Owen Headlines Gardner-Webb's Five Softball All-Conference Honorees
May 07, 2019 | Softball
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Autumn Owen was named the Big South Freshman of the Year and received two additional awards, while Andria Booth, Brooke Perry, Jenna Wacaster and Reah Barger also received recognition from the conference during today's announcement of the Big South All-Conference awards.
Owen was also named a First-Team All-Big South member as a utility player and All-Freshman honoree, and Booth was named a First-Team outfielder. Perry received Second-Team honors as a pitcher and Wacaster made the Honorable Mention team. Barger was the second Runnin' Bulldog on the All-Freshman squad.
Owen (Mill Spring, N.C. / Polk County HS) was a four-time Freshman of the Week honoree and is a candidate for the Schutt Sports/NFCA Freshman of the Year award. She led Gardner-Webb with a .384 batting average and 28 extra base hits, 13 of which were home runs. With her Freshman of the Year honor, the 2019 annual awards marks the second straight year that a Runnin' Bulldog was named the league's top freshman.
Owen finished her inaugural campaign in the red and black ranked second among the league leaders in RBI (50), total bases (113), on-base percentage (.469) and slugging percentage (.774). Additionally, she finished tied for third with 13 home runs.
She earned recognition from the Big South as the Freshman of the Week on February 11, March 18, April 15 and April 29. Her March 18 recognition came after she displayed impressive power at the plate during a doubleheader at Appalachian State. The freshman had six at-bats in the twinbill, which the two teams split, and she belted three home runs with an additional base hit. In the nightcap against the Mountaineers, she went 3-for-4 with two dingers and five RBI.
Booth (Dacula, Ga. / Georgia Highlands College) was second on the squad with a .357 batting average in 46 games as a senior. She recorded 51 hits, six of which went for extra bases. In a Big South contest against Charleston Southern, she hit an inside-the-park home run, the second of her career. The speedy right fielder swiped 22 bases this season to finish with 55 for her career. She ended her two years in Boiling Springs with a .426 batting average, which is the new career record for Gardner-Webb's Division I era. She scored nearly 100 runs, finishing with 95.
The Dacula, Ga. native received national recognition before her senior season began as she was named to the Top 50 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watchlist and was one of 24 seniors named to the list. Booth also entered the National Pro Fastpitch Association draft which was held in Nashville, Tenn. In April.
Perry (Clemmons, N.C.) had a stellar season in the circle for the Runnin' Bulldogs with 18 wins and a 2.88 ERA in 34 appearances. The Clemmons, N.C. native set the Gardner-Webb single-season strikeouts record during the final series of the regular season at Hampton and ended her 2019 campaign with 226 K's in 196.2 innings pitched. In non-conference action, Perry struck out a career-high 14 batters against Bowling Green She finished 16th nationally in strikeouts.
Perry tossed 23 complete games in the circle and threw five shutouts, including a one-hit shutout against Charleston Southern, a game which Gardner-Webb won by a 3-0 score. She also tossed shutouts against Sacred Heart, Wright State and NC Central in non-conference action, while holding a second league opponent – Presbyterian – scoreless in an April contest.
Perry was also named to the Big South's Scholar-Athlete team. While she ranked second in the Big South in innings pitched (196.2), wins (18) and strikeouts (226), she maintained an impressive 3.87 GPA in the classroom as a Middle Grades Education major.
Wacaster (Shelby, N.C. / Crest HS) played her sophomore campaign as a middle infielder and spent the majority of the season at second base. She hit just six points under .300 (.294) and hit eight home runs on the year with five coming in league play. Arguably her best game of the year came in the Runnin' Bulldogs' final home series against Presbyterian. In a game three win, she hit a pair of home runs and batted in five runs.
Wacaster had eight games with two or more runs batted in, including three in a non-conference win over Sacred Heart and a Big South victory over Hampton in the final contest of 2019. She ended her sophomore season by hitting safely in seven of the final eight games. She finished the year in the top-10 in four categories among conference players, including sixth in home runs.
Barger (Denver, N.C. / Lincoln Charter) went 7-6 with a 4.66 ERA as a freshman in 25 appearances (12 starts). She spent 67.2 innings in the circle and threw five complete games, one of which was a four-hit shutout against South Carolina State. Against the Bulldogs of SCSU, Barger struck out four and did not allow a single walk en route to her first collegiate win.
She picked up wins two and three of her freshman year against North Carolina Central and Western Carolina respectively. Against NC Central, she threw 2.1 innings in relief and allowed just one unearned run on two hits. Days later against Western Carolina, she again entered in relief and threw 4.1 innings, allowing just one run.
Barger was also the winning pitcher in both games of a midweek doubleheader against North Carolina A&T. In Big South action, she defeated Charleston Southern and Hampton.
To see the entire list of All-Conference winners, visit bigsouthsports.com. For more on the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs softball program, visit gwusports.com or follow @GWUSoftball on Twitter.
