Alexis Osorio, Elissa Brown and Bailey Hemphill Earn Postseason SEC Softball Awards
The Southeastern Conference announced its annual postseason softball awards Tuesday, with three Alabama softball players voted to this season’s list. Junior pitcher Alexis Osorio was named Second Team All-SEC while Elissa Brown and Bailey Hemphill were named Freshman All-SEC.
The honor is the second of Osorio’s career, previously earning First Team accolades in 2015. Alabama has posted at least one player on the All-SEC team every year since the program’s inaugural 1997 season for a total of 93 honorees in 21 years. Brown and Hemphill’s appearance on the Freshman All-SEC team give Alabama 17 honorees since the award’s debut in 2005, including five in the last three years.
Osorio leads the SEC and ranks sixth nationally with 287 strikeouts over 167.1 innings pitched, an average of 1.72 per inning. A finalist for the USA Softball Player of the year, she owns a 20-7 record with a 1.34 ERA, tossing 24 complete games including eight shutouts. In conference play, she is 9-5 with a 1.56 ERA and 132 strikeouts over 90.0 innings pitched. Her .123 opposing batting average and .146 clip in conference play both rank second in the SEC.
Hemphill’s 52 walks rank third in the SEC, seventh nationally and is the highest total of any freshman in the nation. A finalist for the NFCA Freshman of the Year award, she is hitting .310 this season with 40 hits in 129 at-bats and 35 RBIs. Her .497 on base percentage leads the team and her .519 slugging percentage ranks second.
Brown owns a .312 batting average heading into postseason play, which ranks third on the team. She leads the team with 36 runs scored and 25 stolen bases and has reached base safely in each of her last 14 games. In SEC play, she is hitting .333 with 12 hits and 10 runs scored and is a perfect 5-5 in stolen bases.