Marshall University Athletics
Four Marshall Softball Players Named to All-Conference USA Team Wednesday
5/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 9, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. - Four Marshall Thundering Herd softball players were named to the All-Conference USA Team, while a league-high three players were named to the All-Academic Team Wednesday evening at the conference's annual awards banquet.
Leading the way was two-time Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year Rachel Folden (Baldwin Park, Calif./Diamond Bar), who was Marshall's lone first team selection. Folden leads the league with a .422 average, while leading the team with 14 home runs.
Folden's 44 RBI are second only to teammate Samantha Rodriguez (Oakley, Calif./Freedom), who was a second team selection as an infielder. Rodriguez is batting .322 with 16 doubles, 11 home runs and a conference-best 54 RBI.
Sophomore J.J. Bitner (Virginia Beach, Va./Princess Anne), a Conference USA All-Freshman selection a year ago, was named to the All-C-USA Team as an outfielder. Bitner finished the regular season with a .355 average, 11 RBI and league-best 31 stolen bases.
Freshman Caitlyn Jackson (Ontario, Calif./Pomona Catholic) rounded out Marshall's all-conference selections, as the rookie outfielder was named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team. Jackson currently ranks fourth on the team with a .307 average, while driving in 12 RBI.
"It is such a great honor for Rachel, Sam, J.J. and Caitlyn to be named to the All-Conference team tonight," Marshall head coach Shonda Stanton said. "It speaks volumes for their commitment to their team and the Marshall softball program."
On the academic side, senior Amanda Luers (Dover, Ohio/Dover) and sophomore Rachel Schmidt (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) join Folden as Marshall's All-Academic Team honorees. Schmidt and Luers hold identical 3.85 GPAs. Schmidt, an accounting major with a minor in economics, was one of the 18 softball players named to the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll this year. In addition, she was a Commissioner's Academic Medalist this season and has been named to Marshall's Dean's List in each of her first three semesters.
"Academics have always been an important part of our program," Stanton said. "Considering we had the most players of any school on the team says a lot about our team's focus on school.
"These three players, as well as the rest of the team, personify the true definition of a student-athlete."
Luers is a senior sports management and marketing major. She was named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll this year and is the only Marshall softball player to be named a Conference USA Commissioner's Academic Medalist two years in a row.
Folden, the league's reigning Player of the Year, has a 3.20 GPA in mathematics with a minor in history. The junior was also one of 18 softball players to be named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll this year. One of the nation's premier power hitters, she leads C-USA in batting average and became the school's career home runs and RBI leader earlier this season. She is currently fifth in C-USA career home runs with 32 blasts.
"We are relaxed and ready to go into Thursday with confidence," Stanton said. "We are focused on UCF and it's all about having fun and winning games."
The Marshall Thundering Herd will face the No. 4 seed UCF Knights Thursday in game two of the Conference USA Championship Presented by Coca-Cola. First pitch is slated for 12:30 p.m. (ET). Fans can listen to the game live on WMUL-FM 88.1 or by logging on to www.marshall.edu/wmul.
