ATLANTA (May 6, 2024) – The Atlantic Sun Conference released its 2024 softball postseason awards Monday afternoon, as the University of North Alabama had strong representation with five players combining for six selections.
Junior pitcher Alivia Wilken and senior shortstop Haven Kirby headlined the awards for UNA, earning first team honors. True freshman Briley Dover collected both second team and all-freshman honors, while senior outfielder Felicity Frame joined her on the second team.
Rounding out UNA’s postseason selections is junior second baseman Hailey Jones on the all-conference third team. Jones also landed third team honors last season. She and Sidney Bevis were also awarded Academic All-ASUN honors.
The ASUN postseason awards are voted on by the league’s head coaches and includes three all-conference teams, an all-freshman team and five superlative awards.
Regular season champion EKU won four of the five superlative awards, including Maddi Rutan as both the Pitcher and Freshman of the Year, Jeanay Riley as Player of the Year and longtime head coach Jane Worthington as Coach of the Year. Central Arkansas infielder Kylie Griffin was the Defensive Player of the Year.
Wilken and Rutan were the two pitchers on the all-conference first team, as Wilken ended her regular season with a 17-7 record and 1.45 ERA over 174.1 innings. She ranks third in the nation with eight shutouts, including a perfect game in her UNA debut against Samford. In the most recent NCAA stat rankings release May 2, Wilken ranked top 25 in the nation in complete games, ERA, innings pitched, shutouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio and walks-per-seven innings. She was a two-time ASUN Pitcher of the Week this season.
Kirby joins a who’s-who of first team all-conference infielders with her first career selection this season. The senior is batting .314 with 49 hits, including a team-high 23 multi-base hits. She finished with 14 doubles, three triples and six homers to rank among the top ASUN players in each category. She also had a team-high .558 slugging percentage and stole five bags, to boot.
Dover made a splash in her freshman season with a unanimous selection to the all-freshman team and a second team nod from the ASUN head coaches. The former Loretto High School standout batted .315 with 47 hits, eight doubles, a team-high four triples and four homers. She also stole eight bases and tallied a .974 fielding percentage with just four errors on 156 chances at the hot corner.
Frame joins Dover on the all-conference second team following another tremendous season at the plate. She led the Lions and ranked among the conference leaders all season with a .373 batting average, tallying 59 hits and a team-best 32 runs. She got on base at a .412 clip and stole 10 bases on 12 attempts.
Jones rounds out the list with her third team selection. The junior infielder batted .293 for the season, finishing with 48 hits, 13 doubles, two triples and six home runs. Jones ranked second on the team with 33 RBIs and struck out just eight times in 176 at-bats. She was also a preseason all-conference selection this season.
The Lions begin their quest for an ASUN title on Tuesday, May 7 at 5:30 p.m. against Austin Peay. The winner will advance to play No. 4 FGCU on Wednesday, May 8 at 5:30 p.m. The loser will be eliminated from the tournament. The tournament will be hosted at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.
To view the postseason awards, click here.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
