Softball Lands Six On All-SCAC Team
ABILENE, Texas -- In exclusive 2026 All-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the league's head coaches and sports information directors, Caelee Clark of Texas Lutheran University was named Player-of-the-Year for the third time in the last four years, and her teammate Katelyn Howard was tabbed as Pitcher-of-the-Year it was announced on Friday. Complete Release
ABILENE, Texas -- In exclusive 2026 All-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) voting by the league's head coaches and sports information directors, Caelee Clark of Texas Lutheran University was named Player-of-the-Year for the third time in the last four years, and her teammate Katelyn Howard was tabbed as Pitcher-of-the-Year it was announced on Friday. Complete Release
In the same balloting, St. Thomas' Kianah Johnson was named the conference's First-Year Player-of-the-Year, while Texas Lutheran head coach Wade Wilson and the Bulldog staff took home SCAC Staff-of-the-Year honors for the second consecutive season.
The six Ladies who made the team are listed below:
Sophomore DH Kaitlynn Alello (Denham Springs, La.)
Senior 3B Morgan Dawson (Natchitoches, La.)
Senior 1B Abigail Hodgson (Florence, Texas)
Junior CF Noelle Sandmann (Huntsville, Texas)
Senior UT Catherine Stokes (Natchitoches, La.)
Senior UT Jaeden Thrasher (Forney, Texas)
As for the composition of the All-SCAC team, SCAC Regular Season Champion Texas Lutheran led the way with eight combined selections (First/Second Team), while St. Thomas and Concordia (Tex.) followed with five and four honorees respectively. SCAC debutant LeTourneau, along with Ozarks each placed three athletes on the top two teams, and Austin College finished with one honoree.
Clark, a senior second baseman from Montgomery, Texas is currently sitting at the top of nearly every statistical category heading into this weekend's conference tournament. She leads the nation in both runs scored (65) and stolen bases (74) and is first in the SCAC in batting average (.489), hits (64) and on-base percentage (.553). Earlier this season, set the all-time NCAA record for stolen bases in a career, across all divisions, which currently 291 and counting going into the weekend. She is on pace to become the first athlete in SCAC softball history to lead the league in hits in three different seasons and historically currently ranks second all-time with 246 hits. Her 65 runs scored this year in a new SCAC record and with one more run scored at the SCAC Tournament would become the conference's all-time leading run scorer, currently tied for first with 234. This season, Clark is also ranked fourth in walks drawn with 20 and is second in SCAC history with 92 currently in her career. Additionally, Clark has driven in 21 runs to this point in the season, has put together 22 multi-hit efforts and enters the SCAC Tournament on an 11-game hitting streak.
Clark is the first student-athlete in SCAC Softball history to win three Player-of-the-Year honors in a career and is one of just two athletes all-time to win the honor in back-to-back years, previously winning in 2023 and 2024. Her selection marks the 12th consecutive year a TLU player has won or shared the award. Clark received 15 first-place votes in the SCAC Player-of-the-Year balloting, while last season's Co-Player-of-the-Year, junior Kylie Kirk received five votes and senior Chloe Bennett of St. Thomas received the final two votes.
Howard, a senior right-hander from Waller, Texas heads into this weekend's SCAC tournament with an outstanding 19-1 record and sits atop the league in nearly every statistical category. She is currently first in wins (19), ERA (0.75), WHIP (0.99) and shutouts (10). Her current ERA would rank the second lowest in SCAC history for a full season. Additionally, she sits third in the SCAC in innings pitched (120.2), strikeouts (77), complete games (14) and opponents' batting average (.229). In league action she is even tougher to collect a hit off, with SCAC opponents hitting just .218 against Howard during the conference's regular season. A four-time SCAC pitcher of the week honoree during the year, Howard has set career bests across the board this season including, wins, ERA, shutouts, strikeouts, appearances, games started, complete games and tossed over 100 innings in a season for the first time in her career.
Howard's selection marks the 11th time in the last 12 seasons a TLU Bulldog has earned SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year accolades. She picked up 16 first-place votes in the balloting with St. Thomas' Victoria Sossaman earning four votes and Ozarks' Bailee Cowell securing the final vote.
Johnson, a first-year outfielder from Round Rock, Texas has made an immediate impact both on the field and in the lineup for the Celts this season. Offensively, she enters the weekend with a .339 batting average and has found even greater success in league play, hitting .380 in SCAC contests. Johnson has appeared in 32 games this season for UST and is third on the team in stolen bases with 12, fifth in on-base percentage (.431) and seventh in RBI (18). Defensively, Johnson has not made a single error all season with a perfect 1.000 field percentage and comes into the SCAC Tournament with 28 put outs. Johnson's efforts have helped UST secure the No. 2 seeding going into the SCAC Tournament.
Johnson is the third UST athlete to win SCAC First-Year Player-of-the-Year honors, joining Emma Garrett and Jaelyn Simmons who won in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022. She received 15 total first place votes, while Schreiner's Isabel Moreno collected four and Hendrix's Emerson Naismith collected the final three votes.
After guiding the Bulldogs to their 12th consecutive SCAC regular season championship and the No. 1 overall seed entering this weekend's conference tournament, the Texas Lutheran coaching staff was named the SCAC Staff of the Year. Head coach Wade Wilson, now in his 15th season at TLU, has continued the program's sustained success after previously leading the Bulldogs to nine SCAC Tournament titles over the last 11 seasons.
Texas Lutheran captured the 2026 regular season title with a 27-2 conference record and enters postseason play ranked No. 3 nationally with an overall mark of 35-4. Since the Bulldogs joined the SCAC prior to the 2014 season, Wilson has guided the program to a 527-97 overall record, including an impressive 267-10 (.964) mark in conference play. His 267 SCAC victories are the most by any coach in conference history.
2026 SCAC Player-of-the-Year
Caelee Clark Texas Lutheran Sr. 2B Montgomery, Texas
2026 SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year
Katelyn Howard Texas Lutheran Sr. P Waller, Texas
2026 SCAC First-Year Player-of-the-Year
Kianah Johnson St. Thomas FY OF Round Rock, Texas
2026 SCAC Staff-of-the-Year
Wade Wilson Texas Lutheran 27-2 SCAC / 35-4 overall / Regular Season Champions
To view the entire 2026 All-SCAC Softball Team, click here.
See the complete Ladies' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/sball/2025-26/schedule
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