Four Northwestern State softball players received recognition from the Southland Conference on Wednesday afternoon as members of the annual all-academic team.
Makenzie Chaffin and Maggie Darr each earned their second straight academic team honors with Chaffin getting a spot on the first-team squad and Darr on the second. Keely Dubois picked up the second postseason academic award of her career with a spot on the second team while Bailie Ragsdale earned her first.
Already accepted into medical school before the end of the semester and season, Chaffin graduated summa cum laude this spring with carrying a 4.0 GPA through all her classes helping her earn a spot on the academic first team. Chaffin led the Demons with a .327 batting average, .460 slugging and .858 OPS with the second most RBIs and 12 multi-hit games.
Her career offensive season also included career bests in hits, doubles and RBIs in a single game this season, all coming during conference play. She was named second-team all-conference at the designated player position this year.
Darr picked up her second straight second-team academic honor after posting 12 wins with more than 100 strikeouts and 100 innings pitched each for the first time in her career. She maintained a 3.76 GPA in health and exercise science while making 36 appearances on the season, by far the most on the team.
The Missouri City native finished in the top 10 in the conference in innings pitched, strikeouts, strikeouts looking and wins on the year. She threw eight complete games with five total shutouts this year, with a near perfect game where she retired the first 16 batters she faced against Toledo.
Dubois earned her first academic award in two seasons after leading the Southland with 18 doubles, tying her for 10th most in the county on the year and the third most in a single season in NSU history.
She hit .306 on the season with a 3.55 GPA in health and human performance and a team-best 32 RBI and 19 extra base hits. She finished her career with an 11-game reached base streak, tied for the longest by an NSU player this season and led the Demons with 14 multi-hit games. Defensively, the NSU short stop was the first player in 10 years with more than 100 assist in a season.
Ragsdale earned a spot on the academic squad in her first year of eligibility thanks to a 3.63 GPA in health and exercise science through her first two years at NSU.
The Demon leadoff hitter was the Demon leader in on-base percentage, reaching at a .412 clip for the season, the eighth-best mark in the conference. Her keen eye in the classroom carried over to the plate helping her draw 31 walks for the season. The free passes were tied for the fifth most in a single season in program history and the second most in the conference this year.
She was one of two players with more than 30 walks this season helping her score the second most runs on the team this year with 32 and engineer a team-best 17-game reached base streak for the season.
