Ashlyn Strother Honored as NFCA National Pitcher of the Week

LOUISVILLE, KY -- Senior Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) has been named NFCA/Wilson National Pitcher of the Week, the organization announced Tuesday afternoon. This marks the second time in Strother's career she has received the major weekly award (first: Mar. 15, 2022).

Strother, who was named the SCAC Pitcher of the Week on Monday, led the No. 15 Texas Lutheran softball team (12-2, 5-1 SCAC) in the circle to four wins over the course of six games last week.

The Seabrook, Texas, native totaled 47 strikeouts and 23 innings of shutout ball across her four appearances. With those shutouts, Strother lowers her earned run average to a SCAC-leading 0.60. Strother now leads the SCAC with nine wins and 73 strikeouts this season.

Strother won all four of her starts, throwing the second perfect game of her career on March 22 and her third and fourth career individual no-hitters over the weekend. Strother would strike out 13 out of 15 batters faced in her perfect game against Dallas on Friday and 12 out of 16 batters faced in her no-hitter on Saturday, March 23. She allowed just eight baserunners across her four outings, holding opponents to go just 5-for-73 (.068). Strother would become TLU Softball's all-time strikeout leader in her start against Southwestern on Monday, surpassing Cathy McBride''s previous record of 502 over the course of the 1994 through 1997 seasons. Strother reached the record in 456.2 innings while McBride's came over a career spanning a program record of 617.2 innings. Strother, who currently has 541 strikeouts, is seventh amongst active Division-III pitchers in career strikeouts and ranks fourth in SCAC history in the category. The shutout also marked the 28th of her career, ranking second amongst active Division-III pitchers.

This is the first time this season a Bulldog has been recognized by the NFCA for a weekly award.

Strother and the Bulldogs return to Ed Kruse Stadium for the first time in nearly two months on Tuesday, Mar. 26, to begin a five-game homestand starting with a Tuesday non-conference doubleheader against Texas A&M-San Antonio. First pitch is scheduled for 5 & 7 PM. All games will be streamed on TLU's YouTube Channel, TLU+. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.

For more information on Texas Lutheran softball, follow the Bulldogs on Facebook (@txlutheransoftball), X (Twitter) (@TLUsoftball), and Instagram (@tlu_softball) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on Twitter, @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).