Five Titans Earn all-Region Honors

May 10, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Wesleyan seniors Lauren Hyland and Molly Coers and junior Ashley Deck were chosen to the first team of the all-Great Lakes region as the 2007 Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division III all-region softball squads were announced Tues., May 8 by the NFCA.
Sophomores Valerie Hackett and Monica Urban were named to the second and third teams, respectively.

Hyland (Evergreen Park, Ill., HS) is 17-4 with a 1.84 earned run average and has 359 career strikeouts, needing five to become the school’s all-time leader and pass Jennie Siron (363, 1993-96). Her 17 wins is third most in an IWU season and her career 42 victories is third best, as is her 1.86 career earned run average.

Coers, a shortstop from Manito, Ill. (Midwest Central HS), leads IWU with a .408 average and is tied for most runs in a season (46). Her 64 hits is second most to the record of 77 (Brynn Hasse, 2003) and her 24 steals is fifth best in an IWU single season.Coers is IWU’s all-time leader in hits (198) and runs scored (132), is second in steals (68) and her career .383 batting average is third best.

Deck, a second baseman from Bolingbrook (HS), was also a first team choice in 2006. She is hitting .388 with 13 doubles and 39 runs batted in, fifth most in an IWU season. In her career she has 90 RBI (seventh most at IWU) and a .368 average.

Hackett (New Lenox, Ill., Lincoln Way Central HS) is batting .400 with 11 doubles and a school record 10 home runs.

Urban, an outfielder from Wheaton, Ill. (North HS), is second on the team with a .402 average, has scored 26 runs and her 26 steals is fourth most in a season and within reach of the record of 30 (Nicole Williams, 2001 and Kelly Kramer, 1989).

Illinois Wesleyan is 31-12 and plays St. Norbert at 4 p.m. on Thurs., May 10 in the first round of the NCAA Division III regional tournament in Eau Claire, Wis. The Titans were 13-1 and won the regular season College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championship.

CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206