In Head Coach Terry Martin's 18th season at the helm of the Lady Lions, the Piedmont College softball program was selected to finish fourth overall in the USA South preseason coaches poll released Wednesday. The reigning regular season champion, Averett, was selected to repeat in 2016.
Averett finished with 139 points overall and nine of the available 13 first place votes as head coaches cannot vote for their own team. The Cougars notched their first NCAA Regional win last season and were ranked as high as 13th in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top 25.
Coming in second with one first place vote was William Peace with 119 points overall while LaGrange ended up in third with 118 points and three first place votes. The Pacers were second in the final standings last season while the Panthers ended in fourth behind Ferrum at the end of 2015.
Piedmont earned 111 points coming in fourth overall after finishing seventh in the league last season in a weather-shortened year. The Lady Lions went 13-11 in league play a season ago while finishing the 2015 season at 17-14 overall.
Coming in fifth was Ferrum College with 103 points before a larger drop in points going in to sixth where Greensboro earned 78 points. Finishing out the top ten were Huntingdon in seventh (75 points), N.C. Wesleyan in eighth (69 points), Meredith in ninth (67 points) and Methodist in tenth (54 points). The final three spots belong to Maryville, Covenant and Mary Baldwin.
The Lady Lions return the USA Rookie of the Year in Jessica Bagwell along with standout pitcher Sarah Walker who enters her junior campaign. Abby Smith, the Lady Lions' trusty hot-corner specialist returns at her position for her senior year along with Laura Carter in the outfield as they look to finish strong in their senior season.
The final destination is the 2016 USA South Softball tournament which will be held in Rocky Mount, N.C., as part of the Spring Sports Festival on April 15-17.
The season begins for Piedmont on Feb. 21 as Birmingham-Southern travels to Demorest for a doubleheader. The first game is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the Walker Athletic Complex.
