APSU Sports Information
Brentwood, TN – Austin Peay State University’s softball team is picked to finish in 11th place in the Ohio Valley Conference pre-season poll in a voting by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors. That was announced Thursday by the conference office.
Jacksonville State (nine first-place votes/226 points), and Murray State (two first-place votes/195 points) were the other two schools that picked up first-place votes in the poll, while the 2015 regular-season champion Southern Illinois Edwardsville (192 points) was picked to finish fourth.
Picked in fifth through eighth places and predicted to make the OVC post-season field are Eastern Kentucky (fifth/151 points), Eastern Illinois (sixth/112 points), Southeast Missouri (seventh/111 points) and Tennessee Martin (eighth/108 points). Rounding out the poll is Morehead State (ninth/94 points), Belmont (10th/66 points), the Lady Govs and Tennessee State (12th/27 points).
The Lady Govs return 14 letter winners — including seven starters and five pitchers — from last season’s 9-37 squad. They finished 11th in OVC play with a 5-22 mark under then-coach Stephanie Paris. Shane Showalter was named head coach last summer for 2015-16 after Paris’ resignation.
