MGSC's Bawkin named GCAA player of the year
The Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) released the All-Conference and Tournament teams today. The Middle Georgia State College Knights placed six players on the first team for All-Conference and three on the All-Tournament team as well as the GCAA Player of the Year.
Kayla Bawkin was named to the First Team for All Conference at shortstop. Bawkin was also named GCAA Player of the Year and nominated for the NJCAA All-American team. She led the Conference in homeruns (21), RBI (65), and slugging percentage (.916) while finishing second in runs scored (47), third in on base percentage (.469) and fifth in batting average (.406). Nationwide she was tied for fourth in homeruns, was eleventh in slugging percentage, and 15th in RBI.
Adele Harrison was named to the First Team for All Conference and All-Tournament at left field and was nominated for NJCAA All-American. Adele led the GCAA in hits (74) and triples (7) while finishing third in runs (46), fourth in batting average (.423), and top ten in on base percentage (.439) and slugging percentage (.571) while she finished tied for fifth nationally in triples. Harrison batted .389 in the conference tournament with a triple and homerun.
Julie Bradley was named to the First Team for All Conference and All Tournament at catcher. Bradley finished the regular season second in the conference in homeruns (11), third in doubles (12), fourth in RBI (38), and seventh in slugging (.629). In the conference tournament, she batted .429 and hit one homerun for the Knights. Bradley’s season was highlighted by two-run walkoff homeruns in the eighth inning against Aiken Tech (3/27) and Gordon State (3/28) as well as being the first of three to go back-to-back-to-back along with Keri Tompkins and Susanna Stokes for a walkoff win against Gordon State (3/28).
Keri Tompkins was named to the First Team for All Conference at third base. Tompkins was tied with Bradley for second in the conference in homeruns (11) during the regular season and added two more during the tournament. She was fifth in slugging percentage (.680) and ninth in RBI (30). Tompkins also had three multi-homer games.
Jenna Hanson was named to the First Team for All-Conference at centerfield. Hanson was third in the conference in sacrifices (8) and sixth in hits (54) while finishing in the top 20 in on base percentage, batting average, and stolen bases.
Alyssa Amerson was named as the First Team All-Conference pitcher. Amerson finished the year with 16 wins and had 21 complete games with a 3.05 ERA, striking out 130 and walking just 42. Amerson finished the regular season as the only pitcher for the Knights for a week after Katie Turner was injured. Amerson pitched six straight complete games to finish out the season for the team going 6-0 with a 2.36 ERA and striking out 41 in the 10 day period.
Katie Turner was named to the All-Tournament Team at pitcher. Turner missed the last two weeks of the regular season with an ankle injury but came back to pitch strong earning one win and one save in the GCAA Tournament.
The Knights had a great season ending the year with 65 homeruns as a team including four players with ten or more, putting this team second all time for Middle Georgia State softball and 6th in the nation in homeruns for the regular season. The Knights finished in second place in the GCAA tournament losing to Georgia Perimeter in the Finals and finished the season at 34-19 and won 19 of their last 23 games. Coach Ken Phillips will be returning seven players from this year’s team for the 2014 season including Bawkin, Amerson, and Bradley and looks for big things from the team next year.