Men's Basketball Coach Steve Jenkins

Men's Basketball Coach Steve Jenkins

Sunday, May 10, 2015

EU Softball End of Season Wrap & Awards

2015 season came to an end on May 1st at the conference tournament. We entered the tournament as number 4 seed playing 5th seed Benedictine. This was a marquee first round matchup in the conference as Benedictine has a nice ball club and was second in the league race all year. Towards the end of the league race, EU went to Benedictine and swept 2 from them to drop them to 4th place then Benedictine dropped another game to slip to 5th place seed. So this was a tough first round matchup especially after sweeping 2 from them a week earlier. After 5 innings, we fell behind 4-2 going into the 6th. In the bottom of the 6th, sophomore catcher Brittany Hoskins slammed a 2-run homer to tie the game at 4-4. In the top of 7, we got 2 quick outs before the wheels came off. With 2 outs, they put 2 runners on base and then lifted a high fly ball to left that our LF misplayed scoring 2 runs to go up 6-4. In the bottom, we mounted a rally but could not manage to push any runs across losing 6-4. This put us in losers bracket for day 2.

In day 2 we came out swinging against Graceland U & went up 8-2. GU fought back making it 8-6 but in the 7th, freshman slugger Kiara Carrier slammed a 3-run homer to make it 11-6...we held GU in the bottom of the 7th for 11-6 win. In the next game, we hit well but could not manage timely hits leaving many on base in a 6-0 loss and end of season.

We finished season 23-15 overall & 11-7 in conference for 4th place finish. Overall, we had a lot of weather adversity this season & seem to never establish any consistency we needed. We did lead the conference in hitting for our team average of .365 & scored a lot of runs overall. The offense was our highlight & we have most of our lineup returning for 2016.

Season awards are always fun to announce & hand out. This year we had some outstanding efforts by all but the most consistent performers came away with these honors:

Most Valuable Player - Kasie Zukow - Junior Outfielder from Corona, California
Defensive Player of the Year - Katie Tollefson - Junior 1B from Simi Valley, California
Offensive Player of the Year - Megan Washam - Sophomore Catcher-Utility from Corinth, Texas
Pitcher of the Year - Michaela Tolliver - Sophomore from Lee's Summit, Missouri
Newcomer of the Year - Caitlin Buckalew - Freshman 3B from New Castle, Delaware
Slugger of the Year - Kiara Carrier - Freshman Catcher-DP from Bear, Delaware
Teammate of the Year - Brittany Hoskins - Sophomore Catcher from Fayetteville, Arkansas

First Team All-Conference Winners
1. Kasie Zukow
2. Katie Tollefson
3. Megan Washam
4. Kiara Carrier

Second Team All-Conference
1. Caitlin Buckalew
2. Michaela Tolliver

All Gold Glove Team
1. Katie Tollefson - 1B

Congratulations to these players for their season achievements, honors, and awards.

Adios till next time!
Coach Jerry Breaux