MARSHALL, Texas – Tuesday will mark a big day in the East Texas Baptist University softball program as they play for a NCAA Division III National Championship. It is the second time in program history that ETBU is in the National Championship Series winning the tournament in 2010.
ETBU is just the third team in NCAA Division III history to host and play for a national championship on their home field. Eastern Connecticut State did in 1985 and the College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State) won it in 1989.
Facing a familiar program in Belhaven University, these two teams have met 25 times and use to face each other in the American Southwest Conference. Belhaven left the ASC in 2023 for the Collegiate Conference of the South. ETBU leads the series, 15-10, but Belhaven has won seven of the last 10 meetings.
The two teams will square off at Bell Park at Taylor Field on Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. in the first game of a three-game series.
National Championship Game Details
Opponent: Belhaven University (no. 6 seed)
Date: Tuesday, June 4/Wednesday, June 5
Time: 11:00 a.m.
TV: NCAA.com
Live Stats: NCAA.com
Series: ETBU leads, 15-10
Belhaven University (46-8)
Location: Jackson, Miss.
CSC Regular Season Champions
CSC Tournament Runners-Up
NCAA Tournament At-Large Selection
St. Louis, Mo. Regional Tournament Champions
Mount Berry, Ga. Super Regional Champions
Belhaven enters their first NCAA Division III Championship Series as they first made the NCAA Tournament in 2021 after their transition from NAIA. They are 9-2 in the NCAA Tournament this year falling to #6 Berry College in the second game of the Super Regional, 3-1, before winning game three, 3-2, in nine innings on a walk-off home run. They swept through the Regional Tournament with wins over Grinnell, 4-2, Greenville, 7-2, and Washington U-St. Louis, 2-1. After opening the National Championship Tournament with a 5-2 win over Case Western Reserve, they fell to ETBU, 3-2. They have now won three-straight with wins over #17 Tufts and two wins vs. #1 Linfield, 6-0, and 4-3.
Kennedy Carruth leads the pitching staff with over 900 career strikeouts and 278 this year. She has a 1.21 ERA and is 30-5 in 236.1 innings pitched. Macy Funderburk follows at 6-0 with a 0.34 ERA in 40.2 innings pitched.
Allie Gordon and Anna Caime lead the team with a .398 batting average. Gordon ahs 17 home runs and 65 RBI while Caime has 11 doubles and 36 RBI. Carruth adds a .329 average with 20 doubles and 36 RBI.
East Texas Bapitst University (46-2)
Location: Marshall, Texas
ASC Regular Season Champions
ASC Tournament Champions
Marshall, Texas Regional Tournament Champions
Marshall, Texas Super Regional Tournament Champions
ETBU has won a program best 46 games and 23-games in a row. They are headed to their second NCAA Division III Championship Series after winning the 2010 National Championship. It is their third appearance in the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament also making it in 2014. They won the Marshall, Texas Regional and Super Regional Championships with over Simmons University, #10 Texas Lutheran, Williams College, Rowan University, and Belhaven posting an 8-0 record in the NCAA Tournament.
Four players are hitting over .400 as
Haylie Stum leads the way with a .465 average.
Tristen Maddox follows at .433 as
Emma Bell is batting .418 and
Courtney White at .400.
Mary Frances Ellis is at .398 and
Tauryn Cummings at .390. The team is batting .386 overall with 38 home runs, 90 doubles, 384 hits, and 12 triples. Maddox leads the team with 15 home runs, 15 doubles, and 56 RBI.
Hannah Benavides and
Avery Holland have been holding down the pitching staff. Benavides is 16-0 with a 1.41 ERA and 45 strikeouts while Holland is 15-0 and a 1.29 ERA and 56 strikeouts.
Madalyn Melton is then 6-1 posting a 0.82 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 42.2 innings pitched.
Series vs. Belhaven
These two programs will meet for the 26th time on Tuesday. Belhaven is a former American Southwest Conference member where they played ETBU in five series from 2016 through 2022. ETBU leads the series, 15-10, but Belhaven has had the upper hand the past 10 meetings winning seven of them. ETBU's win on Friday night ended a four-game losing streak vs. the Blazers. In the ASC regular season meetings, ETBU went 11-7. Prior to Belhaven joining NCAA Division III and the ASC, the two teams met four times in 2005 and 2006 when the Blazers were NAIA as ETBU went 3-1.
Overall, the two teams have met in six series including the 2022 ASC Championship series. Of those six, both teams have won three series.
In post-season play vs. Belhaven, ETBU is 2-4. They fell to BU in the 2022 ASC Championship Tournament dropping two on the final day in the championship series,2-1, and 2-0. ETBU won on day one, 3-2. In the 2022 NCAA Marshall, Texas Regional Tournament, Belhaven also defeated ETBU, 4-3, putting the Tigers in the loser's bracket. Last year, BU also handed ETBU their first Regional Tournament loss, 4-0, in Marshall.
ETBU broke that post-season streak on Friday night with a 3-2 victory to stay in the winner's bracket for the Championship Series.
Belhaven (15-10)
M31, 2024 W 3-2 Marshall, TX
M19, 2023 L 0-4 Marshall, TX
M13, 2022 L 3-4 Marshall, TX
M8, 2022 L 0-2 (9) Jackson, MS
M8, 2022 L 1-2 Jackson, MS
M7, 2022 W 3-2 Cleveland, MS
F12, 2022 L 0-9 Jackson, MS
F11, 2022 W 8-0 Jackson, MS
F11, 2022 L 6-7 Jackson, MS
A24, 2021 L 2-4 Marshall, TX
A23, 2021 W 2-0 Marshall, TX
A23, 2021 L 1-5 Marshall, TX
F25, 2019 W 8-0 Marshall, TX
F23, 2019 W 5-0 Marshall, TX
F23, 2019 W 8-0 Marshall, TX
F10, 2017 W 9-4 Jackson, MS
F10, 2017 W 11-0 (5) Jackson, MS
F11, 2017 W 7-2 Jackson, MS
F13, 2016 W 7-6 Marshall, TX
F13, 2016 W 11-1(5) Marshall, TX
F12, 2016 L 6-10 Marshall, TX
F17, 2006 L 1-3 Marshall, TX
F17, 2006 W 5-0 Marshall, TX
A21, 2005 W 7-1 Marshall, TX
A21, 2005 W 3-2(8) Marshall, TX
NCAA Division III Championship Series
This is the second time that ETBU has played in the National Championship Series. In 2010, ETBU went on an eight-game winning streak in the post-season taking the national championship in Eau Claire, Wis., over Linfield University. ETBU is 2-0 in the Championship series winning both games against #8 Linfield, 6-2, and 5-4 in the national Championship. They started off the tournament with an 8-4 win over Moavain and then a 4-2 victory vs. #11 Christopher Newport. Overall, ETBU is 2-0 in the Championship Series and 8-2 in the National Championship Tournament.
2024 National Championship Tournament
NCAA Hosts/Team Playing in National Championship Series
Eastern Connecticut State, The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State), Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and now ETBU are the only four colleges to host a national tournament on their home field and play in it. There have been conferences hosting with teams playing from their conference but from research done, these are the four schools found to host on campus.
Eastern Connecticut State in 1985 hosted and won the national championship with a 1-0 win over Trenton State which is now The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). TCNJ turned around and hosted the tournament in 1989 and defeated Eastern Connecticut State, 8-7, in nine innings. ECSU then hosted in 1991 but fell in the national championship, 4-0, to Central (IA). In 1999 and 2000, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire hosted and played in the Championship Series. There are three teams that won the national championship in their home state in Texas Lutheran in 2018 at Tyler, Texas, and Virginia Wesleyan (2021) and Christopher Newport (2022) in Salem Virginia.
In the Circle
ETBU has gone 11-0 in the post-season with three wins in the ASC Tournament and eight at the NCAA Tournament. In those 11 games, ETBU's pitching has been one of the finest in NCAA Division III. They have a 1.22 ERA with five shutouts.
Freshman
Avery Holland has gone 7-0 in that time pitching 45.1 innings with a 0.77 ERA, four shutouts, and one save. Of the 45.1 innings pitched, she had an 18-inning stretch of not allowing any runs vs. LeTourneau, Concordia Texas, and Texas Lutheran and 37.1 of the innings there were no runs allowed.
Hannah Benavides is 2-0 with one shutout and
Madalyn Melton is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 11 innings pitched allowing just five hits all coming in relief. In the win over #10 Belhaven, she pitched 6.2 innings and allowed just one hit.
Tops in Nation
With a team batting average of .385, ETBU leads the nation by an average of 0.07 over SUNY Poly. They have four players hitting over .400 and two others just under .400.
Haylie Stum is batting .465 followed by
Tristen Maddox at .433,
Emma Bell at .418, and
Courtney White at .400.
Mary Frances Ellis is at .398 and
Tauryn Cummings at .390. In 29 of the 48 games, ETBU has produced 10 or more hits and had 16 vs. Texas Lutheran in a 12-0 win.
All-American Status
ETBU now has five players in the starting line up that have earned All-American Awards.
Tristen Maddox (3-time),
Courtney White (3-time),
Tauryn Cummings (once),
Delanie Loya (once), and
Haylie Stum (once). Seven of the nine in the starting line up were also All-Region. In the circle,
Hannah Benavides is an All-American and
Avery Holland was won numerous post-season awards.
We're Ranked … for over 11 years
ETBU has been ranked for 144 straight weeks as a program which dates back over 11 years. Including just six weeks in the 2020 season where they finished as the no. 1 team in the nation, ETBU has been ranked by the NFCA for over a decade. They are currently the no. 2 team in the nation.
Home is a Great Place to Play
Moving their home record to 26-0 in 2024, ETBU is now 95-9 over the past five years at Bell Park at Taylor Field. This year in the post-season, they have gone 11-0 with eight of the wins in the NCAA Tournament. In the past three years, they are 70-4 with two regular undefeated records at home in 28-0 in 2023 and 15-0 in 2024. Since 2014, ETBU is 209-28 at home.
Record at Home (11 seasons)
2024 26-0 (15-0 regular season)
2023 29-2 (28-0 regular season)
2022 15-2 (13-1 regular season)
2021 19-5 (16-3 regular season)
2020 6-0 (CoVID season)
2019 24-4 (21-2 regular season)
2018 17-1 (17-1 regular season)
2017 23-5 (20-4 regular season)
2016 13-3 (13-3 regular season)
2015 15-2 (15-2 regular season)
2014 22-3 (20-2 regular season)
Total: 209-28 (184-18)
Special Day For Shirley
ETBU head coach
Janae Shirley is an alumnus and former player of the program. She played for ETBU from 2003 to 2005 helping ETBU to two ASC Championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances. She was then an assistant coach in 2006 and 2007 before taking over the program in 2008. Now, she is the all-time winningest coach for the program, won seven ASC Tournament Championships, been to three NCAA National Championship Series, and produced numerous All-Americans and All-ASC award winners. She has 594 career wins headed into the National Championship Series with just 158 losses. Of the 17 seasons as the head coach, she has missed the NCAA Tournament only two times – in 2008 (her first year) and 2012.
