Aces Went From 10 to 24 Wins In Rebound Year
With the NCAA softball season officially completed, the University of Evansville has officially finished with the 9th-best turnaround in the country.
The Purple Aces more than doubled their 2015 win total, improving their tally by 14 wins to finish with 24 in 2016. It tied for the #9 jump out of the 295 NCAA softball programs.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the effort and fight we saw out of our team this year,†Aces head coach Mat Mundell said. “We have a determined group who have worked extremely hard to help build this program. I am excited to see where they can take it.”
Picked 10th in the preseason Missouri Valley Conference poll, Evansville came together as a team to post 12 league wins, its highest tally in nine years. It also tied Bradley for 5th place in the league. The turning point of the season came in the fourth inning of game two against Wichita State. UE was 2-8 in MVC play at that point, had lost the first game of the series to the Shockers, was trailing the game 4-0 and had not won an MVC series in three years.
One swing changed the course of the season. With the bases loaded, Morgan Lambert hit a grand slam before Hayli Scott notched the game-winning hit in a 5-4 win.  A day later, the Aces won the series with a 3-2 triumph, dealing the eventual MVC champs one of only two conference series losses in 2016.
That was the first of four MVC series wins in a row as the Aces won finished the season winning five of their final six conference series. Coach Mundell and assistants Ashley Balazs and Aubrey Watson garnered MVC Coaching Staff of the Year honors for their work with a young UE team.
Pacing the squad in her first season was MVC Freshman of the Year Morgan Florey. Finishing third in the MVC with a 1.95 ERA, Florey went 16-11. She was also the top power hitter on the team, leading UE with 8 home runs and 26 RBI. She joined Chandra Parr on the All-MVC First Team. For Parr, it marked her second appearance on the list.  She batted .306 and knocked in 23 runs in 2016.
Susan Norris also garnered postseason accolades, earning a spot on the All-Defensive Team as she registered a .977 fielding percentage.
