Texas Lutheran's Jurden, Snow, Strother garner NFCA All-America honors

SEGUIN, Texas -- For the first time in program history, the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs have three National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Americans, and two of the honorees - Kelly Jurden and Rebecca Snow - were named to the First Team.

 

Jurden and Snow are the first two NFCA First Team All-Americans in school history. Jurden is a redshirt junior outfielder from Brenham, Texas (Brenham HS). Snow is a senior utility player from Tomball, Texas (Klein Oak HS).

 

Redshirt freshman right-hander Ashlyn Strother, a native of Seabrook, Texas (Clear Falls HS), was named a Third Team All-American.

 

Three schools — TLU, Alfred, and Virginia Wesleyan — put three players each on the All-America teams. Both TLU and Virginia Wesleyan placed two on the First Team, and one apiece on the Third Team. All three of Alfred's honorees were named to the Second Team.

 

All three TLU players are big reasons the Bulldogs are back in the NCAA Division III Championship Finals, which starts Thursday in Salem, Va. TLU, the No. 4 seed, opens play at 12:30 p.m. central/1:30 p.m. eastern against No. 5 seed Tufts (Mass.). TLU was the No. 4 seed in 2019 when it won the national title.

 

Jurden and Snow were starters on that 2019 national championship squad. Strother was not yet on the team. She was a senior in high school.

 

Jurden repeated as an All-American. She was a Second Team choice in 2019. She joins former pitcher Maitlin Raycroft as the only two-time NFCA All-Americans in school history. Raycroft earned Second Team All-America honors in 2017 and 2018.

The All-America honors for Snow and Strother were the first of their TLU careers. Snow has a previous NFCA All-America award from a season at Tyler Junior College.

 

All three players were NFCA All-West Region First Team selections.

 

Jurden, the two-time Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year, is hitting a career-best .482 through 36 games this season. She has scored 56 runs and stolen 54 bases. Her on-base percentage is .590.

 

Jurden currently ranks third in all of NCAA DIII in runs per game. She is 53rd in batting average, 12th in on-base percentage, third in stolen bases, 13th in walks per game, and first in stolen bases per game.

 

The all-time TLU and SCAC leader in runs and stolen bases, Jurden has scored 174 runs and stolen 167 bases in 145 career games. She is seven steals from tying her school and conference record for single-season steals, 61, set in 2019. She was the New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe Award winner for leading the NCAA Division III in steals that season.

 

Snow, TLU's designated player and occasional outfielder, is hitting a career-best .510 in this her third year with the team. She spent two seasons at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. In her Bulldog career, Snow is a .451 hitter with 29 doubles, 87 RBI, and eight home runs.

 

This year, Snow has hit four homers and driven in 49. She has walked 18 times and struck out only six. Snow has 16 doubles. She currently ranks 27th in the NCAA DIII in batting average, and she is 23rd in doubles, 19th in doubles per game, 21st in on-base percentage, 15th in RBIs, 13th in RBIs per game, third in sacrifice flies, and 37th in slugging percentage.

 

In her second season with the team, Strother was the SCAC Pitcher of the Year. She is considered a redshirt freshman with the NCAA not counting the 2020 COVID-19 year as a year of eligibility used. Strother was 8-0 with a 0.85 ERA in the shortened 2020 campaign.

 

In 2021, Strother has picked up where the 2020 season left off. She is 11-1 with a 1.16 ERA. She has seven complete games and 78-2/3 innings pitched. She has struck out 87 and walked only 15.

 

For her career, Strother is 19-1 overall with a save and an ERA of 1.05. She has 125 strikeouts in 119-2/3 career innings of work.

 

The Division III All-America teams are voted on by a committee of NFCA member coaches representing the NCAA's eight regions. They select 18 players for each of three teams, unless there is a tie for a third-team slot, in which case the tied players are both awarded honors.

 

All players recognized as All-Region players are eligible for All-America recognition. Due to COVID-19, no awards were presented in 2020.