10 Great UL Softball Individual Feats From 2018 – Summer Ellyson
The 2018 college softball season was another special one for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns.
Louisiana was ranked in the top 25 all season, qualified for postseason play for the 19th-consecutive year, and finished the season with a sparkling 41-16 record.
Sure, softball is a team game, but in most cases, good teams have players who provide great individual accomplishments, and the Cajuns were no different.
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll look at ten of the best individual feats by UL players during the 2018 season.
Today, Summer Ellyson:
Heading into the 2018 season, pitching was a major question mark for the Cajuns.
That was certainly understandable, as Louisiana had lost their top two pitchers from the season prior, including former All-American Alex Stewart, who graduated, and 2017 Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year Alyssa Denham, who elected to transfer.
Somebody was going to have to step up and become the next great Louisiana arm.
Enter Summer Ellyson.
The former Teurlings Catholic product, who redshirted in 2016, prior to pitching sparingly in 2017, had her coming out party as a sophomore in 2018.
It didn't take her long either, as her first start of the season, on February 9, in the Mardi Gras Classic, was the beginning of an incredibly successful campaign.
Ellyson was dominant in a 7-1 win over Evansville, limiting the Aces to three hits, while striking out a school record 20 batters in a 7-inning game.
Think about that for a second; 20 K's in a 7-inning game. That means that the only way anybody is going to ever eclipse her record would be to record every single out in a 7-inning game via a strikeout.
There were some people who had high hopes for Ellyson going into the season, but few predicted that amazing performance against Evansville, and few forecasted the incredible season that she would go on to have.
A first Team All-Sun Belt, All-Louisiana selection, Ellyson went 23-10 in 2018, to go along with a sparkling 1.53 ERA.
Ellyson joined the likes of former UL greats such as Stewart, Christina Hamilton, Ashley Brignac, and Brooke Mitchell as the unquestioned ace of the staff, who carried the Cajuns to numerous victories, while receiving numerous accolades.
Her performance on February 9, 2018 against Evansville was the start of that climb up the charts.