AUSTIN, Texas --- Tusculum student-athletes Emily Hester and Morgan Mahaffey have been named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District 3 Softball first team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Hester and Mahaffey now advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot which will be announced in June.
Hester, a junior first baseman from Kings Mountain, North Carolina, has a 3.89 cumulative grade point average while majoring in biology. She is a member of the South Atlantic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, Dean's List, Charles Oliver Gray Honors List and the Tusculum Athletic Director's Honor Roll.
Hester played in all 49 games this past season where she posted a .297 batting average with five home runs and 32 RBI. She totaled 43 hits including six doubles and one triple to go along with 20 walks and 20 runs scored. For her career, Hester boasts a .309 batting average in her 154 games. Her 16 career home runs are sixth in school history, while she is also seventh with 109 RBI, ninth with 210 total bases, fourth with 66 walks and first with nine career sacrifice flies. She also fifth with 799 career putouts and her .976 career fielding percentage is 11th-best by a Pioneer.
Mahaffey, a junior outfielder from Belmont, North Carolina, has a perfect 4.00 GPA as a biology major with a concentration in pre-pharmacy. She is a member of the President's List, South Atlantic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, Dean's List, Charles Oliver Gray Honors List and the Tusculum Athletic Director's Honor Roll. She is a two-time recipient of the Tusculum Student-Athlete Academic Achievement Award and won the 2016 Tusculum Freshman of the Year Academic Award.
On the field, Mahaffey played in 48 games, including 47 starts in centerfield where she went errorless in her 54 total chances including a pair of outfield assists. She has a .210 batting average with 21 hits, including five doubles and a triple to go along with 15 RBI and 13 walks. She he a perfect 17-of-17 in career stolen bases including six thefts in 2018. Mahaffey's .980 career fielding percentage is currently ninth in the Tusculum record book.
District 3 is comprised of NCAA Division II programs representing the South Atlantic Conference, Conference Carolinas and the Peach Belt Conference.
The Division II Google Cloud Academic All-America® program is partially financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structures, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2017-18 DII Academic All-America® teams.
Google Cloud Academic All-District 3 Softball Team
NCAA Division II
P – Chelsey Cunningham, Newberry
P – Courtney Pearson, Queens
C – Chelsea Welty, Francis Marion
INF – Myranda Dills, Newberry
INF – Emily Hester, Tusculum
INF – Natalie Murphy, Flagler
OF – Holland Coursey, Georgia College
OF – Hannah Harrison, Young Harris
OF – Morgan Mahaffey, Tusculum
DP – Hannah Coursey, Georgia College