SAC Places 10 On NFCA All-Southeast Region Teams

May 14, 2009

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Ten softball players from the South Atlantic Conference have been named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region Teams, National Fastpitch Coaches Association officials announced.

Four of the selections were named to the First Team, and are eligible for All-American consideration, which will be determined next week.

The 2009 Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region Softball Teams are selected by the coaches of the Southeast Region.

Lenoir-Rhyne


Noel Belk	Sarah Atkins

Kat Rivers	Carlee Carpenter

Hallie Pettigrew	Debra Grijalva

LaRonda McClain	Kat Hammond

Ryann Baker	Sarah Little

The Lenoir-Rhyne University Softball Team has seen four of its players named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region Teams.

Senior utility player Noel Belk (Charlotte, N.C./Queens Univ.) and freshman catcher/first baseman Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va./Warwick HS) were named to the all-region first team while sophomore shortstop Kat Rivers (Royston, Ga./Franklin County HS) and freshman second baseman Carlee Carpenter (Newton, N.C./Bandys HS) garnered second-team accolades.

Belk batted .388 and led the team with 66 hits and 45 runs. She also hit five home runs and drove in 31 runs on the year. As a pitcher, Belk finished the season with a 16-5 record and a 2.07 ERA with five shutouts. Belk was also selected to the 2009 All-South Atlantic Conference First Team, the 2009 Daktronics NCAA Division II Southeast Region Second Team and was named to the all-tournament team for the Hickory Regional of the 2009 NCAA Division II Softball Tournament.

Atkins led the team in power hitting as she belted 10 home runs and 15 doubles on the season with 31 RBI and a .376 batting average. She also tallied team-highs in slugging percentage (.678) and on-base percentage (.472). Atkins was named to the 2009 All-SAC Conference First Team and was selected as the 2009 South Atlantic Conference Freshman of the Year. Atkins was also a 2009 Daktronics Southeast Region Second-Team honoree.

Rivers, who led the team in batting (.408), RBI (38) and triples (four) from the cleanup spot this season, added to her 2009 All-SAC Second-Team award by being named to the all-region second team.

Rounding out the field of all-region honorees for the Bears, Carpenter took home All-Southeast Second-Team honors as well. Carpenter batted .344 and tallied 27 RBI and a team-leading 16 sacrifice bunts.

Wingate

Three Wingate University softball student-athletes have been named to the Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region team. The Bulldog honorees include senior third baseman Hallie Pettigrew (Uniontown, Ohio), junior catcher/designated hitter Debra Grijalva (San Jose, Calif.) and junior outfielder LaRonda McClain (Kings Mountain, N.C.).

Earlier this week, the Wingate trio was named to the Daktronics NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region teams (as selected by CoSIDA). Grijalva was a first team Daktronics selection, while Pettigrew and McClain were named to the second team.

Hallie Pettigrew was the SAC co-Player of the Year and the SAC Scholar-Athlete Award winner in 2009. A four-year All-SAC choice, Pettigrew is only the third softball student-athlete in SAC history to win both of the league's marquee awards in the same year. Pettigrew joins Lenoir-Rhyne University infielder Traci Hyman (2000) and Carson-Newman College pitcher Marci Mitchell (2002, 2003) as the only players to achieve the rare feat.

In 2009, Pettigrew was second on the Bulldogs charts with her .405 batting average. She posted 62 hits, 38 runs and 17 stolen bases this year. Pettigrew had 18 multi-hit games in 2009, also second on Wingate's team list. She led the Bulldogs with 140 assists this season.

Pettigrew was named to the 2009 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III softball first team (college division), selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). In the classroom, Pettigrew holds a 3.75 GPA. A Mathematics and Education major, she is the only SAC student-athlete to earn ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honors this year.

Debra Grijalva was an All-SAC selection this year, leading the league with a .413 batting average. She was second on the league charts with her 46 RBI. Grijalva led the Bulldogs in home runs (eight), slugging percentage (.710) and on-base percentage (.490).

A Food Lion SAC All-Tournament selection, Grijalva led all SAC tourney participants with a .692 batting average, nine hits and 10 RBI. She was also second in slugging percentage and total bases. Grijalva drove in at least two runs 15 times, while driving in five against Catawba in the SAC tournament.

LaRonda McClain was a first team All-SAC selection in 2009. She led the SAC with 27 stolen bases. The Kings Mountain High School product was listed in the SAC statistical rankings in hits (65), runs scored (41) and batting average (.374).

McClain posted a team-best 20 multi-hit games on the year. She hit .473 in league games with 26 hits and 14 runs to go along with 12 stolen bases and a .508 on base percentage. McClain and Pettigrew were named Wingate's team MVP award winners at the University's Athletic Awards ceremony in late April.

The 2009 SAC regular season champions, Wingate earned a berth in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional tournament May 8-10 in Dahlonega, Ga. The Bulldogs (33-16-1 overall) captured the 2009 SAC regular season title and posted a 13-3 record in league play. Wingate head coach Michelle Caddigan is 437-213-3 overall in 13 Bulldog seasons. Caddigan is the 2009 SAC Coach of the Year.

Newberry

Kat Hammond was selected to the 2009 Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II All-Southeast Region First Team. Last year, Hammond was named to the second team All-Southeast Region as a junior.

Hammond, a first-team second baseman, batted .413 on the year as she led Newberry in batting average as well as several other offensive categories. She was the team leader in homeruns (12), RBIs (48), slugging % (.790) and on-base % (.509). Her twelve homeruns set a Newberry record for homeruns in a season surpassing the previous mark of 10.

She was also selected to the All-South Atlantic Conference First Team as she led Newberry to a 10-6 record in conference play and a 30-16 overall record. Earlier this week, Hammond was named to the DAKTRONICS All-Southeast First Team along with teammate Amanda Huckestein (Port Charlotte, Fla.).

Catawba

Catawba senior catcher, Ryann Baker (Rockwell, NC/E. Rowan HS), has been named to the second team 2009 National Fast-Pitch Coaches Association All-Southeast Region squad. Baker led Catawba this season with a dozen homers.

The backstop hit .331 in her final season with the Lady Indians and collected 33 RBI. She scored 34 runs and added a dozen doubles. She set school career marks in home runs (36) and runs scored (133). She finished second all-time with 179 hits.

Carson-Newman

Sarah Little (Calhoun, Ga.) leads the SAC with 12 home runs and is batting .357 for the year. Her late season surge, batting .393 with 12 RBIs in seven games, has lifted C-N to almost six runs per game in the postseason.

The junior delivered a pair of RBI singles to clinch the SAC Tournament title in a 2-0 win against Wingate. She followed with RBIs on all seven of her hits during the Hickory Regional, including a game-winning solo home run in a 2-1 win over Lenoir-Rhyne in the regional final.

2009 Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II
All-Southeast Region Teams

First Team
Pitcher Sarah - Phillips North, Georgia College & State
Pitcher Mandy - Chandler, Georgia College & State
Catcher - Jessica Strickland, USC-Aiken
First Base - Sarah Little, Carson-Newman
Second Base - Kat Hammond, Newberry
Shortstop - Kacee Camp, Augusta State
Third Base - Jelena Shaw, UNC-Pembroke
Outfield - Sherquita Bostick, Georgia College & State
Outfield - Courtney McGuire, North Georgia College & State
Outfield - Pilar Harden, North Georgia College & State
Designated Player - Leslee Smith, North Georgia College & State
Utility/Pitcher - Noel Belk, Lenoir-Rhyne
Utility/Non-Pitcher - Sarah Atkins, Lenoir-Rhyne

Second Team
Pitcher - Toni Flessate, USC-Aiken
Pitcher - Chantel Dodge, Queens (N.C.)
Catcher - Ryann Baker, Catawba
First Base - Nicole Huddleston, Armstrong Atlantic
Second Base - Carlee Carpenter, Lenoir-Rhyne
Shortstop - Kat Rivers, Lenoir-Rhyne
Third Base - Halie Pettigrew, Wingate
Outfield - LaRonda McClain, Wingate
Outfield - Jasmine Dobbin, St. Andrews Presbyterian
Outfield - Kat Cahoon, Mount Olive
Designated Player - Jessica Thornton, Augusta State
Utility/Pitcher - Michaela Wolf, Francis Marion
Utility/Non-Pitcher - Debra Grijalva, Wingate