FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2007
Contact:  Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Associate Commissioner

DEPAUW SOFTBALL SELECTED TO WIN 2007 TITLE

SUWANEE, Ga. – Based on voting by the head coaches in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), DePauw University is the team to beat in the race for the 2007 league softball title.

And were that to happen, it would be big news as Trinity University has dominated the sport since its inception in 1999. The TU Tigers have won the last two softball titles and six of eight overall.

But the coaches clearly favored DePauw as the DU Tigers received five of the eight first-place votes. Trinity picked up two first-place votes and Millsaps College received the remaining top vote.

DePauw has never won a SCAC softball championship, but did finish runner-up to Trinity last season and won a conference record 31 games while going a perfect 12-0 in the SCAC East.

As for the division races, DePauw is the consensus pick in the East, and received all four first-place votes. Centre College finished second in the voting, followed by Rhodes College (which is moving over from the West this season) at third and Sewanee-University of the South at fourth.

Trinity is the pick in the West and received three of four first-place votes. Millsaps College received the remaining first-place division vote, but is tied with Hendrix College as the second choice in the division, SCAC newcomer Austin College is the fourth pick in the West.

Last season, two SCAC teams won 30+ games (DePauw and Hendrix) and another (Trinity) finished just one win short of the mark. The previous single-season record for overall wins for any SCAC program prior to 2006 was 29 by Trinity in 2001.

Trinity won three consecutive games and claimed its sixth conference softball title, capped by an 8-5 victory over DePauw in the championship game, at the 2006 SCAC Softball Championships held at Sewanee. As the league’s automatic qualifier, the TU Tigers were the fourth seed in the NCAA West Regional, but were eliminated after two straight losses.

Coaching changes abound in the SCAC this season, with one familiar face changing programs within the league and three others making their coaching debut. Roland Rodriguez, after guiding Trinity to four titles, moves to Millsaps where he takes over for Joe Kinsella. Kinsella resigned to take the head coaching position at Lake Forest College. Nicole Dickson, a former player at Trinity, was hired by her alma mater to replace Rodriguez, and Emily Cline moves from assistant to head coach at Sewanee, replacing Heather Windham. At Austin College, the program begins its first year of varsity play under the guidance of Edie Fletcher.