Thursday, February 09, 2012

MACON, Ga. - Softball season is set to begin tomorrow in full force. Over the next week, 46 games are slated for play. Several of the games can be seen on ASun.TV. Three A-Sun teams will take on nationally ranked Florida (No. 2), Alabama (No. 2) and Baylor (No. 7).

Atlantic Sun Softball Weekly Notes:

• Jacksonville’s Sarah Sigrest is tied for eighth all-time in single-season pitching wins, with 27.
• Kennesaw State’s Jessica Cross is 12th in the A-Sun record books in career slugging percentage. Cross has a .629 percentage over the last four seasons, one of which she was redshirted. With career home runs Cross is seventh all-time, just two shy of sixth place and three shy of fifth. Cross was also selected to the preseason all-conference team.
• Lipscomb pitcher Whitney Kiihnl ranks fourth all-time for career strikeouts with 902, fourth all time for career pitching wins, with 71 and fifth all-time for career shutouts with 31.
• Kiihnl is eighth in the Atlantic Sun single-season record books after recording 328 strikeouts last season She is also eighth all-time for single-season shutouts, with 12.
• After winning the conference championship, Jacksonville defeated Bethune-Cookman in the Gainesville Regional, but fell to UCLA twice in the double elimination regional. The win against Bethune-Cookman marks the 15th postseason win for Atlantic Sun softball in the last 10 years.
• After claiming last year’s Atlantic Sun Softball Championship for the first time in school history, Jacksonville received nine out of 10 first-place votes in the preseason Atlantic Sun Coaches Poll. The Dolphins pitcher-catcher duo Sarah Sigrest and Sarah Simon were tabbed as the Preseason Pitcher and Player of the Year. Jacksonville infielder Amanda Schmidt was also a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-Conference Team.




A-Sun Softball Records since 2008
School	A-Sun Record	Average	Overall Record	Percentage
Lipscomb	64-18	.780	148-73 (2nd)	.670
FGCU	57-25	.695	150-78 (3rd)	.658
USC Upstate	51-31	.622	146-59 (1st)	.712
Kennesaw State	42-40	.525	112-100 (7th)	.528
Mercer	41-40	.506	129-100 (4th)	.563
North Florida	41-41	.500	115-102 (5th)	.529
Jacksonville	40-42	.487	122-109 (6th)	.528
Stetson	36-45	.395	119-107 (8th)	.527
ETSU	24-58	.293	93-129 (9th)	.419
Belmont	13-69	.159	46-153 (10th)	.231



• Lipscomb sits atop the chart with the best four-year average in Atlantic Sun play,(.780), followed by FGCU (.695) and USC Upstate (.622) .
• USC Upstate has the best overall record over the last four years with a 146-59 record, (.712). The Spartans are followed by last years’ runner-up Lipscomb with a 148-73 record (.670).

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