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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
– The Gulf South Conference softball coaches have
picked the University of West Alabama softball team
fifth in the GSC East in the annual league pre-season
poll, released by the conference office on Tuesday.
The Tigers, who are
coming off a 29-29 2008 campaign, picked up one
third-place vote and a trio of fourth-place votes along
with a fifth-place selection. The Chargers of UAH, who
claimed their eighth GSC Championship a year ago, are
the 2009 GSC East favorite, followed closely by Valdosta
State. West Florida and North Alabama were picked ahead
of UWA, while West Georgia rounds out the East.
Arkansas Tech, the defending 2008 GSC West Division
Champions, has been tabbed to win the division for the
second-straight year.
A trio of Tigers
claimed pre-season All-GSC East honors, led by senior
shortstop Courtney Gordon. Sophomores Valisha Fincher
and Kelli Hartley also made the list. Gordon, from
Columbus, Miss., led UWA at the dish with a .385 batting
average and was one of seven Tigers selected to the 2008
All-GSC Team. Gordon was tops on the team in hits and
finished fifth in the league in average. Fincher
finished her rookie season with a .341 batting average
from the left side of the plate and led the squad in
stolen bases with 13. The Tarrant, Ala.-product
delivered eight home runs on the season. Hartley paced
the Red and White line up with 13 home runs, shattering
the UWA freshman record for round-trippers in a rookie
campaign. Started all 58 games at second base, the
Northport, Ala.-native, finished second on the squad in
hits with 62, 25 of those were for extra bases.
Three Tiger junior
college transfers were among the GSC top newcomers list
– Jessica Powell, Lauren Mills and Jessica Cervantes.
Powell started her intercollegiate career at Sierra
College in Rocklin, Calif. and guided SC to 36 wins as a
freshman last season. A native of Orangevale, Ca,
Powell was an All-State selection after batting .410 in
2008. Mills joins the UWA program after a two-year
stint at Western Nebraska Community College. She
continues her career at UWA after guiding WNCC to the
Region IX Championship and a 54-8 final mark. Mills
(Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) belted 13 home runs as
a sophomore while driving in 54 runs on the season.
Cervantes comes to the Livingston campus by way of
College of the Sequoias in California. A right hand
pitcher from Visalia, Calif., Cervantes claimed the
Central Valley Conference’s Pitcher of the Year award
after posting 23 wins in the circle as a sophomore.
The Tigers, under second-year head
coach Will Atkinson, open the 2009 season with the UWA
Invitational on Feb. 13-14. Joining the Tigers in the
three-team field will be Judson College and Spring Hill
College. |
