All-America honor from NFCA stuffs Rinus' trophy case
LOUISVILLE - Carson-Newman freshman pitcher Lacie Rinus (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) earned All-America honors for a second straight day.
LOUISVILLE - Carson-Newman freshman pitcher Lacie Rinus (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) earned All-America honors for a second straight day.
Rinus grabbed third team honors late Tuesday from the D2CCA. She earns second team accolades as a utility/pitcher, the NFCA announced late Wednesday night at the NCAA's Division II softball banquet.
Rinus becomes the fourth Eagle pitcher to be recognized. She joins Heather Randolph (1995), Zoe Heim (2008) and Carol Zachary (1989-1991). Rinus is the first Eagle to ever earn All-America honors as a utility/pitcher.
Rinus adds the All-America accolade to all-region and region Pitcher of the Year plaudits in a prolific year where she had already stuffed her trophy case with placards for SAC Freshman of the Year, SAC Pitcher of the Year and SAC Tournament MVP. She is the first player in league history to win all three of those awards in the same season.
Rinus is the just the second player in the league's history to take both Freshman and Pitcher of the Year honors in the same season. She joins Catawba's Carly Tysinger (2013) as the only other player to receive that distinction.
She becomes the second Carson-Newman pitcher to earn the league's top honor for hurlers, joining Megan Elliot, who did it in 2005.
Rinus is the fifth Carson-Newman player recognized as the league's freshman of the year and the most recent since Elliot was lauded in 2003. She joins Elliot and SAC Hall of Famer Marci Mitchell as the only two C-N pitchers to receive the accolade.
The Murfreesboro, Tenn.-native led the conference in strikeouts (232), batting average against (.205), earned run average (1.56) and wins (26).
She also led the league in shutouts, overtaking first place with back-to-back scoreless outings to clinch C-N the SAC tournament title.
On three occasions this year, Rinus garnered AstroTurf South Atlantic Conference and Tennessee Sportswriters Association Pitcher of the Week accolades. She was lauded with recognition as the Fastpitch News National Pitcher of the Week on April 5th. She did not allow an earned run from March 22 – April 5th, a streak of 35 consecutive innings.
Rinus pitched a season-high 12 strikeouts against Erskine on Feb. 22. She has hit double digit strikeouts on seven occasions this season. Perhaps more impressive is her strikeout to walk ratio, which sits at 6.75:1. There have been 13 starts this year where Rinus has not issues a base on balls.
At the plate, Rinus has also proved to be an asset. She hit .356, the second highest average among regulars on the team. Her 12 doubles and three triples are both second on the team. She hit an inside-the-park home run against Brevard. She has collected 12 multi-hit games this year, the third most on the team. She has a staggering seven, three-hit efforts, which is tied for the second most in a single season for a Carson-Newman player in the last seven seasons.
