2023 All-Big West Softball Team and Award Winners Unveiled (2024)

IRVINE, Calif. (May 16, 2023) --The Big West announced its six major award winners and all-conference teams for the 2023 softball season on Tuesday.

Four of the six top awards went to representatives of champion Long Beach State and runner-up Cal State Fullerton. Titan ace Myka Sutherlin was the clear choice for The Big West Pitcher of the Year, with Fullerton second baseman Alexa Neil the 10 league head coaches’ pick for Big West Defensive Player of the Year. Kim Sowder is The Big West Coach of the Year for the fifth time after leading the Beach to a dramatic title on the final day of the regular season, while LBSU outfielder Makayla Medellin was tabbed The Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year. UC Davis standout Anna Dethlefson is The Big West Player of the Year, with CSUN’s Lauryn Carranco the Freshman Pitcher of the Year.

Dethlefson aided UC Davis to fourth place in the league table at 29-20 overall and 15-12 in Big West play after being picked eighth in the preseason poll. The true junior utility from Fair Oaks paces The Big West in slugging (.627), doubles (15) and stolen bases (40 on 44 tries), is second in batting average (.407), OPS (1.104), runs (43) and hits (61), and third in on-base percentage (.477) from the leadoff spot. Dethlefson has appeared in 47 of 49 games, starting each one, and is UC Davis’ first Big West Player of the Year since joining the conference in 2008.

Sutherlin, a fifth-year senior right-hander and second-year transfer from the University of the Pacific, leads The Big West in virtually all pitching categories, including ERA (1.30), opposing batting average (.168), innings pitched (188.1), total strikeouts (227), strikeouts looking (59) and wins (19). Among 17 complete-game efforts have come nine shutouts. Sutherlin earned a record five consecutive Big West Pitcher of the Week awards late in the season to give the native of Gilbert, Ariz., a league-high seven honors for the year, one off of matching another conference standard. Sutherlin is Fullerton’s first Pitcher of the Year since Desiree Ybarra in 2016, and third overall after Tiffany Boyd garnered three in a row from 1990-92.

Neil has started all 52 of the Titans’ games at second base and been charged with just nine errors over 186 chances for a fielding percentage of .952. The fifth-year senior out of Ramona has been involved in 11 double plays, tied for fifth in the conference. Serving as the Titans’ leadoff batter, Neil is hitting .289 with 28 runs, 25 walks and a .402 on-base percentage. The 2019 Big West Co-Freshman Field Player of the Year, Neil is Fullerton’s third Defensive Player of the Year, after K.C. Craddick nabbed the initial award in 2011, and Julia Valenzuela in 2021.

Medellin picked up a league-best four Big West Freshman of the Week distinctions, including the final one on Monday after playing a role in LBSU’s title-clinching sweep of Fullerton. The rookie from Yorba Linda is hitting .250 (29-for-116) with 14 runs, five doubles, a triple, two home runs, 16 RBI and four steals. Medellin has appeared in 48 contests, starting 35 primarily in right field, with zero errors over 68 chances, including seven outfield assists. Medellin is LBSU’s fourth Freshman Field Player of the Year, and first since Naomi Hernandez in 2018.

Carranco is 9-7 with two saves, six complete games, a 2.69 ERA, 77 strikeouts and 96.1 innings across 25 appearances, 16 of them starts. The right-hander from Clovis has come on strong as of late, with wins in six of the last eight outings, including two shutouts. Carranco had the second-most Freshman of the Week selections behind Medellin, with three, all coming in April and May. Carranco is CSUN’s second Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, after Zoe Conley in 2015.

Sowder guided the Beach to a fifth Big West title (21-6) in the LBSU Athletics Hall of Famer’s 17 years in charge at the alma mater, 10th all-time, and first since 2021. LBSU went into its final series at home this past weekend against then-leader Fullerton two games back and needing a sweep to vault over the Titans, and got just that, twice edging Sutherlin in the process. Sowder’s club concluded the regular season with a second eight-game win streak for 2023. At 31-21 overall, the Beach are in the NCAA Championship for the ninth time under Sowder. The veteran mentor earned milestone career win No. 500 back on Feb. 19, and is now 527-349-1 (.601) as The Big West’s active leader in victories and just the fourth in league history to reach the 500-win plateau, joining Judi Garman, Brian Kolze and LBSU predecessor Pete Manarino. Sowder is tied for the most Coach of the Year selections all-time with Manarino and current Fullerton head coach Kelly Ford.

Carranco, Dethlefson and Sutherlin are joined on the 15-member All-Big West First Team by the LBSU trio of Jacquelyn Bickar, Shannon Haddad and Sara Olson, Titan Hannah Becerra, CSUN’s Mikayla Carman, UC Davis ace Kenedi Brown, the UCSB duo of Ashley Donaldson and Madelyn McNally, Izabella Martinez and Maya Nakamura of Hawai’i, Cal Poly’s Jessica Clements, and UC San Diego’s Jada Cecil.

Thirteen more conference standouts, including Medellin, were placed on the 13-member All-Big West Second Team, while another 19, Neil among them, picked up honorable mentions. The Beach led the way both with three first-teamers, and seven total on the first and second squads. There are 24 California products of the 28 on the first and second teams.

Repeat first-teamers are Brown, Cecil, Clements and McNally, while Becerra, Carman, Dethlefson and Nakamura made the second team a season ago. Cecil was the 2022 Big West Pitcher of the Year and Freshman Pitcher of the Year, with Clements the Freshman Field Player of the Year. Becerra was previously on the 2021 first team as the Freshman Field Player of the Year, when Haddad was the Freshman Pitcher of the Year and likewise a first-teamer with Brown and McNally. Nakamura had made it onto the 2021 second team.

Accompanying Carranco and Medellin on the All-Freshman Team are teammates Isabella Alonso and Selena Perez from CSUN and LBSU, respectively, Jackie Alday and Brooke Perez of UC Riverside, the UC Davis duo of Gia Felice and Caroline Grimes, Key-annah Campbell-Pua of Hawai’i, and fellow pitcher Sophia Ramuno from Cal Poly.

Four Big West softball programs have qualified for postseason play, with Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton headed to the Stanford Regional and Clemson Regional of the 2023 NCAA Division I Softball Championship, available to watch on ESPN platforms. Third-place CSUN and UC Davis are both off to Fort Collins, Colo., for the eight-team 2023 National Invitational Softball Championship (NISC).