Seven SAC Softball Players Named To NFCA All-Region Team

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Seven softball players from the South Atlantic Conference were named to the 2008 Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-South Atlantic Region team. NFCA is the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

Lenoir-Rhyne and Carson-Newman each had one selection to the first team. Lenoir-Rhyne's Taylor Queen and Carson-Newman's Jessie Howard will now be eligible for NFCA All-America honors.

Lenoir-Rhyne had three players on the 2008 NCAA Division II Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-South Atlantic Region team.

Taylor Queen

Jessie Howard

Zoe Heim

Meredith O'Connor

Karie Pushard

Sara Henn

Kat Hammond

Senior centerfielder Taylor Queen (Hickory, N.C./St. Stephens HS) was named to the first team while senior pitcher Meredith O'Connor (Charlotte, N.C./Appalachian State Univ.) and senior catcher Karie Pushard (Harrisburg, N.C./Central Cabarrus HS) were picked to the second team.

Queen, an all-region pick for the third straight year, finished first on the team in batting average this season (.385) and is the first Lenoir-Rhyne player to be named to the All-South Atlantic Conference First Team for three straight years (2006-08).

O'Connor finished 2008 with a 30-11 mark and a South Atlantic Conference-record 327 strikeouts en route to her second straight league pitcher-of-the-year accolades.

Pushard, last year's SAC Player Of The Year, was named to the all-conference second team this season and finished 2008 with a .363 batting average and a team-leading nine home runs and 53 runs batted in.

Both Queen and O'Connor were picked to the Daktronics, Inc., All-South Atlantic Region Second Team a day earlier.

Lenoir-Rhyne, currently ranked No. 20 in NCAA Division II, finished the year with a 42-14 record and just wrapped its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament. The Bears have also won three straight South Atlantic Conference Regular Season Titles.

Carson-Newman's Jessie Howard (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Zoe Heim (Gallatin, Tenn.) were named to the All-Region team.

Howard, a sophomore, was named to the first team. She stole 53 bases on the year, good for second nationally. She also hit .453 with a .533 on-base percentage.

Heim, a first-team South Atlantic Conference (SAC), was 30-5 this season with a 1.01 ERA and 276 strikeouts for the Eagles, the top-ranked team in the region. She held opponents to just a .186 batting average and tossed seven shutouts on the year.

The Gallatin-native is currently in the top 12 nationally in wins (4th), ERA (11th), and strikeouts per seven innings pitched (12th).

Lincoln Memorial's Sara Henn, the SAC Player of the Year, was named to the second team.

A 5-7 sophomore, Henn led the conference in hitting this year with a .487 batting average, totaling 74 hits, 21 doubles, 13 homeruns and 57 runs batted in. For her efforts, she received SAC Player of the Week honors once this season, First Team All-South Atlantic Conference honors, and South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year. All these accolades came while finishing with the second highest season batting average in SAC softball history.

Approximately two weeks ago, Henn was recognized at Lincoln Memorial University's annual athletics banquet as the softball team's Most Valuable Player and the 2007-08 co-recipient of the University's Female Athlete of the Year award.

Henn was named the Daktronics South Atlantic Region Player of the Year and is a candidate for Daktronics All-American.

This spring, Henn led the Lady Railsplitters to a 32-16 season finish along with a 7-7 regular season South Atlantic Conference mark.

Newberry College's Kat Hammond was named to the second team.

Hammond, a junior second baseman from Irmo, S.C., was Newberry's offensive leader in the 2008 season, batting .415 with nine homeruns, which was the second highest single season mark in program history, and 47 RBIs, the fourth most in school history. She also had 14 doubles and a triple, earning 56 hits and scoring 33 times.

Hammond ended the regular season nationally ranked in RBIs per game (29th), slugging percentage (43rd), batting average (72nd), doubles per game (79th), home runs per game (80th) and on-base percentage (95th).

She currently has 97 career RBIs, placing her fourth amongst Newberry's all-time leaders in that category. She is also second all-time at the school in homeruns.

The 2008 Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-America Team will be named on Tuesday, May 13.

2008 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division II All-Region Teams
First Team
P Mandy Chandler Georgia College & State Univ.
P Martika Elmore UNC Pembroke
C Jessica Strickland USC Aiken
1B Monica Wofford Francis Marion Univ.
2B Laura Voyles North Georgia College & State Univ.
SS Jessie Howard Carson-Newman College
3B Jelena Shaw UNC Pembroke
OF Brittany Berrier UNC Pembroke
OF Sherquita Bostick Georgia College & State Univ.
OF Taylor Queen Lenoir-Rhyne College
DP Jenny Jackson Mount Olive College
UT Michaela Wolf Francis Marion Univ.

Second Team
P Zoe Heim Carson-Newman College
P Meredith O'Connor Lenoir-Rhyne College
C Karie Pushard Lenoir-Rhyne College
1B Kimberly Atkinson Coker College
2B Kat Hammond Newberry College
SS Shannon Tyson Francis Marion Univ.
3B Sarah Henn Lincoln Memorial Univ.
OF Jessica Birchmeier Francis Marion Univ.
OF Courtney McGuire North Georgia College & State
OF Jessica McFadden Barton College
DP Alyssa Pingree Augusta State Univ.
UT Amy Dumas Augusta State Univ.