Crawford commits to Carson-Newman
Ridgeland senior softball player Morgan Crawford has verbally committed to continue her playing career at Carson-Newman University.
Crawford is 8-2 overall with one save this season for the stateranked Lady Panthers. She has 27 strikeouts and a 2.04 earned run average in 58.1 innings pitched. Her numbers are even better in region play where she is 6-0 with one save, 12 strikeouts and a 0.85 ERA in 41.1 innings in the circle.
Those numbers also earned her Region 6-4A Pitcher of the Year honors this past Wednesday.
She is having a big year at the plate as well, hitting .429 out of the clean-up spot with five home runs, 22 RBIs and a .768 slugging percentage.
Crawford came to Ridgeland from LFO before her junior season. Injuries on the pitching staff forced her into a bigger role with the Lady Panthers last fall and she responded by going 17-8 with 98 strikeouts and a 1.75 ERA to earn first team region honors.
She had interest from several other schools, including Memphis, Tennessee State and Georgia Military College, but says her heart is set on Carson-Newman.
“The main factor is that I absolutely love it there,” she said. “I visited there over the summer and loved it. Their coach invited me to come back up for an official visit and I got to meet the girls. Everything was just great and it feels great to know where I’m going.”
Ridgeland head coach Richie Wood said he was happy for his player.
“(Carson-Newman) has been looking at her
since last spring, but she had a really good summer,” he explained. “I know other schools were looking at her, but she got a great offer from Carson-Newman
and she thought it would be a good fit for her.”
Wood said Crawford needs to work on spinning the ball to be even more effective.
“You can blow the ball by high school hitters a lot more than you can college hitters,” he said. “She’s working
on spinning the ball more. She needs to develop a good rise ball to go with her change-up because when it’s on, and with her speed, that change-up is nasty. She’s hitting really well right now too, so I think they are getting a really good player.”