LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the first time in 13 years, a Jacksonville Dolphin softball player has been named to the NFCA All-Region team.
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association released their All-Region team Thursday afternoon, where sophomore pitcher
Jacy Harrelson and graduate catcher
Sarah Beth Brake were both named to the Gulf Region's Third-Team.
The pair were the first Dolphins to make an NFCA team since the 2013 season where JU Hall of Famer Sarah Simon made the Second Team. Thursday's honor also ties the program record for overall honorees on a single NFCA list, tying the historic 2011 team where both ASUN and JU Hall of Famer Sarah Sigrest Caffrey and Olivia Kline were honored.
Brake and Harrelson are just the fifth and sixth players in program history to be named NFCA All-Region team members and were the two of three total ASUN student-athletes honored from the Gulf Region, joining Stetson's Nicole Edmiaston. Jacksonville's standout catcher-pitcher duo joined the likes of student-athletes from Florida, FSU, LSU and UCF on the NFCA All-Region list following historic years on the field for the Dolphins.
Both players were
First-Team All-ASUN honorees with Harrelson being named the ASUN Pitcher of the Year.
At the plate, Brake set the single-season JU record for RBIs in a season with 52, while also tying the single-season batting average record at .399. Brake also was the main catcher for Harrelson, sitting behind the dish for almost every one of Harrelson's record setting 22 wins. That mark was good for second all-time in a single season, trailing only Sigrest Caffrey's 27 wins in the '11 season.
The pair led Jacksonville to a fourth-place overall finish in the ASUN and
a third-place finish in the ASUN Tournament last weekend. JU's 34 wins this year were the most under head coach
Erica Ayers in her now nine completed seasons and the most wins overall since the record-setting 44 wins in '11.
Jacksonville has been showered in awards this year where the team had
five ASUN All-Academic honorees, the ASUN Freshman of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, three ASUN First-Teamers and two ASUN All-Freshman teamers. Now, the program can add two NFCA All-Region team members to the list.
The full NFCA All-Region team can be viewed HERE.