MARSHALL â Sweeping the 2024 American Southwest Conference softball awards, East Texas Baptist University had 11 student-athletes selected for awards.
ETBU was given the ASC Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Coaching Staff of the Year. Of the 11 players selected, ETBU had nine players earn All-ASC first team and two players named honorable mention. Of the nine members on the first team, four are freshmen.
Tristen Maddox (Player of the Year), Hannah Benavides (Pitcher/Newcomer of the Year), and Haylie Stum (Freshman of the Year) all earned the major awards as Head Coach Janae Shirley and her staff were the Coaching Staff of the Year.
Shirley and her staff have earned the ASC Coaching Staff of the Year for a fourth time in her career with two in the East Division and two overall for the ASC. She was honored as the ASC East Division Staff of the Year in 2009 and 2011 and the ASC in 2019 and 2024. This year she has guided ETBU to a 38-2 record and the programâs 12th ASC Tournament Championship along with a no. 2 national ranking.
Making All-ASC first team are Maddox (SS), Benavides (P), Haylie Stum (DP), Courtney White (2B), Tauryn Cummings (3B), Emma Bell (OF), Mary Frances Ellis (OF), Ava Rodriguez (UTL), and Avery Holland (P/at-large). Mallory Pyle (C) and Madalyn Melton (OF) both made the All-ASC honorable mention team.
An amazing accomplishment for Maddox and Cummings is being named to the All-ASC first team four years in row. They are now the fifth and sixth players in program history to be on the first team their entire career joining Jayme Perez (2014-17) and Lacey Lindsey (2014-17) in the ASC and in the East Division Angela Gonzales (2001-04) and Christy Shipley-Gibson (2004-2007). They also join an elite list of players to earn four All-ASC awards in Perez, Lindsey, Gonzales, Shipley-Gibson, Meghan Fisher (2008-12), Adrienne Meier (2007-10), and Jaimie Molling (2005-08).
ETBU is currently 38-2 and hosting the NCAA Division III Marshall, Texas Regional Tournament.
