\n Story Links
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Atlantic Sun Conference released its full list of postseason honors Tuesday afternoon<\/a>, with two Dolphins earning Player of the Year awards.<\/p>\n Sophomore pitching ace Jacy Harrelson<\/a> was named the ASUN Pitcher of the Year while freshman outfielder Jaida Thomas<\/a> was named the ASUN Freshman of the Year.<\/p>\n Harrelson, who was already named alongside four other ‘Phins to the Academic All-ASUN awards list, was also honored with an All-ASUN First Team distinction as well as Thomas. The pair joined graduate catcher Sarah Beth Brake<\/a> on the First Team.<\/p>\n Jacksonville’s three First Team honorees tied Central Arkansas for most student-athletes on the First Team across the league. It was just the second time in program history JU had three or more student-athletes on the First Team, joining the record-setting 2011 team that won the conference title.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thomas was also named to the All-Freshman Team, joining teammate Emma Mansfield<\/a> on the frosh squad. The Dolphins having two All-Freshman honorees was a first since 2019. At center field, Thomas was the only ‘Phin to start every game played this season while Mansfield started all but one, missing the final regular season contest against UNF due to illness.<\/p>\n In total, Jacksonville had five Academic All-ASUN honorees, two Player of the Years, three First-Team All-ASUN distinctions and two All-Freshman team selections.\u00a0<\/p>\n Harrelson Named First JU Pitcher Of The Year In 15 Years Harrelson is the first Dolphin recipient of the award since 2011, joining just ASUN and JU Hall of Famer Sarah Sigrest Caffrey in the record books. It’s actually Caffrey who owns the single season wins record at JU with 27 who now is flanked by Harrelson’s 22 wins in second place right below her.\u00a0<\/p>\n This season, Harrelson posted one of the most dominant pitching seasons since Caffrey last donned a jersey. She struck out over 100 batters this season and helped win 22 total games, including two saves. Her overall starting pitching record of 20-7 was tops among the ASUN and her 119 regular season Ks was just outside the top-10 for a single season in JU history.<\/p>\n Across the league landscape, Harrelson was first in innings pitched (186.0), strikeouts (119), batters struck out looking (45), total wins (22), opposing batting average (.202) and second in overall ERA (2.26) throughout the entire season.<\/p>\n In ASUN play, Harrelson was first in opposing batting average, innings pitched, batters struck out, batters struck out looking, wins and second in ERA.\u00a0<\/p>\n Facing every team from the Graphite Division, Harrelson defeated every team at least once and recorded at least one strikeout against every squad. She threw a 10-strikeout, complete game in a win over West Georgia while also fanning 17 combined batters across two games pitched against Stetson at home.<\/p>\n Thomas Rakes In Honors After Freshman Season Freshman outfielder Thomas was named the Freshman of the Year, joining pitcher Shannon Jensen’s 2005 honor as the only Freshman of the Year distinctions in program history.<\/p>\n Thomas earned her award behind a heavy-hitting first college season where she hit seven triples. That number not only led the Dolphins and the entire ASUN but also placed Thomas second all-time in single-season triples.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the plate, Thomas was the only ‘Phin to start all 51 games. She finished first in runs scored, at bats, hits, walks, second on the team in batting average and third in home runs and RBIs.<\/p>\n Holding a .367 batting average, Thomas currently holds the fifth best single-season batting average mark in program history.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the basepath, Thomas led Jacksonville with 14 stolen bases. That number was good for third-best league-wide. Out in centerfield, the Wesley Chapel native earned a .925 fielding percentage with 70 putouts and four assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brake Breaks Records Not only serving as a senior leader in the locker room, Brake posted one of the best batting seasons in recent Jacksonville and ASUN memory. During her lone season in green, Brake set the single-season JU runs batted in record with 52 during the regular season.<\/p>\n She reached her final total in style, racking up a three-RBI double to help beat UNF in the team’s final regular season game to break the record that had stood since 2011 by Amanda Schmidt.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the biggest power-batters in the conference, Brake led JU in batting average, OPS, doubles, homers, RBIs, total bases, slugging. Across the ASUN, Brake was third in batting average, third in OPS, third in slugging, fifth in home runs, and fifth in RBIs<\/p>\n Adding to her single-season records list, Brake’s 13 doubles accounted for a tie for fourth all-time in program history. Her 13 home runs tied her for second all-time across the program’s existence. Grabbing 110 total bases placed Brake fourth overall in the single-season records.<\/p>\n With games still to play, Brake’s .403 batting average would be the best single-season batting average in program history, besting the .399 mark set by JU Hall of Famer Sarah Simon back in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mansfield, Thomas Dot Freshman Team List Mansfield finished with a .295 regular season batting average and was third on the team in hits with 43. The frosh collected seven doubles and 17 total RBIs.<\/p>\n Playing middle infield, Mansfield posted a .981 fielding percentage with just three errors all season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Appearing in three of the four of the team’s final regular season games, Mansfield went a combined 5-8 with two doubles and a pair of RBIs. Arguably her best game of the year came during a non-conference meeting against Brown, going 4-4 at the plate, with a double, two runs scored and three RBIs.<\/p>\n For the full All-ASUN Academic list click HERE<\/a>. For the full All-ASUN Postseason list, click HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n Jacksonville has clinched the #4 overall seed in the ASUN Tournament, hosted at the University of North Florida. The Dolphins will play the winner of #5 FGCU and #8 Austin Peay on Wednesday, May 6th\u00a0at 2:30 p.m. The games will be streamed on ESPN+.
\nAfter a season where sophomore pitcher Harrelson earned the second-most wins in a single season at JU, it should come as no surprise the Georgia native was named the ASUN Pitcher of the Year.<\/p>\n
\nFor the first time in over 20 years, Jacksonville softball has had a player named Freshman of the Year.<\/p>\n
\nPlaying her final college season in Duval County, graduate catcher Brake made an impact that will stand for years.<\/p>\n
\nRounding out the awards season for Jacksonville, the freshman duo of Mansfield and Thomas both garnered All-Freshman awards for JU’s most in seven seasons.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Story Links
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Atlantic Sun Conference released its full list of postseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-259892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}