By ISU Sports Information
CARBONDALE – The Illinois State softball team placed three players on All-Missouri Valley Conference teams, while Jordan de los Reyes was named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year.
De los Reyes also earned First Team and All-Defensive Team accolades, while Riley Strandgard and Regan Romshek were named to the Second Team.
De los Reyes’ First Team honor is the second of her career. She was named to the first team as a freshman and the second team as a sophomore. This season, de los Reyes hit .362 in conference play with six doubles, a triple and three home runs. She drove in 16 runs and scored 10.
De los Reyes was named to the All-Defensive Team and Defensive Player of the Year after a dominant season behind the plate. After playing first base much of her sophomore season, de los Reyes moved back to catcher this season and thrived. In Valley play, she threw out eight of 11 runners trying to steal. She did not commit an error in the 24 games and had 23 assists.
Romshek is closing the book on a stellar career, and she has now made an All-MVC team three times. Romshek was named to the First Team as a sophomore and to the Second Team as a junior and senior. This season, Romshek hit .307 in Valley play with two home runs and 15 RBIs. She led the team with 19 runs scored and eight doubles. Romshek also went 6-5 with a 2.76 ERA in the circle. She pitched nine complete games and tallied two shutouts, while striking out 41 batters.
Strandgard followed up a quality freshman season with an even better sophomore campaign. The Redbird shortstop hit a team-high .405 in Valley play and also led the team in hits (30), triples (2), home runs (4), RBIs (18), total bases (49), slugging percentage (.662) and on-base percentage (.470). Strandgard also scored 11 times and made only five errors in 24 games.
The seventh-seeded Redbirds take on Evansville Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the opening round of the MVC Tournament.
