NEW ORLEANS – The University of South Alabama softball team had three players – Devin Brown, Kaleigh Todd and Kristian Foster – named to the preseason all-Sun Belt team and the Jaguars were selected fourth in the league's preseason poll as voted on by the 10 Sun Belt coaches and announced by the league office on Thursday.

The honor marks the third consecutive season Brown has been named to the preseason all-conference team, while it is the second for Todd and the first for Foster.

Brown – who was named to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year "Watch List" on Wednesday – enters the 2018 season looking to close out her collegiate career atop many individual career marks as she currently ranks first at South Alabama in most strikeouts per seven innings (9.71), second in lowest opponent's batting average (.174), strikeouts (701) and shutouts (26), while she is third in complete games (52) and innings pitched (505.1).  

Last season, Brown was a first-team all-league selection for the second consecutive season and ranked second in the Sun Belt in earned run average (1.51) and strikeouts (194), while her .184 opposing batting average was lowest in the league.  She led the SBC in fewest runs allowed (44) and her 39 earned runs allowed were the second fewest in the conference.  Brown also ranked among the NCAA leaders in fewest hits allowed (28th), ERA (30th), strikeouts (34th) and strikeouts per seven innings (44th).  Her 12 shutouts were fourth-most in the NCAA and also set a new single-season program mark.  

Brown – a senior right-hander from Mobile, Ala. – also moved past former Jag All-American and current South pitching coach Hannah Campbell for second place on the program's all-time strikeout list and she became just the second pitcher to eclipse the 700-strikeout mark.  Entering the season, Brown is just 34 strike outs behind former Jag Beth Pilgrim for the program's all-time mark.  She was a three-time Community Coffee Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week winner last season bringing her career total to 11 and was named to two preseason All-American teams in addition to the preseason all-league honor.

Fellow senior all-conference infielder Kaleigh Todd also enters her final collegiate season ranked in the top 10 of eight different career lists at South Alabama as she is five triples, 12 stolen bases, 13 multiple-hit games, 49 runs scored and 51 hits away from becoming the program's career leader in each category entering the 2018 season.  Her .368 career batting average also sits second best in the program charts.

Last season, Todd was a preseason all-Sun Belt selection as well as an honorable mention All-American honoree by FastPitch News and picked up a pair of postseason honors as she was named first-team all-Sun Belt for the second straight season as well as being named third-team all-region by the NFCA.  

Todd 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) and 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).  Her 74 hits also ranked 35th in the NCAA and was the second-highest in a single season at USA.  

The Bessemer, Ala., native also led the club with 25 multiple-hit outings, which set a new program best for a season and set junior marks for batting average, at-bats, hits, triples and her 43 runs scored were third-most for that class.  For the second-straight season, Todd reached base safely in 17-straight games recording a hit in 10 of those contests and had a hit in all but five games over the final 37 games of the season, recording multi-hits 18 times.  She collected at least one hit in all but four Sun Belt games with multi-hit games on 13 occasions and batted .406 (41-for-101) against league competition.   

Foster – a 5-foot-6 senior from Pelham, Ala. – was one of two Jaguars to start all 55 games last season with all her starts coming at shortstop.  As a junior, Foster earned all-league accolades for the first time in her career picking up second-team accolades.  She just missed eclipsing the .300 mark as she was 49-for-164 at the plate for a .299 batting average and had a .384 slugging percentage and a .372 on-base percentage.  

Foster led the club with 38 RBI with 24 of those runs driven in coming against Sun Belt competition.  She was one of the main run producers over South's final 29 games as she drove in 27 runs and had seven multi-RBI performances.  During that same stretch, Foster had a seven-game (3/25 - 4/5) and a six-game (4/14 - 4/23) streak of games with at least one RBI.  During her seven-game RBI streak, she drove in 11 runs and during her six-game RBI streak, she had eight RBI.  

Last season, Foster finished second on the club in walks with and ranked third on the team with 63 total bases, while leading the club with 10 multi-RBI outings.  Her 13 multi-hit games were second-most on the roster.  Foster was named to three different all-tournament teams – Sand Dollar Classic, Mardi Gras Invitational and South Alabama Invitational – during the opening month of the season.

Texas State received six of the 10 first-place votes in the preseason poll and were picked as the league favorite with 95 total points.  The Bobcats also picked up the top two individual awards with both the Preseason Player (Ariel Ortiz) and Pitcher (Randi Rupp) of the Year and edged out defending Sun Belt champ Louisiana with 92 total votes and the four other first-place votes.  The Ragin' Cajuns also a conference best four preseason all-league selections.  Georgia State with had 80 total points to rank third ahead of the Jags.  The three preseason selections by South Alabama tied with UTA as second-most in the conference.

2018 SUN BELT SOFTBALL PRESEASON POLL & HONORS

PRESEASON ALL-SUN BELT TEAMS
Randi Rupp (Texas State, SP, Sr.) *1
Devin Brown (South Alabama, SP, Sr.) *1
Ivie Drake (Georgia State, C, Sr.) *1
Lexie Comeaux (Louisiana, C, Jr.) *2
Aileen Garcia (UTA, 1B/C, So.) *2
Kaleigh Todd (South Alabama, 2B, Sr.) *1
Sandra Mendoza (UTA, 2B, Sr.) *2
Ariel Ortiz (Texas State, SS, Sr.) *1
Kristian Foster (South Alabama, SS, Sr.) *2
Alissa Dalton (Louisiana, SS, So.)
Kara Gremillion (Louisiana, 3B, Jr.) *1
Krista Rude (UTA, OF, Jr.) *2
Mekhia Freeman (Georgia Southern, OF, So.) *2
Kelli Martinez (Louisiana, OF, Sr.)
Megan Litumbe (Georgia State, DP, RSr.) *1

SUN BELT PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Ariel Ortiz (Texas State, SS, Sr.)

SUN BELT PRESEASON PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Randi Rupp (Texas State, SP, Sr.)*

1 – 2017 First Team All-Sun Belt selection
2 – 2017 Second Team All-Sun Belt selection
*2017 Sun Belt Preseason and Postseason Pitcher of the Year selection
 
PRESEASON POLL
1.  Texas State – 95 (6)
2.  Louisiana – 92 (4)
3.  Georgia State – 80
4.  South Alabama – 72
5.  ULM – 46
6.  UTA – 42
7.  Coastal Carolina    – 38
     Georgia Southern – 38
9.  Troy – 34
10. Appalachian State – 13

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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