Eleven Softball Players Named To Daktronics All-Region Team

Lenoir-Rhyne?s Rivers named Player of the Year

May 21, 2010

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Eleven softball players from the South Atlantic Conference have been named to the 2010 NCAA Division II Daktronics All-Southeast Region Softball Team, including Lenoir-Rhyne University's Kat Rivers, who was named the Southeast Region Player of the Year.

Rivers is joined by four Lenoir-Rhyne teammates Alex Smith, Sarah Atkins and Brittany Cherry on the first team, along with Newberry pitcher Amanda Huckestein. Members of the first team are now eligible for Daktronics NCAA Division II All-America honors.

Lenoir-Rhyne led the way with seven All-Region selections.

The Daktronics NCAA DII teams are voted on by the sports information directors. The Southeast Region is comprised of schools from Conference Carolinas, the South Atlantic Conference and the Peach Belt Conference.

The team is sponsored by Daktronics, Inc., an acknowledged world leader in scoring, timing and programmable display systems for virtually every sport at every level of competition.

The online nomination and voting processes are powered by ATHLETICSITE.COM. Headquartered in Charleston, S.C., ATHLETICSITE.COM is the official provider for college athletic websites for over 30 sports organizations, including 26 colleges, universities and conferences primarily at the NCAA Division II level. To receive more information on how your institution can partner with ATHLETICSITE.COM for a customized website solution, visit www.athleticsite.com.

Lenoir-Rhyne


Kat Rivers	Sarah Atkins

Brittany Cherry	Alex Smith

Dawon Millwood	Carlee Carpenter

Ashley Duckworth	Amanda Huckestein

Aissa Gatewood	Brittany Blankenship

	Ashley Seawell

Lenoir-Rhyne University's Kat Rivers (Royston, Ga.) has been named the 2010 NCAA Division II Daktronics Softball Southeast Region Player Of The Year. All total, seven Bears earned all-region accolades including four on the first team.

Rivers, sophomore catcher Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va.), senior outfielder Brittany Cherry (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) and freshman pitcher Alex Smith (Cocoa, Fla.) were named to the first team while sophomore pitcher Dawon Millwood (Hixson, Tenn.), sophomore second baseman Carlee Carpenter (Newton, N.C.) and senior designated player Ashley Duckworth (Hickory, N.C.) were chosen to the second team.

Rivers, a junior shortstop, currently leads Lenoir-Rhyne in several offensive categories including batting average (.438) and slugging percentage (.866) and holds the school single-season record for runs (64), hits (88) and total bases (174). Rivers' 22 home runs this year is a South Atlantic Conference record and is tied for the national lead and her 34 career round-trippers is a school mark as well. Rivers, a three-time all-league and two-time all-region honoree, was named the South Atlantic Conference Player Of The Year last month.

Atkins, a two-time first-team all-conference selection (2009-10), broke the school record for runs batted in this year with 63 and is currently hitting .354 with 14 home runs. Atkins also won the 2010 Food Lion SAC Tournament MVP honors.

Cherry, L-R's all-time leader in hits (267) and doubles (61), is a three-time all-conference honoree as well and is batting .360 with a team-leading 22 doubles this season.

Smith currently sports a 25-4 record with a 1.72 earned run average and 112 strikeouts after being named to the 2010 All-SAC Second Team.

Millwood, a two-time all-league pick (2009-10), is 21-3 on the year to go along with a 1.74 ERA and 196 strikeouts. In two seasons, Millwood has a combined 39-7 record.

Carpenter is second on the team in batting average (.390) and slugging percentage (.721) and has garnered all-region accolades for the second straight year. Carpenter was named to the 2010 All-SAC First Team last month.

Duckworth, in her lone season with the Bears, has hit 18 home runs (second-best on the squad) and has driven in 49 runs while starting all 60 games as a designated player.

Lenoir-Rhyne (53-7), ranked No. 8 in the country, faces top-ranked North Georgia (48-0) in the 2010 NCAA Division II Softball Southeast Super Regional Tournament beginning Friday in a best-of-three series at Dahlonega, Ga.

Newberry

Newberry College's Amanda Huckestein and Aissa Gatewood have been named to the 2010 DAKTRONICS All-Southeast Region softball teams, it was announced today. Huckestein has earned first team all-region honors and is eligible for All-American status, while Gatewood earned second team all-region honors.

Huckestein (Port Charlotte, Fla.) earns her second career DAKTRONICS all-region honor, as she was named to the second team in 2009. The 2009 and 2010 South Atlantic Conference Pitcher of the Year, Huckestein established a Newberry College record with 217 strikeouts, compiling a 19-8 record with a 1.07 ERA, pitching 20 complete games with 10 shutouts. Huckestein's opponents only managed a .175 batting average against her.

She currently ranks 10th in the nation in hits allowed per game (4.33) and 12th in the nation in ERA, strikeouts per seven innings (9.3) and shutouts. She led the South Atlantic Conference in ERA and allowed only 101 hits in 163.1 innings pitched with only 44 walks.

Gatewood (North Charleston, S.C.) earns her first career all-region honor after earning First Team All-South Atlantic Conference honors earlier this season. Gatewood started in all 38 games for Newberry and excelled as a leadoff hitter with a .451 on-base percentage. Gatewood posted a .356 batting average as well with 37 hits in 104 at bats. Gatewood managed five RBIs and a team-leading 31 runs scored. Additionally, Gatewood went 21-for-23 on stolen base attempts and maintained a .979 fielding percentage.

Wingate

Junior right-hander Brittany Blankenship (Midlothian, Va.) earned Daktronics Second Team All-Region accolades for the second consecutive season.

Blankenship went 19-8 with a 1.39 ERA in her junior season with the Bulldogs. She had 138 strikeouts against only 42 walks in 186.1 innings of work, while opponents hit .197 against her. She led the league in innings pitched, ranking third in wins, ERA and complete games and fourth in strikeouts and opponents' batting average.

Blankenship has 57 career victories in her three years, 12 shy of the school record. In 2010, she allowed two earned runs or fewer in 24 of her 31 appearances. The Bulldogs went 35-15 in 2010, earning a number 10 ranking which is the highest mark in school history. Blankenship is 57-26 in her career, with a 1.81 ERA and 387 strikeouts in 556.1 innings of work.

Mars Hill

Ashley Seawell has been named to the 2010 Daktronics All-Region second team. Seawell is a 5-6, junior first baseman from Asheboro, N.C. (Southwestern Randolph HS).

In 2010 Seawell led the South Atlantic Conference in batting average (.450) and was fifth in the league in homeruns (13). Seawell was 19th in NCAA Division II in batting average, 23rd in slugging percentage, 32nd in homeruns and 40th in RBI.

During the 2010 campaign, Seawell recorded 68 hits, 42 runs scored, 12 doubles, 13 homeruns and 51 RBI. She had a .778 slugging percentage and a .488 on-base percentage. Seawell had a .993 fielding percentage in 298 chances.

MHC finished the 2010 season 29-18 overall and 9-7 in the South Atlantic Conference that placed them tied for third in the league. The team ended the regular season seventh in the Southeast Region that gave the Lions their first-ever Regional bid.