Five Golden Hurricane Players Earn All-Conference Honors
5/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 10, 2006
Tulsa, Okla. - The University of Tulsa softball team earned its first ever conference regular season title in school history on Sunday. On Wednesday, the squad had five players earn All-Conference USA honors, including a pair of first team honorees. Senior Katie Torres and sophomore Sara Dyer were named to the leagues first team, while senior Julie Shafer earned second-team honors. Freshmen Brooke Smart and Jessica Barr were named to the All-Freshman Team.
Torres has rewritten the Tulsa career record book setting career records for hits, home runs, doubles, runs scored, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, runs batted in, and total bases. This season, the first baseman has also set a school record with 41 walks on the year, as well as leading the league in that category. She is currently ranked seventh in the country for walks per game with a 0.79 average. Torres also leads the team with a .527 slugging percentage and .468 on-base percentage. She is also the first player in TU history to earn all-conference honors all for season is an Hurricane uniform.
Dyer leads the team with 35 runs batted in this season, as well as extra base hits with 17. Her .480 slugging percentage is second on the team, while she is one of three players to start every game this season for the Golden Hurricane.
Patroling centerfield for the past four seasons has been Shafer's top priorty, now as a three-time all-conference honoree. She is only the second player to earn three consecutive all-conference honors in school history. Offensively, Shafer has a career-best 12 extra-base hits, including a career-high five home runs. She had a total of two home runs in her previous three seasons at TU.
Barr currently leads Conference USA in batting average during league play, hitting at a .420 clip for conference games. She also leads the Hurricane hitters with a .321 batting average overall on the season. With 34 hits on the year, 21 have come during C-USA play for Barr.
Smart has established herself as one of the most exciting leadoff hitters in C-USA. With a team-high eight home runs on the season, teams must respect her power. However a very selective hitter, Smart has also posted 33 walks on the season as well. She has 16 extra-base hits on the season and ranks third on the squad with 24 RBIs.
-TulsaHurricane.com-
