Courtesy of Wright State Athletics
Elisabeth Beirne, an assistant softball coach at Georgia Southern the past six seasons, has been named as an assistant coach at Wright State University, WSU head coach Lynn Curylo announced on Tuesday.
Beirne (Burn) worked primarily with the pitching staff and was the recruiting and travel coordinator while at GSU. In her six seasons there, Beirne’s pitchers garnered five Southern Conference (SoCon) Pitcher of the Year honors, five Second Team National Fastpitch Coaches Association of America (NFCA) All-Region honors as well as a SoCon Freshman of the Year award. In 2014, Sarah Purvis became the first pitcher in league history to earn three straight SoCon Pitcher of the Year Awards.
Beirne helped Purvis re-write the Georgia Southern record books as the senior set new career records in victories (61), strikeouts (757) and shutouts (24). Additionally, Purvis threw six no-hitters with three of those going down as perfect games. She finished her four-year career ranked 12th in Division I history for perfect games and 11th in no-hitters.
The dominating work of the Eagles’ pitching staff helped Georgia Southern record SoCon regular season championships in 2012 and 2014 as well as SoCon Tournament titles in 2012 and 2013. Those tournament wins sent the Eagles to the NCAA Tournament where the Eagles’ scored a perfect game in the win over Hampton at the 2013 Gainesville Regional.
Georgia Southern’s 2014 season featured another dominant campaign by the pitchers. Purvis picked up her third straight Pitcher of the Year award while the squad lowered its team ERA to 2.09 with 442 combined strikeouts and a .200 opponent batting average. The Eagles secured the SoCon regular season championship in the program’s final year in the league and posted 13 shutouts.
During the 2013 season, the Eagle pitching staff posted a 2.39 team ERA and 33 victories. The squad of hurlers held opponents to a .227 batting average while striking out 396 batters. Purvis earned her second straight Pitcher of the Year award and helped the Eagles reach the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. The Eagles clinched the tournament crown with an 11-inning shutout of UNC Greensboro.
In 2012, under Beirne’s tutelage, Purvis became the first 20-game winner in school history with 253 strikeouts on the year. Beirne also helped Miles return from injuries which prevented her from pitching in the fall and fostered the growth of a pair of freshmen, Brooke Red and Marla Thompson. Red finished the year with the league’s second-best ERA and a 10-1 overall record. The staff also set school records for wins and strikeouts.
For the 2011 campaign, Beirne worked with Allie Miles, helping the freshman to earn SoCon Freshman of the Year honors in the circle. Miles struck out a 170 batters on the season and held opposing batters to a .218 average. The GSU staff as a whole posted a 3.47 ERA with a .248 opponent batting average.
Prior to coming to Georgia Southern, Beirne spent one season at Tennessee State as the pitching coach and began her coaching career as a graduate assistant for two seasons at Liberty, where she was in charge of pitching and academic progress.
In her first year at Liberty, two pitchers recorded 16 wins, marking only the second time the university had two 15-game winners on the same staff. In addition, during the 2006 season, the pitching staff set a school record with 351 strikeouts, surpassing the previous record of 291, and the team ERA improved from 3.08 in 2005 to 2.44.
Beirne, a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois, earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 2004. A standout pitcher at Olivet, she accumulated a 74-26 career record in the circle, including 32 shutouts. In 2003, Beirne helped lead Olivet to a third place finish at the NAIA national tournament and a team record 61 wins, posting a personal record of 29-7 with a 1.61 ERA.
Beirne was selected to the 2003 National Christian Colleges Athletic Association All-American First Team. She followed that up with a 21-win campaign in 2004 and again led Olivet to an impressive 51-17 overall record and was an All-Chicago Collegiate Athletic Conference selection, as well as an NCCAA All-Tournament team member.
