CVAC softball: Trojans' Jackson named league player of year

By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on April 20, 2007 3:00 PM

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HARTSVILLE, S.C. -- Mount Olive pitcher/designated player Jenny Jackson was named Player of the Year and Jaime Kylis-Higginbotham was named Coach of the Year as the Trojans placed four players on the 2007 All-Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Softball Team, which was announced Thursday at the CVAC Tournament.

Outfielder Tiffanie Pittman joined Jackson on the first team, while outfielder Erin Wilson and designated player Kensie Cobb earned second team honors.

Jackson becomes the second player in Trojan softball history to win CVAC Player of the Year honors. Michelle Matthews won the award in 2000.

A sophomore from Fremont, Jackson is nationally ranked in four hitting categories and in the top 20 in earned run average. She ranks first in the CVAC in two of the three triple crown categories with a .449 batting average and 57 runs batted in. Her nine runs batted in against Elizabeth City State are tied for the seventh-highest single-game RBI total in NCAA II softball history. Jackson is a two-time CVAC Player of the Week and three-time CVAC Pitcher of the Week.

On the mound, Jackson's 1.02 ERA is the lowest in the conference and she ranks fifth with 132 strikeouts. She posted a 16-6 record in the regular season, including an 11-1 mark in conference play. Jackson transferred to Mount Olive from Division I Western Carolina, where she was the 2006 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year and an All-Southern Conference first team selection.

Pittman, a senior from Riverside, Calif., earns All-CVAC first team honors for the second consecutive year. A transfer from Riverside CC, Pittman is batting .336 and is tied with Jackson for third in the CVAC with 16 doubles. A CVAC Player of the Week winner, Pittman went 10-for-12 with six doubles and seven RBI during a four-game conference stretch, including back-to-back 3-for-3 games against St. Andrews. She hit .483 in conference games.

Wilson, a senior from Moyock, is part of Kylis-Higginbotham's first-ever recruiting class. Wilson batted .336 during the regular season, her third .300-plus season in four years at Mount Olive. She won CVAC Player of the Week honors late in the season after a 3-for-3, 3-RBI performance in an 8-0 win over Limestone, including a run-scoring bunt single to seal the run-rule victory. Wilson has also established herself as one of the top defensive centerfielders in the conference with six assists and only one error in 45 chances for a .978 fielding percentage. Wilson's sixth-inning sliding catch on a sinking line drive helped preserve a no-hitter in the Trojans' conference-clinching win over Queens this past Saturday.

Cobb, a sophomore from Greenville, hit .409 with three triples and two home runs during the regular season, including a .400 batting average in conference play. Cobb earned CVAC Player of the Week honors after providing heroics in the Trojans' 9-7 victory over nationally 11th-ranked Georgia College and State. Her game-tying two-run single rallied Mount Olive from a 4-0 deficit and her two-out grand slam home run in the seventh broke open a one-run game.

Mount Olive seeks its second conference tournament championship and first since 2000. The double-elimination tournament concludes Sunday afternoon, with the winner earning an automatic bid to the South Atlantic Regional of the 2007 NCAA Division II Softball Championship.