2017 Great Midwest Softball All-Conference Team (PDF)
XENIA, Ohio – The 2017 Great Midwest Softball All-Conference Team was officially released on Thursday, one day after the league’s annual six-team tournament officially got underway at the Athletes in Action Complex.
Four games were completed on Wednesday after the official schedule was moved forward as a precautionary measure against pending weather conditions.
The all-conference team is typically announced during a pre-championship banquet, but with teams coming in a day early, the evening event was unfortunately cancelled.
The league’s coaches voted for players selected to the first, second and all-freshman teams. Individual awards were also named for the G-MAC co-Coaches of the Year, G-MAC Player of the Year, G-MAC Pitcher of the Year and G-MAC Freshman of the Year.
There were a total of 37 different spots for the all-conference team and a total of nine freshmen were represented on either the first or second team.
Cedarville’s regular-season run went noticed by the conference coaches as the Yellow Jackets swept pitcher and player of the year accolades.
Junior Brianne O’Dell collected G-MAC Player of the Year recognition and tore the cover off the ball from the onset of the spring season; she is looking to help her team make a deep postseason run. O’Dell was the league leader in hitting at a .461 clip (and there a ton of great hitters in the G-MAC) while starring in two metric categories – tops in slugging percentage (.724) and first in on-base percentage (.494).
O’Dell also was the G-MAC’s leader in doubles and has established herself as a conference great in less than a three-year span. She entered the conference tournament .001 of a point away from being a career .400 hitter, second all-time.
O’Dell is the G-MAC’s all-time hits leader (207), all-time leader in doubles (51) and ranks second all-time in RBI with 123.
Teammate Danielle Wolgamot was the ERA league leader with a 2.22 mark through the course of the regular season. She was named the G-MAC’s Pitcher of the Year in her junior campaign. Wolgamot compiled a season stat line of an 8-6 win/loss record, eight complete games, two shutouts and started 12 games while appearing in 15 total.
Kentucky Wesleyan’s impressive rookie Jaylin Tidwell was the G-MAC Freshman of the Year after batting a torrid .441 in her first year as a Panther. Tidwell was a two-time league offensive player of the week racked up 83 hits. She led all players in RBI with 53 and legged out a dozen doubles.
G-MAC co-Coach of the Year honors were shared by Cedarville’s Wes Rowe and Kentucky Wesleyan’s Miles Mallette. Both gentlemen guided their successful program to first and second, respectively, in the conference standings. Kentucky Wesleyan is loaded with young talent while the Yellow Jackets enjoyed a 21-4 league run to their first regular-season conference crown and top seed at the neutral-site postseason tournament.
The Panthers were represented with six first-team all-conference picks, including freshmen Maddie Dawson and Lexie Mullen. The conference career batting champ and 2016 G-MAC Freshman of the Year Meredith Daunhauer also made the list with yesterday’s winning pitcher to begin the tourney, Maci Brown.
Cedarville’s list of first teamers included freshman Jessica Steger and sophomore gunslinger Morgan Arbogast, who went into extras for the winning decision against Malone yesterday.
The G-MAC Softball Championship did not have any games completed on Thursday due to anticipated weather conditions. The suspended tournament will resume tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. with additional games scheduled at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. throughout the day.