SAU Sports Information
BELLEVUE, Wash. – Postseason accolades continue to pour in for Southern Arkansas Softball after a historic 2016 campaign as HERO Sports announced Head Coach Jason Anderson as the DII Softball Coach of the Year, while senior ace Kimmy Beasley was tabbed as the media outlet's DII Softball Newcomer of the Year on Wednesday afternoon.
In his second year at the helm of the Southern Arkansas Softball program, Anderson led his Lady Muleriders on a historic postseason run that saw the club capture a school-record 53 wins en route to the program's second Great American Conference Tournament Championship, its first Central Region title and first appearance in the DII Women's College Softball World Series.
The 53 victories mark the fourth time in Anderson's nine-year head coaching career that his team has surpassed the 50-win mark and the first time it has been accomplished in the 18-year history of the Lady Mulerider program. Under Anderson, Southern Arkansas was also ranked nationally for the first time in program history in late March and after seven weeks of being nationally ranked, the club ended the season tabbed fourth in the NFCA DII Top-25 Coaches Poll.
Anderson's 2016 team finished the year ranked in the top-25 nationally in home runs per game (8th | 1.13), slugging percentage (11th | .501), win-loss percentage (13th | .828), on-base percentage (14th | .409), fielding percentage (16th | .971), and earned run average (22nd | 1.96).
Beasley, the Great American Conference's Newcomer of the Year, capped a stellar collegiate career in the circle with an absolute dominating campaign in 2016. The Foreman, Arkansas, native finished the season with a 26-5 record which set a school-record for wins. She appeared in 37 games for Southern Arkansas totaling 203.1 innings pitched and 221 strikeouts. Beasley went the distance in 20 games this season, while also tossing nine shutouts, two combined shutouts and registering three saves.
In her 31 starts, Beasley surrendered three or fewer hits 13 times, while recording 10-plus strikeouts in a game six times including a season-high 12 strikeouts twice. Wednesday's announcement of Beasley's second "Newcomer of the Year" honor in 2016 can be added to an All-GAC First-Team accolade, an NFCA All-Central Region Second-Team honor, a D2CCA All-Central Region First-Team honor as well as being named a D2CCA Third-Team All-American.
SAU's Dow named
academic All-American
AUSTIN, Texas – Southern Arkansas softball junior designated player Maddie Dow has been named to the 2016 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America® Second-Team as it was announced by CoSIDA on Wednesday.
Dow, who was recently named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District™ Seven First-Team, becomes the fourth softball player at SAU to earn Academic All-America® honors while also being the 12th different honoree all-time at SAU.
A native of Bonham, Texas, Dow is a three-year starting designated player at SAU and had a 3.85 GPA in Athletic Training at the time of her nomination. Recently, Dow completed a 4.0 spring semester and has elevated her cumulative GPA to 3.87.
On the field, Dow is one of the most prolific power hitters in SAU and Great American Conference history. In just three seasons, Dow has 52 career homeruns and 163 career RBIs while also being a career .343 hitter. Her career marks in homeruns and RBIs are career records at SAU.
This past season, Dow was named as an all-region and all-conference second-team DP by D2CAA and the GAC as well as being named as the GAC Tournament MVP. On the year, Dow hit .335 (60-for-179) with seven doubles, 18 homeruns and 61 RBIs.