2010 All-Ohio Valley Conference Teams (PDF)
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. -- Juniors Kiley Holtz and Amber May have been tabbed to represent Eastern Illinois softball for All-Ohio Valley Conference honors, as announced by the league office at the end-of-season awards banquet held today prior to the start of the OVC Tournament.
Infielder Kiley Holtz received First Team kudos, while pitcher Amber May earned a spot on the Second Team.
The awards are the second in both players' career, as Holtz and May tabbed Second Team and All-Newcomer honors, respectively, last season.
Holtz, who has started in 45 of 46 games this season, mostly at third base, owns the second best hitting mark of the season off a .289 batting average and 37 hits. She leads all Panthers with 33 RBI numbers and has 10 extra base hits, including six homers. She recently nailed the lone grand slam of the season by an EIU player as the Panthers routed visiting Austin Peay. Her most recent bomb, which was a solo shot against Murray State last weekend, helped the Panther squad tie last season's single-season homerun mark of 27.
Holtz has already earned a spot in the Panther record books off her career homerun mark of 14, which is the third best tally all-time. She's also in the Top 5 ranks for RBI totals and ranked three times for single-season honors.
A transfer from Heartland Community College prior to the 2009 season, May is in the top of the OVC statistical categories for innings pitched, wins, complete games, strikeouts, appearances, and opponent batting average. May currently sports a 2.39 ERA off a 15-14 overall record. Her 149 strikeout total is currently the fifth best single-season mark, while she had the second best tally last season with 191.
Besides strikeouts, she's also in the single-season ranks for innings pitched, games started, complete games, victories, and appearances for both this season as well as last year. She's already made her mark career-wise with Top 10 all-time rankings in nearly every pitching stat category, including victories, ERA, saves, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, games started, complete games, and appearances.
For the third straight season, at least one Panther softball player has earned a spot on the end-of-season All-OVC squad during EIU head coach Kim Schuette's tenure.
As the fourth seed, the Panthers open the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at 1:30 pm on Thursday afternoon, taking on fifth seed Murray State at UT Martin's Giles Field in Martin, Tennessee.
If the Panthers are able to pull out the win, and avenge two losses to the Racers that came about last weekend, they will face regular-season champion UT Martin in the day one nightcap at 6:30 pm. Otherwise, if Eastern drops their first game they will have to battle back from the losers back on Friday.
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
