Softball Lands Four on C-USA All-Conference Teams

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Marshall softball team put four players on the Conference USA All-Conference teams, the league office announced Tuesday. Sophomore Aly Harrell and freshman Mya Stevenson were named to the first team. Seniors Hayden Ellis and Abigail Tolbert were named to the second team. Stevenson was also honored on the All-Freshman team.

Stevenson finished the 2019 regular season in record-breaking fashion, smashing the Herd's freshman mark for home runs with 16. She surpassed the old record of 11, held by Harrell, during the series at Middle Tennessee and then continued to send the ball over the fence. The Mesquite, Texas, native bat .326, 45 hits, 35 runs, nine doubles, two triples and led the Herd with 49 RBI. Her 49 runs driven in currently stands as the second most by a freshman in team history and eighth most overall for a single-season. She was named Conference USA Player of the Week on March 18th after an explosive weekend against Charlotte in which she became the first player in team history to hit for the cycle and then drove in seven runs in game two. She was honored with the weekly award on April 29th after smacking three more homers in the series sweep at MTSU.

Harrell rewrote the Marshall record books in a different way with all of the times that pitchers opted to not throw anywhere near her, or directly at her. The sophomore left-hander finished the regular season with 60 walks, breaking the old record of 51 set by Rachel Folden in 2007. She began the year with a .773 on base percentage at the USD Tournament as she was walked 11 times and hit by two pitches, while recording just nine official at-bats. Harrell drew three or more walks in a game six times this year, a Herd record, and tied the program records of four walks in a contest and three hit-by-pitches in another. The Gahanna, Ohio, native leads the country in combined free passes with 77 as she was also hit 17 times, good for second most in a season at Marshall. When Harrell wasn't given a free pass, she was continuing to smash the ball as she finished second on the team with 13 homers and 39 RBI. Harrell bat .328 and slugged .714, while also leading C-USA in on base percentage with .586.

Ellis stepped up in a big way for the Herd in her senior season as the starting catcher. She fought her way back from a shoulder injury that limited her junior season to just 10 games. The Ashville, Ohio, native finished the regular season with career-highs across the board and began to pound the ball out of the park for the Herd. The 2019 Warrior Award winner has six home runs to her credit including hitting three in the series win over Louisiana Tech. She was named Conference USA Player of the Week after the LA Tech series and continued to hit well for Marshall. Ellis has 26 hits, eight doubles, one triple, 25 RBI and is second on the team with 32 walks. She also threw out six base-runners this season.

Tolbert also continued her climb in becoming the ace for Marshall. The right-handed senior also finished the 2019 regular season with career-highs. She goes into the C-USA Tournament with a 2.89 ERA, 23-14 record, 21 complete games, seven shutouts, 208 innings pitched and 159 strikeouts. Tolbert became just the sixth pitcher in Herd history to earn 20 or more wins in a season and has worked her way into the top-10 in program history with 35 career victories. She earned all three wins over Middle Tennessee, pitching 16 scoreless innings. She also led Marshall to two out of the three wins against the Florida Atlantic Owls in the regular season finale. Tolbert shutout the Owls in five innings in her final appearance at Dot Hicks Field, in front of her hometown crowd. The Barboursville, W.Va., native has also worked her way into the Herd record books to 10th in career strikeouts (246), ninth in games started (64), seventh in shutouts (12) and ninth in complete games (31).

Marshall is the No. 4 seed in the Conference USA Tournament and will take the field Wednesday at 5 p.m. central, 6 p.m. eastern against the winner of the No. 5 Southern Miss and No. 8 UTSA contest. Fans can tune in to the game on ESPN+ as well as 88.1 WMUL-FM with audio streamed online at www.marshall.edu/wmul through one of the Listen Live links.

For all of the latest information on the Marshall Softball team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdSB, Facebook at Marshall University Softball and on www.herdzone.com.

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---HerdZone.com---

Softball Lands Four on C-USA All-Conference Teams

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Players Mentioned

Hayden Ellis

Aly Harrell

Mya Stevenson

Abigail Tolbert

Marshall University Athletics