against Linfield College at the McMinnville (Ore.) Super Regional. Add their three victories en route to their sixth-straight conference title, the Bulldogs were 13-1 overall in the postseason in 2019.

TLU went 18-5 against teams that were ranked or received votes in the NFCA Top 25 in 2019. The Bulldogs had 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.

Due to the cancellation of the 2020 spring season, the criteria for the SCAC Elite 19 honor was modified. The award is presented to the student-athlete who has completed the equivalent of at least 60 credit hours at his or her current institution and has at least a cumulative 3.25 GPA.

For this spring only, an All-SCAC honor at any point of the student-athlete's career was enough to satisfy the requirement that the student-athlete must be an all-conference award winner. Normally, the student-athlete must have earned All-SCAC honors in his/her sport for that particular season.

The SCAC Elite 19 award was established prior to the 2018-19 academic year and is meant to recognize the best of the best within each conference sponsored-sport as it relates to both academic and athletic achievement.

Hernandez is the third Bulldog to earn an SCAC Elite 19 award. She joins TLU Baseball's Cullen Motsinger, the SCAC Baseball Elite 19 award winner for 2019, and Jalen Starks, the SCAC Men's Track & Field Elite 19 award winner for 2020.

SCAC Elite 19 Softball Award Winners
2020 - DeAnna Hernandez, Texas Lutheran University
2019 - Hannah Ortiz, Schreiner University