SAU Sports Information
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As the end of the 2018 NCAA Division II Softball regular season nears, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) announced the Top 25 finalists for the Schutt Sports Division II Player of the Year award and among those selected are Southern Arkansas Softball’s Brooke Goad and Victoria Taylor.
Goad and Taylor have both played an integral part of No. 4 Southern Arkansas’ successes in 2018 as the duo has helped the Lady Muleriders to a 47-5 record overall and claim the regular season Great American Conference title, which gives the club the top seed in the upcoming GAC tournament.
Goad appears as a finalist for the second time in her career after making the list as sophomore in 2016. A native of Waxahachie, Texas, Goad is one ten players to be named a finalist after appearing on the outlet’s Preseason Top-50 Watchlist in early February. In her redshirt-senior campaign, Goad has certainly been a player to watch.
On April 14, Goad became Division II’s Career Home Run leader as she blasted her 80th career round tripper in the second game of SAU’s home series with Harding. Three days later, in a three-walk effort, Goad collected her 180th career base-on-balls to become Division II’s Career leader in that category as well.
A two-time Great American Conference Player of the Week this season, as well as an NFCA DII National Player of the Week honoree, Goad leads the country in home runs with 25 and walks with 63, both of which are single-season records at SAU, and holds Top 10 marks in the country in slugging percentage (1.047 | 3rd), on-base percentage (.614 | 4th), runs scored (61 | 4th), total bases (133 | 5th), and RBI (57 | 10th).
Her clips in slugging percentage and on-base percentage as well as her current production in runs scored, RBI and total bases lead the Great American Conference, while her .409 batting average ranks second. This season, Goad has produced 16 multiple-hit games and a team-leading 15 multiple-RBI games. Additionally, she reached base safely in her first 50 games of the season.
Taylor, a native of Greenwood, Arkansas, is one of seven sophomores and ten pitchers to make the list of national finalists. A two-time Great American Conference Pitcher of the Week this season, the right-hander has dispelled any unworthy notion of a sophomore slump and has been absolutely dominant in year two of her collegiate career.
In 27 appearances this season, which includes 26 starts, Taylor has tallied a perfect 23-0 record with 19 complete game performances and six shutouts. Through 157.1 innings pitched, Taylor leads the Great American Conference in ERA (1.16), opponent batting average (.196), shutouts (6) and batters struck out looking (69) and ranks second in wins (23), strikeouts (184) and hits allowed per seven innings (5.03).
Nationally, Taylor currently owns the ninth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio at 7.08, while her 184 strikeouts places her 12th in Division II and her 8.2 strikeouts per seven innings ranks 21st in the country. Additionally, her 1.16 ERA ranks 15th nationally.
Taylor is three wins away from matching the SAU single season record for victories and her 2018 numbers currently place her in the Top 10 of ten different single season statistical pitching categories at SAU.
The only Great American Conference players to be named Top 25 finalists, the pair makes Southern Arkansas one of just five programs to have two players named as 2018 finalists and the two Lady Muleriders make up half of the Central Region’s representation.
The Top 10 finalists will be announced on May 15 with the 2018 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division II National Player of the Year revealed on June 4.
The award was created in 2015 to honor the outstanding athletic achievement among softball student-athletes throughout Division II. North Georgia’s Courtney Poole was the inaugural winner of the award.