Courtesy of the Sun Belt
SAN MARCOS, TEXAS – The Sun Belt Conference announced the 2015 Softball All-Conference teams and individual award winners on Tuesday night at Bobcat Softball Stadium as part of its Family Night festivities. UL Lafayette junior Lexie Elkins was named the Sun Belt Player of the Year for the second consecutive season while Troy senior Jaycee Affeldt earned the Pitcher of the Year award and Georgia State’s Ivie Drake won the Freshman of the Year honor.
UL Lafayette’s Michael Lotief and Troy’s Beth Mullins were named Sun Belt Co-Coaches of the Year. The individual award winners and all-conference honorees were selected by a vote of the league’s nine head coaches.
Elkins won her second Player of the Year honor after leading the NCAA in home runs this season. The junior hit 27 home runs while recording 69 RBIs which ranked sixth in the country. Elkins posted a .424 average with a slugging percentage of 1.068. The catcher homered in every Sun Belt series and only struck out once against Sun Belt pitching. In conference play, Elkins had a .541 average and recorded 20 home runs and 53 of her RBIs. She became the first player in Ragin’ Cajun history to record back-to-back 20 home run seasons.
Affledt earned the Pitcher of the Year award for the first time in her career after she logged a 2.51 ERA in 178.1 innings. Affeldt notched 17 wins and three saves while recording 145 strikeouts. She posted one shutout and 12 complete games in 42 appearances. She also posted a 1.75 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 28 innings and allowed just a .196 average to Top 10 opponents this season.
Drake earned the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year award after leading the conference in batting average, hits, total bases and pickoffs. She recorded a .462 average on the season while starting every one of Georgia State’s 55 games behind the plate. Drake ranks 11th in the NCAA with 21 home runs and 13th with 64 RBIs. She ranks in the Top 25 nationally in six different statistical categories. Her 21 home runs are a Georgia State single-season record. Drake is also first in batting average and slugging percentage and second in RBIs, runs scored, and hits in the Panthers’ single season record books.
Lotief earned his third Coach of the Year honor while Mullins won her first in her first year at the helm of the Trojans. Lotief guided the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 37-8 record and the school’s 13th regular season championship in school history. The Cajuns went 20-3 in conference play and won all eight conference series they played this season. The team also spent every week ranked in the Top 10 of at least one of the two major softball polls. They ended the year ranked No. 11 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll and No. 10 in the USA Today/NFCA Poll. This is the second consecutive year that Lotief was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year.
Mullins took over a Troy squad that went 22-30-2 and 5-13 in Sun Belt action last season. She helped the Trojans to a 10-win improvement overall as Troy went 32-22 with a 14-9 record in conference action. The Trojans finished the year in fourth place in the Sun Belt standings after a seventh place finish last year. In non-conference action, the Trojans notched extra inning victories over no. 9 Florida State and Georgia Tech.
The Sun Belt Conference presented 15 First Team All-Conference awards and 15 Second Team All-Conference awards on Tuesday night. Each all-conference team had one spot each for catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base and designated player. There were two spots on each team for pitchers, three for outfielders and four at-large spots. The Ragin’ Cajuns led the way with eight total honorees as they placed five student-athletes on the First Team and three more on the Second Team. Georgia State tallied four First Team selections while South Alabama and Texas State each notched two. UL Monroe and Troy rounded out the First Team with one selection each.
The 2015 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship begins on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. with the No. 5 seed Georgia State Panthers taking on the No. 8 seed Georgia Southern at Bobcat Softball Stadium in San Marcos, Texas. UL Lafayette owns the No. 1 seed after claiming the regular-season championship. All games of the tournament will be streamed for free on SunBeltSports.org. Friday’s semifinals and Saturday’s championship game will be available for viewing on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
Sun Belt All-Conference First Team
P- Randi Rupp, Texas State
P- Kalen McGill, South Alabama
P- Jordan Wallace, UL Lafayette
P- Jaycee Affeldt, Troy
C- Lexie Elkins, UL Lafayette
C- Ivie Drake, Georgia State
1B- Kelsey Vincent, UL Lafayette
1B- Kendall Wiley, Texas State
2B- Haley Hayden, UL Lafayette
SS- Taylor Anderson, Georgia State
3B- Callie Alford, Georgia State
OF- Shellie Landry, UL Lafayette
OF- Ashley Christy, Georgia State
OF- Rochelle Roberts, UL Monroe
DP- Chloe Rathburn, South Alabama
Sun Belt All-Conference Second Team
P- Farish Beard, South Alabama
P- Alex Stewart, UL Lafayette
C- Sarah Warnock, Appalachian State
1B- Alexis Cacioppo, UL Monroe
1B- Lauren Coleman, Georgia State
2B- Miyuki Navarette, UL Monroe
SS- Ariel Ortiz, Texas State
SS- Kaitlyn Griffith, South Alabama
3B- Courtney Harris, Texas State
3B- Samantha Walsh, UL Lafayette
OF- Taylor Rogers, Georgia Southern
OF- Amanda Minahan, South Alabama
OF- Stephanie Pilkington, South Alabama
OF- Becca Hartley, Troy
DP- Leandra Maly, UL Lafayette
Player of the Year
Lexie Elkins, UL Lafayette
Pitcher of the Year
Jaycee Affeldt, Troy
Freshman of the Year
Ivie Drake, Georgia State
Co-Coaches of the Year
Beth Mullins, Troy
Michael Lotief, UL Lafayette
