Beech Tree News Network

Sophomores CheyAnne Gaskey and Alexa Becker were honored for their excellence both on the field and in the classroom on Wednesday when they were named to the Capital One Academic All-District team by CoSIDA.

Gaskey, a sophomore marketing major with a 3.95 GPA, is having an outstanding season for the Racers.  She is currently 12-8 on the year with a 2.85 ERA and a Murray State single-season record 138 strikeouts.  This season, she also set the single-game mark for strikeouts with 14 and the single-season and career marks for save, with four and six respectively.

Becker, a sophomore business administration major with a perfect 4.0 GPA, is having an equally impressive season for MSU.  She currently leads the Racers with a team-high batting average of .319, as well as team-highs of 43 hits, 32 runs, 29 RBIs and 12 home runs.  She also boasts team-highs in slugging percentage (.622) and on-base percentage (.401) and is the only Racers to earn adidas® OVC Player of the Week honors this season.

The duo are just the secondand third softball players in Murray State history to earn the honor and are the first be named to a first team.  Lauren Buch was the first player in program history to earn the award when she was named to the third team in 2011.

Gaskey & Becker are two of just seven OVC softball student-athletes to earn the honor in 2013, while Murray State and Eastern Illinois were the only two league schools to have two players named to the list.  Both Racers, along with Eastern Kentucky’s Leanna Pittsenbarger, were the only three sophomores in District 2, which covers the District of Colombia, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, to earn first-team honors.

Both student-athletes are now eligible to be named to one of three Capital One Academic All-American teams.  The 2013 Softball Division I Capital One All-American teams will be announced on Thursday, May 23.