LOUISVILLE, Ky. \u2014 The NFCA is pleased to announce that University of Lynchburg senior first baseman Mackenzie Chitwood has been chosen as the 2019 Schutt Sports\/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
Chitwood, who was a first-time NFCA All-American this season as the first team first baseman, is a two-time NFCA All-Region selection (2016 and 2019), and the single-season (21) and career (44) record holder in home runs for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. She is also a two-time all-conference selection.<\/p>\n
She had a walkoff homer in the 12th inning of Lynchburg\u2019s NCAA opener, a 6-5 win over Manhattanville, and helped the Hornets capture the regional \u2014 and earn herself Most Outstanding Player honors \u2014 by hitting three homers in a pair of wins over two-time national champion Virginia Wesleyan on the final day. Lynchburg\u2019s season ended in the NCAA super regionals against eventual national runner-up Emory.<\/p>\n
In 52 games this season, Chitwood hit .382 with 12 doubles, a triple, 21 homers, 72 RBI, and walks. She slugged .848 and had a .448 on-base average. For her career, she tallied 44 homers and batted .342, with 37 doubles, two triples, 158 RBI, and 87 walks.<\/p>\n
Chitwood breaks a streak of two straight Schutt Sports\/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year awards for conference rival Hanna Hull of Virginia Wesleyan University, who was a fellow top 10 finalist for the Schutt Sports\/NFCA Player and Pitcher of the Year awards, which were split into two honors this season.<\/p>\n
Other finalists were Kierstin Anderson-Glass of the University of St. Thomas (Minn.), Alix DeDreu of Thomas More University, Ally Fox of Marian University (Wis.), Carthage College\u2019s Stefanie Guercio, the University of Texas at Dallas\u2019 Melissa Livermore, Patty Maye Ohanian of Christopher Newport University, Vada Blue Sherrill of Pfeiffer University, and Ally Wiegand of Illinois Wesleyan University.<\/p>\n
The Schutt Sports\/NFCA Division III National Player and Pitcher of the Year award recipients are selected by NFCA\u2019s All-American Committee, which includes a representative from each of the eight NCAA Division III regions.<\/p>\n
Schutt Sports\/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year winners<\/strong><\/p>\n 2019 \u2014 Mackenzie Chitwood, 1B, University of Lynchburg<\/p>\n 2018 \u2014 Hanna Hull, P, Virginia Wesleyan University<\/p>\n 2017 \u2014 Hanna Hull, P, Virginia Wesleyan University<\/p>\n 2016 \u2014 Kelsie Batten, P, University of Texas at Tyler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LOUISVILLE, Ky. \u2014 The NFCA is pleased to announce that University of Lynchburg senior first baseman Mackenzie Chitwood has been chosen as the 2019 Schutt Sports\/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year. Chitwood, who was a first-time NFCA All-American this season as the first team first baseman, is a two-time NFCA All-Region selection (2016…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}