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COLLEGE SOFTBALL: MSSU’S Blackney named MIAA Coach Of The Year, Lions named All-MIAA

By:
Missouri Southern Athletics

 

Kansas City, Mo. – Head coach Hallie Blackney was named MIAA Coach of the Year, while Josie Tofpi was named a first-team All-MIAA selection as the MIAA announced its postseason honors today with a total of eight Lions earned All-MIAA honors.

For Blackney, this is her first time winning Coach of the Year. This season the Lions were picked to finish 11th in the preseason poll, but finished third with a 28-13-1, 19-6-1 MIAA record. The 19 MIAA wins are a school record and the 28 wins are the most since the 2011 season. Blackney has turned around the softball program in her first three years at the helm achieving the first back-to-back winning season for the Lions since 2001-02, and the first top-three finish since the Lions won the regular and postseason MIAA crowns in the 2001 season.

Blackney is the third Lions’ coach to win the award and the first since Ron Faubion guided the team to the 2001 regular and postseason crown. Legendary coach Pat Lipira was a five-time winner of the award (1990, 92,93,95, 98).

Tofpi, a sophomore from Moore, Okla., has played and started in 42 games this season and was named first-team All-MIAA as a shortstop after leading the Lions with a .410 batting average, 55 hits, 34 runs scored, 13 doubles, 32 RBI’s, 81 total bases, a .604 slugging percentage, a .459 on-base percentage, and 95 assists to go with three home runs, while going 5-5 in stolen bases. In the MIAA she is first in assists, tied for second in double plays turned, third in hits, fourth in batting average and doubles, fifth in on-base percentage, and tied for sixth in runs scored. Nationally she ranks 26th in hits and 29th in doubles. This is her second time being named All-MIAA, as a true freshman she was an honorable mention selection.

Ashlynn Williams, a sophomore from Oklahoma City, Okla., has played in 41 games getting the start in 40 games this season and was a second-team selection as a catcher. She posted a .302 batting average, with nine doubles, five triples, four home runs, while collecting 32 RBIs, slugging .594 and recorded 204 putouts. Williams ranks second in the MIAA in triples and is 12th nationally. Defensively has the 11th most putouts in the MIAA and has caught seven runners stealing this season.

Kara Amos, a freshman from Independence, Mo., has played in 39 games this season and has been named on the second-team as a utility / pitcher this season after going 9-5 in the circle with a 2.73 ERA in 21 appearances. Amos has pitched 71.2 innings so far this season striking out 51, limits opposing batters to a .251 batting average a team-high, while having a 1.28 WHIP. In the MIAA she ranks ninth in ERA, tenth in opposing batting average and in WHIP. With the bat she has a .337 batting average with four home runs and 24 RBIs to go with a .452 on-base percentage (10th in MIAA), while drawing a team-high 18 walks.

Earning honorable mention accolades were senior second basemen Makaila Leonhart from Nixa, Mo., junior pitcher Abby Atkin from Garden City, Mo., sophomore utility player Leighton Withers from Benton, Ark., freshman outfielders Yazmin Vargas from Garden City, Kan. and Adrianna Young from Tulsa, Okla.

Leonhart has played in and started 40 games this season while having a .303 batting average with nine doubles, three triples, and 15 RBIs, while slugging .479, is 12-14 in stolen bases and has 86 assists. Leonhart ranks tied for second in double plays turned with teammate Tofpi among others, tied for sixth in triples, has laid down seven sacrifice bunts to be tied for second in the MIAA, and is 10th in assists. This is the second time earning honorable mention accolades in her career.

Atkin is 9-5 with a 2.74 ERA in the circle having made 26 appearances. She has five complete games this season to go with one shutout and a combined shutout in 102.1 innings of work, striking out 40 and limiting opposing batters to a .268 batting average. Atkin joined the 200-career strikeout club this season and currently ranks tenth in Southern history with 202.

Withers has played in 42 games with 40 starts, while posting a .343 batting average with seven doubles, three triples, three home runs and 29 RBIs. She has a .552 slugging percentage, to go with a .454 on-base percentage (7th in MIAA), and has 102 putouts and 32 assists playing across the infield this season. She tied the single-game record for hit-by-pitches (3) and set the single-season record this season (12).

Vargas has played and started 41 games this season while having a .317 batting average with 32 runs and is 29-31 in stolen bases to lead the MIAA. She is tied for eighth in single-season at Southern in stolen bases, while ranking fifth nationally, and leads the outfield crew with 88 putouts this season, as well.

Young has played in 39 games getting the start in 33. She has a .301 batting average, with 11 RBIs and is 13-16 on the basepaths, ranking tenth in the MIAA in that category.

Southern will start the MIAA Tournament this weekend as the Lions play host to Missouri Western in a best-of-three series beginning Friday with first pitch at the Pat Lipira Softball Complex set for 3 p.m.

 

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