Four Tops earn All-Conference USA honors

Published 2:45 pm Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Western Kentucky’s softball team had four players recognized with five awards as Conference USA announced its All-Conference and All-Freshman Teams on Tuesday.

Shelby Nunn was recognized with First Team All-Conference honors while Taylor Davis, Randi Drinnon and Taylor Sanders earned Second Team All-Conference accolades. Drinnon also landed a spot on the All-Freshman Team.

Email newsletter signup

After being named the C-USA Preseason Pitcher of the Year, Nunn has produced a 21-6 record including a 1.58 ERA across 164.1 innings of work. Nunn earned three C-USA Pitcher of the Week accolades in addition to being named a Louisville Slugger/Wilson NFCA Top Performance back on March 22.

Nunn is the only pitcher across Division I softball to own a complete-game win over No. 5 Alabama while allowing zero earned runs. The fifth-year senior has racked up 15 complete-game outings, six solo shut outs, four combined shut outs and 114 strikeouts while holding opposing batters to a .216 batting average. Nunn was a C-USA Second Team honoree in 2021 and earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team back in 2018. She also earned a spot on the C-USA All-Academic Softball Team.

The other half of the Hilltoppers’ battery is freshman catcher Drinnon. She’s started all 46 games behind the plate and slashed .276/.378/.431 overall and improved those numbers to .323/.397/.492. She has thrown out five runners attempting to steal while only allowing 26 stolen bases as teams have opted not to run on the rookie. Drinnon has drawn 19 walks, dropped four sacrifice hits and gone 4-for-4 in stolen bases attempts herself. She’s also held her own behind the plate with 232 putouts and 23 assists for a .973 fielding percentage. Drinnon owns six multi-hit games on the season.

Another Preseason All-Conference selection for the Hilltoppers was Davis. The left fielder has a team-best .399 batting average to go along with 55 hits, 36 runs scored, 17 RBIs, 12 walks, 11 sac hits and 19 stolen bases. She has a .983 fielding percentage along with a .454 on-base percentage and .442 slugging rate. Davis has played in all 46 games and started all but one in her senior season. She earned national recognition with the Louisville Slugger/Wilson NFCA Top Performance following the Tops’ sweep of UTEP. The Madison, Ala., native has a team-best 17 multi-hit games along with three multi-RBI games as the Hilltoppers’ two-hole hitter. She’s racked up a nine-game hitting streak and 17-game reached base streak.

Joining Davis with the first All-Conference honors of her career is the Tops’ third baseman, Sanders. The Shelbyville, Tenn., native has WKU’s second-best batting average at .351 while starting in all but one game this season. Sanders has racked up 46 hits, 32 runs scored, 12 doubles, eight homers and 48 RBIs. She’s drawn 21 combined free bases while operating at a .432 on-base percentage. She’s added three sac flies and two sac hits as well as going 5-for-5 in stolen bases. Sanders is slugging .626 to go along with a .970 fielding percentage at the hot corner. Across the regular season, Sanders racked up 13 multi-hit games along with 12 multi-RBI games. Sanders collected C-USA Player of the Week honors as well as a Louisville Slugger/Wilson NFCA Top Performance recognition.

The Hilltoppers will kick off postseason play Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Denton, Texas, in the Conference USA Tournament.{&end}