2019 Sun Belt Softball Weekly News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats | Championship | Records Book
 
AROUND #SUNBELTSB
• Sun Belt softball rolls on with 26 matchups on the ledger this week.
 
• Louisiana (33-4, 15-0 Sun Belt) remains ranked 10th in both the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 and ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 polls this week. The Ragin' Cajuns record is the fourth best in NCAA Division I, behind UCLA (35-1), Oklahoma (35-2) and Alabama (38-4).
 
• UTA (18-21, 6-9) appears in this week's ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 poll, receiving one vote. The Mavericks have played through a tough schedule that has included four wins over ranked opponents – No. 16 Baylor twice, No. 13 Arkansas and No. 13 Oklahoma State. The victories over Arkansas and Oklahoma State occurred in back-to-back weeks.
 
• In the latest NCAA Division I Softball RPI, the Sun Belt has six teams in the top 100 – Louisiana (20th), Troy (54th), Texas State (71st), UTA (86th), Appalachian State (93rd) and Coastal Carolina (94th). The Sun Belt ranks eighth as a conference behind the SEC, Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, American and Mountain West.
 
• The Sun Belt boasts three of the nation's top five pitchers in terms of victories this season. Louisiana junior Summer Ellyson continues to lead Division I with 23 wins. Troy freshman Leanna Johnson is tied for third with 20 and Coastal Carolina sophomore Kaitlin Beasley-Polko is tied for fifth with 19.
 
• Louisiana remains as the only Division I team undefeated in conference play with 10 or more wins.
 
• The Ragin' Cajuns are the only Sun Belt team to sweep their first five Sun Belt series. Louisiana's series win over UTA marked its 51st consecutive Sun Belt series win, a streak that began in March 2013. In conference play, Ellyson is 11-0 and has yielded only eight runs and 36 hits over 69.2 innings pitched.
 
• Louisiana continues to be among the top run-producing teams in the nation ranked fourth in on-base percentage (.435), seventh in batting average (.343), eighth in slugging percentage (.576) and 10th in runs per game (7.22).
 
• Having its best season since joining the Sun Belt, Appalachian State (26-10, 10-3) is led by junior pitcher Kenzie Longanecker. Longanecker paces the conference in runs allowed (31) and is second in earned run average (1.90).
 
• The wins keep coming for Troy (29-13, 11-4), winning its last 11 games in a row and sweeping its last three Sun Belt series. The Trojans sit second in the league in hits (302) and on-base percentage (.380), third in batting average (.282) and fourth in ERA (2.79).
 
• Coastal Carolina (29-10, 9-6), ranked eighth in the nation in home runs per game (1.51), has blasted at least one home run in its last 11 games. The Chanticleers have hit two or more home runs in the same game nine times during this streak.
 
• South Alabama (12-24, 2-13) has now registered at least one home run in 24 of its last 32 games.

• Sun Belt softball is honoring the life of Geri Ann Glasco, daughter of Louisiana head coach Gerry Glasco. Geri Ann Glasco passed away on Jan. 24 as a result of a multi-vehicle accident. A standout student-athlete at Oregon, she was set to serve her first season as a volunteer assistant coach for the Ragin' Cajuns. To honor Geri Ann's memory throughout the 2019 season, Sun Belt teams are wearing stickers on their helmets blazoned with her name.

• The National Fastpitch Coaches Association, in partnership with the Natasha Watley Foundation (NWF) and the Glasco Family, has created a Geri Ann Glasco Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship will be awarded to one female assistant coach in the first five years of her career at the collegiate level. Each year this scholarship will cover costs associated with attendance to the NFCA National Convention in December.
 
• WeCOACH, in partnership with NWF and the Glasco Family, also announced the creation of a Geri Ann Glasco Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship will be awarded to a female assistant coach in the first five years of her career at the NCAA level. Each year this scholarship will cover tuition and a travel stipend to attend WeCOACH's NCAA Women Coaches Academy.

• This season is the 20th season of Sun Belt softball. Sun Belt teams have combined for 33 postseason appearances (29 NCAA Division I Softball Championship and four National Invitation Softball Championship) in 19 seasons. Over that span, the conference has compiled 66 NCAA Tournament wins, seven NCAA Super Regional appearances, three NCAA Women's College World Series appearances and one NISC Championship Round appearance.

• The 2019 Sun Belt Softball Championship, hosted by Texas State, is set for May 8-11 at the Bobcat Softball Stadium in San Marcos, Texas. All-session and single-day tickets are available to purchase online at SunBelt.me/SB19Tickets.

COMMUNITY COFFEE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Kassidy Smith, Coastal Carolina (Jr., 1B, Collinsville, Ill.)
Coastal Carolina junior first base Kassidy Smith put up another stellar week, going for 4-for-9 (.444) for the second-straight week with two home runs, four runs scored, four RBI, an on-base percentage of .583 and a slugging percentage of 1.222. In the doubleheader against South Alabama, Smith went 4-for-7 with a double, two home runs and four RBI as the Chanticleers took both games. In the first game, she singled and later scored on a home run in a three-run fifth inning that helped seal a 4-3 victory. In the second game of the day, Smith became just the 10th opponent in South Alabama's 12-year history to hit two home runs in the same game. In the series finale, she did not have a hit but walked twice and scored once in the 6-4 win.
 
COMMUNITY COFFEE PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Summer Ellyson, Louisiana (Jr., P, Lafayette, La.)
Louisiana junior pitcher Summer Ellyson earned three wins and a save in four appearances, including one combined and one complete-game shutout during an undefeated week for the Ragin' Cajuns. Ellyson surrendered only one run and struck out 28 batters over 22.0 innings of work in the circle. She pitched scoreless softball in three of her four appearances with the lone run allowed coming off a wild pitch. Ellyson had a hand in all three wins against UTA posting wins in the first two games and earning a three-inning save in the series finale. She started the week with a 52-pitch effort in five shutout innings at McNeese in which she struck out nine Cowgirls. In Game 1 against UTA, she hurled up her sixth double-digit strikeout effort in her past 12 starts fanning 11 batters. In Game 2's complete-game, seven-inning shutout, Ellyson threw only 74 pitches and never faced more than one extra batter in a single inning. She enters the week continuing to lead NCAA Division I in wins with 23.
 
2019 Weekly Award Winners
Player
February 12: Raina O'Neal, Louisiana
February 19: Logan Harrell, Georgia Southern
February 26: Brittani Reid, South Alabama
March 5: Whitney Walton, UTA
March 12: Megan Walker, Appalachian State
March 19: Julie Rawls, Louisiana
March 26: Alissa Dalton, Louisiana
April 2: Kassidy Smith, Coastal Carolina
April 9: Kassidy Smith, Coastal Carolina
 
Pitcher
February 12: Kendra Lamb, Louisiana
February 19: Summer Ellyson, Louisiana
February 26: Kaitlin Beasley-Polko, Coastal Carolina
March 5: Kaitlin Beasley-Polko, Coastal Carolina
March 12: Summer Ellyson, Louisiana
March 19: Summer Ellyson, Louisiana
March 26: Meagan King, Texas State
April 2: Leanna Johnson, Troy
April 9: Summer Ellyson, Louisiana

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Tuesday, April 9   
Coastal Carolina at North Carolina (ACC Network Extra), 3 p.m.
ULM at Louisiana Tech, 6 p.m.
UTA at Sam Houston State, 6:30 p.m.
 
Wednesday, April 10    
UNC Greensboro at Appalachian State, 3 p.m.
College of Charleston at Georgia Southern, 4 p.m.
UNC Greensboro at Appalachian State, 5 p.m.
Georgia State at Alabama (SEC Network Plus), 6 p.m.
Southeastern Louisiana at Louisiana, 6 p.m.
*Troy at South Alabama, 6 p.m.
Texas State at UTSA, 6 p.m.
 
Friday, April 12  
*Texas State at Coastal Carolina (ESPN+), 3 p.m.
*South Alabama at Georgia State, 4 p.m.
*Troy at Georgia Southern, 4:30 p.m.
*Louisiana at Appalachian State, 5 p.m.
*ULM at UTA, 5 p.m.
 
Saturday, April 13
*Louisiana at Appalachian State, 11 a.m.
*South Alabama at Georgia State, Noon
*Louisiana at Appalachian State, 1 p.m.
*Texas State at Coastal Carolina (ESPN+), 1 p.m.
*Troy at Georgia Southern, 1 p.m.
*South Alabama at Georgia State, 2 p.m.
*Troy at Georgia Southern, 3 p.m.
 
Sunday, April 14
*Texas State at Coastal Carolina, 11 a.m.
*ULM at UTA, Noon
*ULM at UTA, 2 p.m.

Monday, April 15
Louisiana at Campbell (ESPN+), 4 p.m.

 
*Sun Belt Conference contest
All Times are Central and Subject to Change