Four TU Softball Players Selected To First Team All-CUSA

Four Tulsa players were selected to the All-Conference USA First Team, led by C-USA Pitcher of the Year Aimee Creger, as six Golden Hurricane players earned All-Conference USA Softball honors, the league office announced Wednesday.

Creger was joined on the All-C-USA First Team by senior shortstop Samantha Cobb, senior pitcher/DP Lacey Middlebrooks and junior third baseman Jill Barrett. Junior right fielder Haley Henshaw was selected to the All-C-USA Second Team, and rookie catcher/infielder Catherine Horner was selected to the All-Freshman Team.

Tulsa, which tied for second place one-half game out of first in C-USA, placed a league-high with four players on the All-Conference USA First Team. Cobb and Middlebrooks were named first-team all-conference performers for the third straight year, while Barrett earned her second straight first-team all-conference honor. This is the fourth time Tulsa has placed four players on the All-C-USA First Team, and the second time TU has produced the C-USA Pitcher of the Year.

Creger, a junior from Yukon, Okla., ranks third in the nation with a 1.00 ERA and eighth with 10.3 strikeouts per seven innings, and led the conference with a 0.76 ERA in C-USA games. She is 24-5 in 32 appearances with 27 starts and 267 strikeouts and a .177 opponent batting average in 181.2 innings. She posted a 12-2 record with six shutouts and 140 strikeouts, allowing just 12 runs and a .169 opponent batting average in 92.1 innings in C-USA play. She tossed a no-hitter on April 27 amid a streak of 23 scoreless innings. She earned the C-USA Pitcher of the Week award four times. This is her second All-C-USA First Team selection.

Cobb, a native of Garland, Texas, ranks among top-10 in C-USA in batting average (.383), slugging (.457), runs (17), hits (31), RBI (22) and home runs (3) in C-USA games. She hit .341 with 45 RBI, 39 runs, eight homers, seven doubles, four triples, .564 slugging and .422 on-base percentage overall. She has 17 multiple hit games and nine multiple RBI games, including nine multiple hit games and five multiple RBI games in C-USA play.

Middlebrooks, who hails from Wake Village, Texas, was the utility player on the first-team. She is 14-3 with a 1.76 ERA and four shutouts in 24 appearances with 20 starts. She allowed 31 earned runs and a .193 opponent batting average in 123.0 innings in the circle. At the plate, she hits .302 with 1 doubles, six home runs, 25 RBI, 21 runs scored, .532 slugging, 30 walks and .453 OBP. She also posted a 6-1 record against C-USA competition. She earned two C-USA Pitcher of the Week awards.

Barrett, a native of Greenwood, Ark., hit .463 batting average and 38 hits in conference play to lead C-USA. She also ranks among top five in C-USA in OBP (.522) and runs (20), and has five doubles, 13 RBI and a .524 slugging pct. in C-USA games. Overall, she leads C-USA with .413 batting average and 78 hits, and ranks among the top-10 in OBP (.454), runs (40), doubles (11), total bases (94) and RBI (29). She leads TU with 24 multi-hit games, including 12 in C-USA play, and has five multi-RBI games. She committed just two errors in C-USA games. She earned the C-USA Hitter of the Week award on Feb. 25.

Henshaw, who hails from Catoosa, Okla., had a breakout season, starting 47 games in the outfield, and posting a .333 batting average with 43 RBI, five home runs, eight doubles, 28 runs scored, a .506 slugging and .382 on-base percentage. In league play, she hit .328 with eight extra base hits, 13 RBI and 15 runs. She leads team with 14 multiple RBI games and has eight multiple hit games. She committed just one error all season, and zero errors in C-USA play. She was named C-USA Hitter of the Week Feb. 18.

Horner, a native of La Canada, Calif., played in 25 games with 19 starts at catcher and second base, including eight of the last nine games. She hits .320 with a .440 slugging, .452 OBP, six walks, six RBI, three doubles and three runs in 12 C-USA games with eight starts. Overall, she hit .286 with a .449 slugging, .462 OBP, 15 walks, 13 RBI, eight runs, five doubles, and a 1.000 fielding percentage. She has three multiple RBI games and four multiple hit games. In the last nine games, she has hit .409 with seven RBI, three doubles, five walks and a .519 OBP.

The third-seeded and No. 23-ranked Golden Hurricane (41-13-1, 19-5 C-USA) opens the C-USA Championship against sixth-seeded UCF (28-24, 9-14 C-USA) at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Collins Family Softball Complex.