Lancers picked to win Big South
Published 9:59 am Thursday, January 24, 2019
- Longwood University senior catcher Kaylynn “Bug” Batten, pictured above, has been named the 2019 Big South Preseason Player of the Year. (Photo by Mike Kropf / Longwood University)
Headlined by a pair of preseason Big South Conference honors for the senior battery of Sydney Gay and Kaylynn “Bug” Batten, the Longwood University softball team was voted by the league’s nine head coaches to win their fifth Big South Championship in seven years, according to a Longwood athletics press release sharing what had been announced Wednesday afternoon by the conference office.
Officials in the release cited that Batten, who caught every inning of every game a season ago en route to an All-Big South first team selection, was pegged as the league’s preseason Player of the Year, while Gay, who was runner-up Big South Pitcher of the Year last season, was named the preseason Co-Pitcher of the Year. Gay shares the honor with University of South Carolina (USC) Upstate senior Christina Biggerstaff.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the Lancers have been selected to win the league, accumulating six of the nine first-place votes to go along with three second-place votes, the release stated. This marks the first time that a team has been picked to win the Big South in four consecutive years since 2000-03 when Coastal Carolina University accomplished the feat.
Officials noted in the release that Big South newcomer USC Upstate was picked to finish second with two first-place votes and two second-place votes, while Radford University was picked to finish third.
One of two current players in the Big South to be named all-conference in three consecutive seasons, along with teammate Karleigh Donovan, Gay has now earned her first Big South preseason accolade, the release cited.
Officials highlighted that Gay, a product of Carrollton, Virginia, was one of two Big South pitchers in the league to pitch at least 150 innings with a sub-2.00 ERA a season ago while tying for the most wins in the league with 25. A National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Southeast Region selection, Gay finished in the top five among pitchers in the Big South in all major statistical categories, including ERA (1.97), opponent batting average (.204), wins (25), innings pitched (209.2) and games started (33), while giving up two or fewer earned runs in 26 of her 33 starts.
Batten, a two-time All-Big South first team selection and a 2018 NFCA All-Southeast Region selection, has now also earned her first career Big South preseason honor, the release stated. She ranked inside the top five in the Big South in batting average (.371), on-base percentage (.467), triples (4) and walks (31) to lead Longwood in all of those categories a season ago. She had multiple hits in 18 games and reached base in 48 of 54 games. In addition, she aided the Longwood pitching staff to a 2.20 ERA to rank second in the Big South.
The press release concluded by citing that Longwood is set to begin its 2019 season Feb. 8, as the Lancers face Eastern Kentucky University at 12:45 p.m. in the Elon University Tournament in Elon, North Carolina.