Eight Texas Lutheran Bulldogs named to NFCA All-West Region squads
SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Softball, the defending NCAA Division III national champion, led all D3 softball programs with eight National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region selections.
The All-Region awards salute student-athletes from the NFCA's eight NCAA regions. First, Second and Third-team honors are given. NFCA member coaches voted on the teams in their respective regions, and all honorees are eligible for selection to the 2021 NFCA Division III All-America squads.
Five of the Bulldogs' selections were voted to the All-West Region First Team.
TLU's First Team honorees are: redshirt freshman pitcher Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls), redshirt sophomore catcher Sarah Metzer (Sugar Land/Dulles), redshirt junior outfielder Kelly Jurden (Brenham/Brenham), redshirt sophomore utility/pitcher Chassety Raines (Spring/Klein Collins), and senior designated player Rebecca Snow (Tomball/Klein Oak).
TLU's Second Team honorees are: redshirt freshman pitcher Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland), redshirt sophomore second baseman Casey Martin (Pearland/Pearland), and senior outfielder Skylar Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland).
Jurden, a 2019 All-American, is an All-Region choice for the third time in her career. She was a First Team selection in 2019 and a Third Team selection in 2018.
Raines and Martin each claimed their second All-Region honors. Raines was a Third Team honoree in 2019, and Martin was named to the First Team in 2019.
Jurden, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and TLU all-time record-holder for steals (currently 160) and runs (currently 169), is a two-time SCAC Offensive Player of the Year and the 2021 TLU Female Student-Athlete of the Year and 2021 TLU Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Jurden is hitting .485 this year with 47 stolen bases (third-most in NCAA Division III and most per game in DIII). She has scored 51 runs in 32 games and has 25 walks. Her on-base percentage is .597.
Strother is 10-1 with a 0.91 ERA. She has not allowed an earned run against an NCAA Division III program this year. She has struck out 85 in 69 innings. Her strikeouts per seven innings rate is 8.62.
Metzer is a three-year starter at catcher. She is hitting a career-best .520 with two home runs, four doubles, and 14 RBI. She has guided a TLU pitching staff that holds a team ERA of 1.89, which ranks 26th in NCAA Division III. Metzer has thrown out seven of the 13 base-runners that have attempted a stolen base against her.
Raines, the Bulldogs' starting third baseman and occasional outfielder and pitcher, is hitting .366 this year with four doubles, two triples, and a home run. She has a career-best 26 RBI with 13 walks, 21 stolen bases and 22 runs scored. In the circle, she is 6-0 with an ERA of 2.15. She has a complete game and 15 strikeouts in 29.1 innings.
Snow, the starting designated player, is among the best hitters in all of NCAA Division III. She is 22nd in total doubles, with 15, and she ranks 26th in on-base percentage, at .581. Snow also ranks 15th in RBIs (44), 16th in RBIs per game (1.47), third in sacrifice flies (5), and 42nd in slugging percentage (.841). Her .524 batting average is 32nd currently in all of NCAA Division III.
Sydney Ouellette has appeared in 18 games in the circle and has a 12-2 record with an ERA of 1.78. Ouellette has 37 strikeouts and just eight walks. She has pitched 78.2 innings and has eight complete games and one save.
Martin, the starting second baseman, is hitting .389 in 2021, and she is a .394 career hitter. In 2021, Martin has 15 steals, 12 walks, four doubles, and 33 runs scored.
Skylar Ouellette, Sydney's older sister, is hitting .370 with five doubles, a triple, and two home runs. She has 23 RBI, 11 walks, and 12 stolen bases.
Three other softball programs - second-ranked (tied) Virginia Wesleyan in the Atlantic, No. 6 Eastern Connecticut State in New England, and 14th-ranked The College of New Jersey in the East - each had seven total honorees.
The West Region also had the two teams with the second-highest total of All-Region honoree, six. Seventh-ranked East Texas Baptist and eighth-ranked Linfield each had six players recognized.
Four schools in the Northeast tied for top honors, with Alfred, Cortland, Ithaca and Manhattanville all collecting five awards. Milwaukee School of Engineering had five players on the Great Lakes squad.
Bethel (Minn.), St. Scholastica, No. 21 St. Olaf and 24th-ranked Wartburg shared top honors in the Midwest with four selections each.
No. 16 Mount Union led all Central schools with four honorees, and second-ranked (tied) DePauw was one of five teams with three selections in that region.
New in 2021, conference players and pitchers of the year from member institutions, who were nominated by their member head coach, are added to the third team if they were not already voted to an All-Region squad.
If there were ties in the balloting, all players involved in the tie were awarded honors. If there were not enough nominees for a position, all three teams for that position in that region were not filled.
The 2021 NFCA Division III All-America teams will be announced on May 24.