Williams’ record-setting season highlights 2009
Published 11:27 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The Troy Trojans softball team may not have finished the 2009 campaign in the fashion that they desired, but the season offered many highlights that will not soon be forgotten.
The Trojans got off to the best Sun Belt start in the program’s history. The Trojans rolled off seven consecutive victories to open the conference stretch. The Trojans won 13 of their first 15 conference battles, and stood securely in first place before dropping six straight league contests on the road.
“It was obvious that we were a young team this year,” Trojans head coach Melanie Davis said. “We set our goals at the beginning of the season, and those were to win the conference and go to the NCAA tournament.”
The losing streak pushed the Trojans out of contention for a conference title, but the Trojans finished off the season strong with two convincing wins over in-state, conference foe South Alabama to secure a second place Sun Belt finish.
“I feel like a second place finish in a tough conference like the Sun Belt is a great accomplishment especially with tough teams like Louisiana-Lafayette as well as the rest of the league,” Davis said. “It’s a pretty strong accomplishment for a team that had mostly freshmen and sophomores on the field.”
The Trojans posted a 38-19 overall record on the season and a 15-8 performance in the Sun Belt.
Troy’s all-region, all-conference pitcher, Ashlyn Williams took the all-time single season strikeout record from former Trojan Jocelyn McCallum in the final doubleheader of the season. Williams posted 312 strikeouts, eclipsing the previous record by eight.