Lauren Mills ready to lead University of West Alabama to conference title

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Gulf South Conference softball coaches have picked the University of West Alabama softball team fifth in the GSC East in the annual league pre-season poll, released by the conference office on Tuesday.

The Tigers, who are coming off a 29-29 2008 campaign, picked up one third-place vote and a trio of fourth-place votes along with a fifth-place selection. The Chargers of UAH, who claimed their eighth GSC Championship a year ago, are the 2009 GSC East favorite, followed closely by Valdosta State. West Florida and North Alabama were picked ahead of UWA, while West Georgia rounds out the East. Arkansas Tech, the defending 2008 GSC West Division Champions, has been tabbed to win the division for the second-straight year.

A trio of Tigers claimed pre-season All-GSC East honors, led by senior shortstop Courtney Gordon. Sophomores Valisha Fincher and Kelli Hartley also made the list. Gordon, from Columbus, Miss., led UWA at the dish with a .385 batting average and was one of seven Tigers selected to the 2008 All-GSC Team. Gordon was tops on the team in hits and finished fifth in the league in average. Fincher finished her rookie season with a .341 batting average from the left side of the plate and led the squad in stolen bases with 13. The Tarrant, Ala.-product delivered eight home runs on the season. Hartley paced the Red and White line up with 13 home runs, shattering the UWA freshman record for round-trippers in a rookie campaign. Started all 58 games at second base, the Northport, Ala.-native, finished second on the squad in hits with 62, 25 of those were for extra bases.

Three Tiger junior college transfers were among the GSC top newcomers list – Jessica Powell, Lauren Mills and Jessica Cervantes. Powell started her intercollegiate career at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. and guided SC to 36 wins as a freshman last season. A native of Orangevale, Ca, Powell was an All-State selection after batting .410 in 2008. Mills joins the UWA program after a two-year stint at Western Nebraska Community College. She continues her career at UWA after guiding WNCC to the Region IX Championship and a 54-8 final mark. Mills (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) belted 13 home runs as a sophomore while driving in 54 runs on the season. Cervantes comes to the Livingston campus by way of College of the Sequoias in California. A right hand pitcher from Visalia, Calif., Cervantes claimed the Central Valley Conference’s Pitcher of the Year award after posting 23 wins in the circle as a sophomore.

The Tigers, under second-year head coach Will Atkinson, open the 2009 season with the UWA Invitational on Feb. 13-14. Joining the Tigers in the three-team field will be Judson College and Spring Hill College.