Sofbtall Awarded at SSAC Banquet

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Columbia College softball team received recognition from the SSAC for on the field performance and academic excellence.  Brittany Bendt, Kacie Davenport, Samantha Santoro, Kelsey Nichols, and Sarah Gibson were all recipients of conference recognition.

Brittany Bendt received the Musco Lighting Champions of Character award.  This award is given to one player on the team who best demonstrates the five tenants of the Champions of Character program: respect, responsibility, integrity, sportsmanship, and servant leadership.  Bendt was also named to the SSAC All-Academic Team for maintaining higher than a 3.5 GPA.

Kacie Davenport was voted to the All-Conference 1st team and Samantha Santoro was voted to All-Conference 2nd team.  Davenport led the Koalas in home runs (8), RBI’s (20), runs (16) and batting average (.301).  Santoro was second in batting average (.300), pitched 79 innings and played a variety of defensive positions through the year.  Davenport and Santoro was also named to the All Freshman Team along with Sarah Gibson and Kelsey Nichols.  Gibson was a backbone in the infield with a .913 fielding percentage at second base and Nichols recorded a team high 124 innings and 6 wins pitching for the Koalas.

The Koalas were stopped in the conference tournament by nationally ranked Shorter College and Brewton College, but made great strides in their first season of collegiate competition.  Without graduating any players, Columbia softball will try to improve next season in the nation’s premier softball conference.