Eagle Softball 2014 Season in Review
5/29/2014 2:21:00 PM | Softball
Georgia Southern wins SoCon Regular Season Championship
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SEASON REVIEW NOTES
STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern Softball closed the Southern Conference era in style by capturing the program's third regular-season league championship. It was the progam's fourth title in a three-year span which includes regular-season championships in 2012 and 2014 as well as tournament championships in 2012 and 2013.
The Eagles finished the season with a 35-21 overall record and a 15-6 league mark. The league season featured 11 wins from the first 12 games to put the Eagles in first place entering the stretch run. A 6-5 win in 13 innings to clinch the series win against Chattanooga in the 2014 home finale reduced the Eagles' magic number to just one.
The following weekend, the Eagles captured the regular-season crown on the penultimate day of the regular season. A day later, Georgia Southern took a 7-4 win over Samford in eight innings to enter the postseason as the No. 1 overall seed.
The Eagles took a 4-0 win over Elon on the opening day of the tournament behind Sarah Purvis' sixth career no-hitter. It was the first no-hitter thrown in SoCon Tournament play. Georgia Southern added a 3-0 victory over Samford to get in the drivers' seat entering the tournament's final four. Back-to-back defeats to UNCG, however, ended the Eagles' season and closed the SoCon era.
Non-conference play featured eighteen victories including wins over Georgia State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Troy, Middle Tennessee St. and Coastal Carolina. In a five-day span between March 1st and 5th, Purvis tossed a no-hitter against Troy and a perfect game against Kennesaw State.
The season also included five games against teams in the SEC, all which were decided by three runs or fewer. Over 1,500 fans were at Eagle Field for the second game of the season where the Eagles fell 1-0 to Tennessee. Later in the year, the Eagles took Alabama to the brink, dropping a 6-4 result after tying the game in the top of the sixth and seventh innings.
When awards season came around, the Eagles took three of the four major awards with Purvis earning SoCon Pitcher of the Year honors. She became the first league pitcher to earn the award three times. Taylor Rogers was named SoCon Freshman of the Year while Annie Smith earned her second SoCon Coach of the Year award. Purvis was also named NFCA All-Region.
Rogers and Purvis were joined on the All-SoCon First Team by Kourtny Thomas, while Morgan Robinson earned second-team honors. Rogers and Robinson also earned SoCon All-Freshman honors along with Emily Snider.
RECORD BOOK UPDATES
- In 2014, the Eagles set three new team records in walks (196), fewest errors (42), strikeouts per 7 innings (8.16) ... The team also finished second in five other categories: home runs (46), on base percentage (.352), hits allowed (279), hits allowed per 7 inn. (5.15), batting average against (.200).
- Senior Sarah Purvis set four new school records with new marks in complete games (28), shutouts (10), strikeouts (288) and consecutive scoreless innings (37.0).
- Kourtny Thomas finished second in single-season home runs (14) and third in single-season walks (39) ... Shelby Morrill also put her name on the walks list with 35 to move to fifth ... Freshman Taylor Rogers had the sixth-best batting average of .381 while Thomas also had the fifth-best totals in RBIs (46) and slugging percentage (.635).
- On the career side, Purvis secured records in victories (61), strikeouts (757) and shutouts (24) ... She also moved to third in innings pitched (658.0) and second in earned run average (1.89) ... Fellow senior Allie Miles also finished eighth in strikeouts with 353.
- Offensively, Kourtny Thomas moved into second for career home runs (33), seventh in slugging percentage (.482), eighth in RBIs (95) and third in walks (91) ... Shelby Morrill closed her career eighth in slugging percentage (.469) and eighth in walks (71).
EAGLES IN NATIONAL RANKINGS
- Sarah Purvis made a move into the NCAA career rankings in the no-hitter and perfect game lists ... She is now ranked 12th for career perfect games (3) and 11th for career no hitters (6).
- At the end of the Eagles' season Purvis was ranked sixth nationally with 288 strikeouts and 13th with 9.3 strikeouts per seven innings ... She is ranked 45th in ERA with a 1.79 mark.
- As a team, Georgia Southern finished conference tournament season ranked 24th in ERA (2.09) and fielding percentage (.972) ... Additionally, the Eagles did bring the power, ranking 81st with 0.82 home runs per game.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics. To purchase tickets call 1-800-GSU-WINS.
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