2019 MVC Softball All-Conference Release
ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Valley Conference has announced the All-Conference Teams and specialty award winners on Wednesday morning ahead of the MVC Softball Championship. Regular-season champion Drake claimed the Most Valuable Pitcher and Coaching Staff of the Year recognition. No. 2 Seed Southern Illinois collected Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors while third-seeded UNI took Most Valuable Player. Loyola claimed the final specialty award, Newcomer of the Year.
UNI’s Sammey Bunch won the Missouri Valley Conference Most Valuable Player honor. During Conference play, Bunch ranked in the top-five in the Valley in batting average, slugging percentage, on base percentage, runs scored, hits, runs batted in, home runs and total bases. Of the eight categories, she leads the league in four. In all NCAA Division I Softball, Sammey has five top-30 rankings with her highest being 18th in slugging percentage. Bunch finished league play with a .418 batting average, 33 hits, 30 RBIs, 24 runs scored and ten home runs.
Nicole Newman of Drake was named MVC Most Valuable Pitcher for the second-straight year and third-time in her career. Newman leads NCAA Division I in strikeouts per seven innings (13.2), hits alowed per seven innings (2.66) and strikeouts (362). She is second in shutouts (12) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.62), third in earned run average (0.91) and fifth in victories (26). Against Conference opponents, Newman has a 0.33 ERA, keeping opposing batters to .078 while striking out 217. Newman leads the MVC in seven different categories.
The MVC Defensive Player of the Year was Southern Illinois’ Katelyn Massa. Massa has played a key role in having the Salukis’ ranked third in NCAA Division I Softball in fielding percentage and earning the second seed in the MVC Softball Championship, their highest seed in eight years. She had 193 putouts from 215 chances on the season. In Valley play, Massa had a 1.000 fielding percentage.
The Freshman of the Year honors went to Ashley Wood of Southern Illinois. Wood was the only freshman to make the All-Conference First or Second team in 2019. For the Salukis’, Wood ranked first in home runs and RBIs and second in batting average and hits. Of her 50 hits, 16 were for extra bases. She finished the regular-season with a .360 batting average, 44 RBIs, 85 total bases and 29 runs scored.
Loyola’s Jessica Shields was chosen as the 2019 MVC Newcomer of the Year. On the season, Shields had 35 stolen bases (first in the Valley), 41 runs scored (fifth-best), 60 hits (tied for fifth) and a .373 batting average (ninth). She leads the Ramblers in at bats and runs scored and is second in hits. In all Division I Softball, she ranks tenth in stolen bases.
Rich Calvert and his assistants Tina DeAngelo and Kasey Griffith won this year’s Coaching Staff of the Year award. The trio led the Bulldogs to a 40-14 overall record and a 24-2 mark in the MVC, clincing their fourth regular-season title, second-consecutive. It is the fourth time in school history that Drake has earned Coaching Staff of the Year honors. The team has eight top-50 rankings in NCAA Division I Softball in shutouts, earned run average, fielding percentage, WL percentage, stolen bases per game, hit batters, strikeout-to-walk ratio and on base percentage.
League awards are voted on by the head softball coaches.
