University of Southern Indiana Softball Head Coach Sue Kunkle and freshman pitcher Jennifer Leonhardt (Louisville, Kentucky) were named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year at the GLVC Softball Awards Banquet Wednesday night.
Leonhardt, who earned first-team All-GLVC honors, is one of four Screaming Eagles to earn All-GLVC honors and five to be recognized on the night.
Joining Leonhardt on the All-GLVC teams were senior catcher Haley Hodges (Portage, Indiana), junior outfielder Olivia Clark-Kittleson (Carbondale, Illinois) and junior first basemanMarleah Fossett (Brownsburg, Indiana). Senior outfielder Grace Clark (Indianapolis, Indiana) was USI’s James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award nominee.
Leonhardt earns GLVC Freshman of the Year and first-team All-GLVC honors after posting a GLVC-best 23-1 record during the regular-season to go along with a 1.44 ERA and a .200 opponent batting average. She finished the regular-season with 149 strikeouts.
Hodges, the 2016 GLVC Player of the Year, earns second-team All-GLVC accolades after posting a .400 batting average, 12 doubles, eight home runs and 43 RBIs in 2016. Earlier this year, Hodges became the program’s all-time leader in career home runs (41) and RBIs (165).
Clark-Kittleson, who earned first-team All-GLVC honors a year ago, collected third-team All-Conference honors after posting a career-high .400 batting average with 10 RBIs and 25 runs scored during her junior season. Fossett, a second-team All-GLVC honoree a year ago, earns third-team All-League accolades after hitting .387 with 14 doubles, five home runs and 28 RBIs. She also was hit by pitches a GLVC-high 17 times during the regular season.
Kunkle collects GLVC Coach of the Year honors for the second time in her career and first time since 2006 after leading USI its second 40-win season in program history and its first since winning 48 games in 1998. Kunkle also lead the Eagles to a share of the GLVC regular-season championship and the No. 1 overall seed in the GLVC Championship Tournament.
USI (40-10, 19-7), which is ranked No. 6 nationally and No. 1 in the NCAA II Midwest Region poll, begins the GLVC Tournament Thursday at 10 a.m. when it takes on the No. 8 seed, William Jewell College, at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Illinois.
