Stillman College Softball's Historic Season Comes To A Close

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The most successful season in Stillman College softball history has come to a close, with the program logging the most single-season wins in program history and going deeper in the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament than ever before.

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Stillman College ultimately went 3-2 in the 2023 SSAC Softball Championships at Wilson Morgan Park last week. The Tigers were expected to be a long-shot to receive an at-large bid in the NAIA Softball Tournament and didn't hear the team's name called on Tuesday during the selection show.

After a 2-1 win over Faulkner University and 8-0 loss to Mobile on Thursday, Stillman swept a pair of elimination games Friday with a 2-1 win over Blue Mountain Christian University and an 8-6 walk-off victory against Faulkner to reach the final day.

"I'm going to remember Friday more than anything," head coach Joel Penfield said. "We could have laid down and gone home early, but we didn't and came out and battled. To me that was the biggest day, coming back and winning that one to be able to get here on Saturday. It was a great tournament and a great effort by the girls. They never laid down, and that was all I asked for."

At the end of the conference tournament, three Stillman players were selected to the SSAC All-Tournament Team: Lexi McCray, Lauren Haskins and Katelyn Lankford.

McCray, a junior from Brookwood, led Stillman's pitchers with a 3-1 record and 1.57 ERA as she pitched a tournament-best 26.2 innings in four appearances. She went on to pitch a pair of 2-1 complete-game wins both in Game 1 and Game 8 of the tournament over Faulkner and Blue Mountain.

McCray then logged 6.2 innings of relief for a win in the 8-6 Game 10 victory over Faulkner and pitched all six innings, apart from one batter, in the SSAC semifinal loss to the Mobile.

"[McCray] was a machine," Penfield said. "She did a tremendous job. She took one off the hand yesterday and came out here today and competed. It was an unbelievable effort."

Lankford, a freshman from Hueytown, notched a pinch-hit, walk-off single in Game 1 in the win over Faulkner, going on to hit .400 with four RBIs, including another game-winning RBI against Blue Mountain and a two-run home run in the second game with Faulkner.

Haskins, a junior from Alabaster, also added to the heroics with a two-out, three-run, walk-off home run to defeat Faulkner, 8-6, in the final elimination game on Friday. Haskins went on to hit .294 for the tournament with three RBI and stole two bases.

She also closed the season with a SSAC and Stillman single-season record of 51 stolen bases.

Kirby, a junior from Hueytown, may have missed out on being named to the All-Tournament team, but produced the top batting average for Stillman during the tournament, hitting an eye-popping .583 through five tournament games.

Apart from tournament honors, the Tigers also garnered 11 annual conference awards, including Penfield being named Coach of the Year and Haskins as Newcomer of the Year.

Penfield's accomplishments:

• A program-best 33 regular season wins and 36 total wins, compared to Stillman's 13-35 rcord last year.
• Program improved its win percentage by .471 from the previous year, but recorded a pair of Top 20 wins, including the program's first NAIA Top 10 victory.
• Led the SSAC in regular season team earned run average (ERA) at 1.94 and scored the most runs of any conference team (249).
• The Tigers' 217 RBIs were second in the SSAC.
• Stillman posted a 25-5 record on its home field and had a team batting average of .296, which ranked third in the SSAC.

Haskins — a First-Team All-SSAC and SSAC Gold Glove selection — hit .461 during the regular season and collected a conference-best 59 hits and 55 runs through 44 regular season games played. Haskin also recorded a 1.000 fielding percentage roaming the outfield.

"Lauren has been incredible," Penfield said. "I think she knew what her job was going to be as soon as she got here. Her job is to get on base, and that's what she does, and then gets a few steals here and there."

Madison Bubel, who started at third base and led the Tigers with 35 RBI, was also named to the SSAC First-Team. During the regular season, Bubel hit .342 with a team-best 19 extra base hits, including 13 doubles, which was second in the conference, and three home runs.

McCray, Anniston Jones and Taylor Roland were each selected to the All-SSAC Second Team.

Jones, a junior catcher from Springville, recorded the third-best batting average on the team at .329 and second-best against SSAC teams, hitting .333. Jones was also named as Stillman's selection to the SSAC Champions of Character Team.

Roland, a junior outfielder from Millbrook, Alabama, hit .308 through 37 games played, while Bailie Seales, a senior shortstop from Centerville, also received a SSAC Gold Glove.

During the regular season, Seales recorded a .983 field percentage through 44 games at shortstop, committing only three errors during the camapaign.

Freshmen pitchers Faith Byram of Hueytown and Jasmine Wade of Harvest were also named to the SSAC All-Freshman Team.

Apart from success on the field, several athletes were also standouts in the classroom, as Stillman led the SSAC with 15 All-Academic selections — 65% of its roster — which are sophomores or higher with a 3.25 GPA or better.

All-Academic selections

• Elisabeth Boso
• Rebecca Brogden
• Madison Bubel
• Carolyn Carter
• Erristen Evans
• Lauren Haskins
• Anniston Jones
• Mackenzie Kirby
• Katelynn Madison
• Savannah Mayes
• Lexi McCray
• Brooklyn Pennington
• Taylor Roland
• Bailie Seales
• Abby Shelby

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