OKLAHOMA CITY – University of South Alabama softball players Devin Brown, Kaleigh Todd and MC Nichols will represent their home state later this week against the USA Softball Women's National Team (WNT) as the trio has been selected to compete on one of two Alabama Stars teams.  Brown and Todd will compete at the Tuscaloosa site, while Nichols will be part of the roster at the Auburn site.  Haleigh Lowe was also initially named to the Auburn site roster, but will not be able to compete due to injury.

The city of Tuscaloosa will host the first games on July 20 at 6 and 8 p.m., at Rhoads Stadium and Auburn's Jane B. Moore Field will be the site of the next two games on July 22 at 5 and 7 p.m. The two Alabama sites represent the only two exhibitions stops on the east coast for Team USA.

Tickets start at $12.50 for general admission, $22 for reserved seating and $32 for Premium Seating at each location. Additional events at each venue include a softball players' camp, an invitational tournament and Team USA and Alabama All-Stars practices open to ticket holders.
 
Tournament and team camp information and registration can be found at www.rec12.com. Further information can also be found at www.usasoftballofalabama.com.

Live stream and live stats for the Alabama Stars two games against the WNT at the Tuscaloosa site can be accessed Here, while the same links for the Auburn site can be accessed Here.

In addition to the Alabama Tour Stop, members of the USA Softball WNT and coaching staff will also conduct a players' camp on July 22 from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. open to players ages 8-18.  The camps will be led by Team USA Head Coach Ken Eriksen, and attendees will have the opportunity to get hands-on training and instruction from some of the best softball players in the world. Players interested are able to register in advance online through USA Softball of Alabama.

The two rosters are comprised of collegiate softball stars who grew up playing in local rec and travel ball teams, and are currently or have played at the collegiate level, and will face the WNT in a pair of doubleheaders at each site at the event organized by USA Softball of Alabama and Rec 12.  

The Alabama Stars rosters represent standouts from 14 different colleges and universities with players from in-state teams from Alabama, Auburn, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, Samford, South Alabama, UAB, North Alabama, Montevallo, Alabama-Huntsville and Troy as well as Alabama products from Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State and Tennessee.

Brown and Todd both earned first-team all-Sun Belt honors for the second-straight year, while the former was named to the Sun Belt's all-tournament team and the latter earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association third-team all-region accolades.

After being selected to a pair of preseason All-American teams, Brown posted another solid season finishing with a 19-7 record with 21 complete games and 12 shutouts.  Her 12 shutouts were fourth-most in the NCAA and also set a new single-season program mark.  She ranked second in the Sun Belt in earned run average (1.51) and strikeouts (194) and her .184 opposing batting average was lowest in the league.  Brown also led the SBC in fewest runs allowed (44) and her 39 earned runs allowed were the second fewest in the conference, while ranking among the NCAA leaders in fewest hits allowed (120 – 28th), ERA (30th), strikeouts (34th) and strikeouts per seven innings (44th).  The Mobile native was selected as the Sun Belt's Pitcher of the Week four times during the season.  

At the top of the lineup, Todd did an outstanding job setting the table where she led the club in batting average (.398), runs scored (41), hits (74), triples (4), total bases (88), stolen bases (19) and on-base percentage (.454).  The Bessemer, Ala., native ranked among the Sun Belt leaders in batting average (second), triples (third), hits (third), stolen bases (third), runs scored (seventh) and on-base percentage (10th) and she also ranked 35th in the NCAA in hits.  Her hit tally ranked as second-highest in a single season, while she is third for triples in a season.  She led the club with 25 multiple-hit outings, which set a new program best for a season, and had 18 two-hit and seven three-hit performance.  

Todd was one of two Jags to start all 55 games, all coming at second base. For the second-straight season, reached base safely in 17-straight games recording a hit in 10 of those contests.  She had a hit in all but five games over the final 37 games of the season and recorded multi-hits 18 times.  Todd collected at least one hit in all but four Sun Belt games with multi-hit games on 13 occasions; batting .406 against league competition.  She recorded her first-ever home run – a inside the parker – in extra innings to help South pick up a 2-1 win at Louisiana-Monroe in the second game of a doubleheader.  Her inside-the-park home run was just the third ever by a South Alabama player and the first since Emily Messer during the 2015 season.

Nichols started 42 of the 48 games in which she competed and saw time at all three outfield positions, making 25 starts in right, 14 starts in left and one start in center.  Nichols batted .339, which was second-best on the team, and scored 21 runs and drove in seven.  She was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts and got off to a great start as she batted .514 with 18 hits and seven runs scored in her first 13 starts.  Her 11 multi-hit games were third-most on the club and she recorded a team-high nine sacrifice hits.

Nichols  was selected the SBC Co-Player of the Week on Feb. 28 after leading the club with a .636 batting average (7-for-11) with three runs scored, two RBI, a .909 slugging percentage in her four games for the week.  She had a double and a triple and didn't strike out in any of her 12 plate appearances during that same stretch.

Fans at home can follow along all summer long with the USA Softball National Teams at USASoftball.com.

About USA Softball
USA Softball is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation's largest sports organizations, USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 150,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2 million.  USA Softball is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.  USA Softball annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships.  The USA Softball umpire program is among the nation's largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.

As the NGB for the sport of softball, USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USA Softball, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com.

Alabama All-Star Roster (Auburn Site)
Perry Hindi - Alabama State
Kendall Core - Alabama State
Ashlee Swindle - Auburn
KK Crocker - Auburn
Kendall Veach - Auburn
Victoria Draper - Auburn
Anna Chisholm - Jacksonville State
Abbie Miranda - Samford
Shelby Maze - Samford
MC Nichols - South Alabama
Kim Crowson - Southern Mississippi
Gretchen Aucoin - Tennessee
Becca Hartley - Troy
Analyse Petree - UAB
Natalie Erwin - UAB
Destini England - UAB
Tyler Harrison – Alabama-Huntsville

Alabama All-Star Roster (Tuscaloosa Site)
Alexis Osorio - Alabama
Reagan Dykes - Alabama
Bailey Hemphill - Alabama
Carolina Hardy - Alabama
Kaitlyn Bannister - Alabama-Huntsville
Brooke Miller - Alabama-Huntsville
Erin Jewell - Alabama-Huntsville
Emily Glover – Alabama-Huntsville
Kelsey Vining - Montevallo
Hillary Carpenter - North Alabama
Bailey Nelson - North Alabama
Reagan Tittle - North Alabama
Devin Brown - South Alabama
Kaleigh Todd - South Alabama
Emily Woodruff - Jacksonville State
Jamie McGuire - Jacksonville State
Caroline Seitz - Mississippi State
Bevia Robinson - Mississippi State
Holly Ward - Mississippi State

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
    
Join the Bullpen Club, the softball specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund.  Members have access to purchase parking passes and receive Jaguar Softball gear.  All donations to the Bullpen Club go directly to support the South Alabama softball program.  For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/bullpenclub

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