MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. | The University of North Georgia was well represented in the 2015 Peach Belt All-Conference softball honors that were announced at the league’s softball banquet Thursday evening in Milledgeville on the eve of the conference tournament. UNG snagged three of the four major awards with senior first baseman
Kim McMillan being named Player of the Year, junior
Courtney Poole being tabbed Pitcher of the Year and head coach
Mike Davenport being selected as Coach of the Year by his peers.
In addition to the major awards, McMillan and Poole were both selected to the All-Conference First Team at first base and pitcher, respectively. Outfielders Meagan May and Victoria Prince were selected to the Second Team.
This is the second consecutive year Meagan May has earned All-Conference honors after being selected to the First Team in her sophomore campaign last season. May has hit a .360 clip in the leadoff spot for the Nighthawks this year with a .417 on-base percentage.
Victoria Prince earned her first Peach Belt Conference athletic honor with her selection to the Second Team. Prince was also named to the UNG Captain D’s Surf & Turf Classic All-Tournament team earlier this season. She trails only McMillan and May in batting average at .333, while her .580 slugging percentage and .477 on-base percentage are both second-best on the team behind McMillan.
Kim McMillan took home the Player of the Year award for the first time in her career. She is a PBC Player of the Week award winner, a PBC preseason all-conference selection and was also named an NFCA Top 25 Finalist for the National Player of the Year award earlier this season. Statistically McMillan leads the PBC in batting with a .484 average, has smacked a league-leading 17 home runs, ranks first in slugging percentage, and is third in RBIs on the year with 50. Her 17 home runs broke North Georgia’s single-season record previously set at 15. The Powder Springs, Ga., native becomes the first North Georgia softball player to ever take home a PBC Player of the Year award.
Courtney Poole also took home a major award for North Georgia by earning the Pitcher of the Year honor. With this award Poole becomes the second consecutive Nighthawk to take home the award, this is the fifth time in PBC history a North Georgia pitcher has garnered the honor. Poole is 34-3 on the year with a 0.96 ERA, she is the only pitcher in the league with an ERA below 1.00 and her 34 wins leads all of Division II. The junior has hurled 29 complete games this year and has held opponents to a .178 batting average. Poole also leads the league in strikeouts with 271 in her 240.2 innings pitched. The Watkinsville, Ga., native was also named a NFCA Top 25 Finalist for National Player of the Year along with teammate Kim McMillan. They were the only two PBC Players to be named finalists for the award.
North Georgia took home one final major award on the evening when Mike Davenport was named the PBC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. This marks the fifth time that Davenport has been tabbed a PBC Coach of the Year. Davenport is in his fifteenth season at the helm of the Nighthawk softball program and has helped lead this year’s team to a 41-7 record and a winning streak that lasted an impressive 21 games. The Nighthawks 22 wins in league play mark just the third time any team has compiled that many victories. North Georgia won 20 games or more in league play in 2010 and 2014. The North Georgia squad was ranked in the top ten in the national poll for nine of the eleven weeks that were put out. Davenport has produced his fifth PBC Pitcher of the Year in Courtney Poole and his first-ever PBC Player of the Year in Kim McMillan.
The Nighthawks look to bring home their fifth PBC tournament title this weekend. The eight-team single-elimination tournament starts tomorrow with quarterfinal action set to begin at 11 a.m.