Major SCAC Softball awards for Texas Lutheran's Jurden, Strother, Wilson; Thirteen Bulldogs receive honors

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Softball outfielder Kelly Jurden, pitcher Ashlyn Strother, and Head Coach Wade Wilson received major conference awards on Thursday with the release of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference All-Conference honors.

 

Jurden, a redshirt junior from Brenham (Brenham), repeated as the SCAC's Offensive Player of the Year. Strother, a redshirt freshman from Seabrook (Clear Falls), was named the SCAC's Pitcher of the Year.

 

Wilson was selected as the SCAC Coach of the Year for the sixth time in his career.

 

A total of thirteen Bulldogs received All-SCAC awards. In addition to Jurden (All-SCAC First Team) and Strother (All-SCAC First Team), All-SCAC recognition went to: catcher Sarah Metzer (All-SCAC First Team), first baseman Haley Padilla (All-SCAC First Team), utility player Chassety Raines (All-SCAC First Team), designated player Rebecca Snow (All-SCAC First Team), second baseman Casey Martin (All-SCAC Second Team), outfielder McKay Bloxham (All-SCAC Second Team), outfielder Skylar Ouellette (All-SCAC Second Team), pitcher Sydney Ouellette (All-SCAC Second Team), shortstop Kali Chatham (All-SCAC Honorable Mention), catcher Laura Hernandez (All-SCAC Honorable Mention), and catcher Bailey Hudgeons (All-SCAC Honorable Mention). 

 

The SCAC player and coach awards and the All-SCAC teams were determined via exclusive voting by the head coaches of the SCAC. Emma Garrett of University of St. Thomas was selected SCAC Newcomer‐of‐the‐Year.

Jurden currently leads the SCAC in runs scored (51), walks (25), stolen bases (47) and on-base percentage (.597), and she is second in hits (47). The 2019 SCAC Player of the Year and a NFCA Second Team All-America selection, Jurden earned the Golden Shoe award from the NFCA that season when she led all of Division III in stolen bases, with 61.

Heading into this year's NCAA tournament, Jurden is already the league's all-time leader in runs scored (169) and stolen bases (160). She is second in walks (73) and seventh in career hits (189). A three-time Offensive POTW this season, Jurden's career batting average of .432 would be the second highest in league history among players with 180 or more at-bats.

Jurden is one of just two softball players in league history to earn multiple Player of the Year awards, and she is the only player to earn the honor over consecutive seasons. (Rachel Gill of DePauw University won the award in 2007 and 2009.)

Jurden's selection marks the sixth consecutive year a TLU player has won or shared the award. She received seven first-place votes from the coaches in this year's balloting for Player of the Year while Trinity University's Sammie Whitman received the remaining first-place vote.

In her first full year in the circle, Strother was at the top of the Bulldogs' rotation for much of the year. The redshirt freshman hurler is currently 10-1 with a league-best 0.91 ERA with 85 strikeouts in 69.0 innings of work. Her 8.62 strikeouts per game also leads the league and would be the ninth best single-season total in SCAC history. She has four shutouts this season (second in the conference) and her .169 batting average against also led the league. Strother was a two-time SCAC Pitcher of the Week during the regular season.

Strother, the winning pitcher in Monday's SCAC Championship-clinching victory over Centenary, was 8-0 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season - her true freshman year. She is 18-1 in her career with an 0.89 career ERA.

Strother is the fourth freshman to earn SCAC Pitcher of the Year honors and the first since Birmingham-Southern College's Bethany Fronk was so honored in 2012. Strother picked up six first-place votes in the balloting with St. Thomas' Lindsey Longuet, the league's reigning Pitcher-of-the-Year, receiving the remaining two first-place votes.

Wilson led the Bulldogs to a 28-4 overall mark and to the program's seventh consecutive SCAC tournament title. Preceding this past weekend's conference tournament, TLU posted a perfect 18-0 mark in league play – the fifth time TLU has gone undefeated during regular season conference play.

Over the last eight years, few head coaches have been as successful as Wilson. Since joining the SCAC prior to the 2014 season, he has led his Bulldogs to an overall record of 277-42 and an incredible 152-3 conference mark, winning SCAC games at a .981 clip.

The TLU Softball program is currently riding a 41-game conference regular-season winning streak. The Bulldogs are the No. 1-ranked team in the nation (according to the most recent NFCA coaches' poll) and have not lost in SCAC play since March 2, 2019 at Southwestern.

TLU is the NCAA Division III defending national champion, having won the 2019 championship, making them the 10th program in league history to bring home a national title.

This is the sixth SCAC Coach of the Year honor for Wilson and seventh overall as he was honored as the ASC West Division Coach of the Year in 2013 before earning the award the six of the last seven years in the SCAC.

Metzer, a redshirt sophomore from Sugar Land (Dulles), is hitting a career-best .520. She has two home runs and 14 RBI with eight runs scored.

Padilla (Spring Branch/Smithson Valley) has hit eight home runs in 2021. She is TLU's all-time leader in home runs. She has 29 RBI this year and 85 career RBI.

Raines (Spring/Klein Collins) hit .366 this year with four doubles, two triples and a home run. In the circle, Raines is 6-0 with a complete game and an ERA of 2.15. She is 18-0 in her career with an ERA of 1.32.

Snow (Tomball/Klein Oak) is hitting a career-best .535 with 15 doubles, one triple, four home runs and 16 walks. She is a career .458 hitter and has eight career home runs. She hit a game-tying home run in the SCAC Championship final and then had the walk-off, game-winning hit to clinch the conference title.

Martin (Pearland/Pearland) is hitting .389 with 13 RBI, 33 runs scored, and 15 stolen bases. Bloxham (Katy/Katy) has a .349 batting average with a home run and 20 RBI. She has scored 22 runs and stolen 10 bases.

Skylar Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland) holds a .370 batting average with two home runs, 23 RBI, 22 runs scored, and 12 steals. She has 31 career doubles and a .369 career average. She has driven in 91 career runs.

Skylar's younger sister, Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland), is 12-2 in the circle. She has a 1.78 ERA with 37 strikeouts and just eight walks. The redshirt freshman right-hander is 14-2 in her Bulldog career with a 1.46 ERA.

Chatham (Moody/Moody) has started at shortstop for the Bulldogs in 31 games this year. She has scored 17 runs and hit .319 with 12 steals. She has walked nine times and has an on-base percentage of .500.

Hernandez (Missouri City/Ridge Point/San Jacinto) has hit .441 in 18 games. She has a home run and eight RBI. Hudgeons (Dripping Springs/Dripping Springs), like Hernandez a catcher, has hit .450 in 21 games. She has two home runs and 13 RBI. 

To view the entire 2021 All-SCAC Softball Team, click here.