Throughout the 2018-19 academic year, the Great Lakes Valley Conference is celebrating its 40th anniversary by recognizing 40 teams that made a significant impact both on campus and at the Conference level. Our final featured team is the 2018 Southern Indiana softball squad.
40 TEAMS | 40 YEARS
WEEK 40: 2018 Southern Indiana Softball
SEASON SUMMARY
A year after winning the NCAA Midwest Region title and advancing to the NCAA Championship Series for the first time in program history, the 2018 University of Southern Indiana softball team’s chances of making a return trip to Salem, Virginia, looked bleak at best. Midway through the 2018 season, the Eagles were 17-16, had stumbled out of the NFCA Top 25 rankings and were in danger of not making the GLVC Tournament, let alone the NCAA Tournament. Under the direction of USI head coach Sue Kunkle, the Eagles continued to fight and managed to finish the regular season with a 27-22 overall record, qualifying for the GLVC Tournament as the No. 6 seed. As if someone flipped a switch to turn the lights on, the Eagles found themselves and found their swag. USI stormed through the GLVC Tournament, capturing its first league title in 20 years, then won the NCAA Midwest Region #1 Tournament, besting the top team in the region, Grand Valley State, 2-1, in the championship. From there, the Eagles swept the GLVC regular-season champions, Illinois Springfield, in the NCAA Midwest Super Regional before heading into the NCAA Championship Series to face off against No. 1 North Georgia, a team that was an impressive 61-2 on the year. As the No. 8 seed, USI defeated the Nighthawks, 1-0, in the opener behind a one-hit shutout from All-American pitcher Jennifer Leonhardt. The talented sophomore tossed a no-hitter in USI’s 3-0 win over Angelo State, the 2017 national runner-up, and the Eagles rallied from a 4-0 deficit to defeat Saint Leo 5-4 in extra innings to claim a spot in the best-of-three national championship series. Back-to-back dominating wins over No. 2 seed Saint Anselm in the national championship series capped off the Eagles’ historic postseason, giving the Eagles their first softball national championship. When it was all said and done, USI posted a 14-1 postseason record to finish the year with a 41-23 overall mark. Leonhardt finished the postseason 12-1 with a 1.35 earned run average, a .152 opponent batting average, and 96 strikeouts in 14 appearances. At the NCAA Championship series alone, she was 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA, as well as a .091 opponent batting average and 40 strikeouts in 34 innings of work.
IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS
Jennifer Leonhardt
- NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team and Most Outstanding Player (2018)
- Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic America First Team (2019)
- Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District IV First Team (2019)
- NFCA All-America Second Team (2017, 2019)
- D2CCA All-America Second Team (2019)
- Fastpitch News All-America Second Team (2018)
- D2CCA All-America Third Team (2017)
- NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team (2017, 2019)
- D2CCA All-Midwest Region First Team (2017, 2019)
- NFCA All-Midwest Region Second Team (2018)
- D2CCA All-Midwest Region Second Team (2018)
- NFCA Midwest Region Freshman of the Year (2017)
- D2CCA Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year (2017)
- GLVC Pitcher of the Year (2019)
- GLVC Freshman of the Year (2017)
- All-GLVC First Team (2017, 2019)
- All-GLVC Second Team (2018)
Mena Fulton
- NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team (2018)
- All-GLVC First Team (2018)
Caitlyn Bradley
- NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team (2018)
- Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District IV (2019)
- All-Midwest Region Second Team (2016)
- All-GLVC First Team (2016)
- All-GLVC Third Team (2019)
Claire Johnson
- NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team (2018)
- NFCA All-America Third Team (2019)
- D2CCA All-America Honorable Mention (2019)
- NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team (2019)
- D2CCA All- Midwest Region First Team (2019)
- Two-Time Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District IV (2018, 2019)
- All-GLVC First Team (2019)
Allison Schubert
- All-Midwest Region Second Team (2018)
- All-GLVC Second Team (2018)
Sue Kunkle
- NCAA II National Champions (2018)
- NCAA II Regional Champions (2017, 2018)
- NFCA Division II National Coaching Staff of the Year (2018)
- NFCA Midwest Region Coaching Staff of the Year (2017, 2018)
- NCAA II Tournament Appearances (2006, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
- GLVC Tournament Champions (2018)
- GLVC Coach of the Year (2006, 2017)
- GLVC Regular Season Champions (2017)
- Boasts a 513-361-1 Overall Record in 17 Years
LASTING LEGACY
USI won the school’s first-ever team national championship in a women’s sport and brought home the State of Indiana’s first NCAA softball national title at any level. The win also gave the GLVC two softball national titles, with the first coming from SIU Edwardsville in 2007. It was also the second NCAA crown in the spring of 2018 as the University of Indianapolis women's golf team secured its second title just nine days prior to the Eagles’ title. USI's crown gave the GLVC 18 national championships, including seven in women's sports. The 2017-18 season was the first that the GLVC boasted multiple national championships since the league won three in 2013-14 when Drury men's and women's swimming and diving and USI baseball earned the coveted hardware.