“I give this award to my teammates, because I would not be in this position without their support,” Sullivan said. “Playing well in conference play was my goal because those games are the important ones. I feel like it was great to be on base all the time and doing what I have to do to help us put runs on the board.”

Sullivan was also named to The American first team along with sophomore pitcher Shelby Turnier, while junior pitcher Mackenzie Audas, sophomore designated player Jessica Ujvari and freshman outfielder Linnea Goodman earned second team honors.

Sullivan’s player of the year honor was the first for the Knights’ program since Stephanie Best won three-straight Atlantic Sun awards from 2003-05. The Waynesboro, Miss., native compiled a .522 avg. during league play with 24 hits, 19 RBI, seven doubles and two homers.

“It just shows that when Farrah [Sullivan] puts her mind to something and is really focused, she is just unstoppable,” head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie said. “She has been improving all season long. The coaches of the conference recognized that and saw what she has given, not only to our program, but the American Athletic Conference. It just says a lot about the type of person and player she is.”

One of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s EVERDAY CHAMPIONS overcame a 2-for-42 stretch early in the season to finish with a .321 avg. with three homers and paced the team in RBI (31) and doubles (13). The Knights three-hole hitter has compiled a .418 on-base and .482 slugging pct.

Head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie along with assistant coaches Ruben Felix and Hillary Barrow used the long season to help the Knights young team progress into the regular season champion.

“Once the team bought into that we have to play as a team and fight for each other, we really saw a difference in the focus of our student-athletes,” Gillispie said. “We went from playing one-run games to posting seven runs on the board. That progress is what I am proud of. Our coaching staff did a great job of putting our players in a position to be successful.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, who was picked to finish fourth in the league’s preseason poll, has an upper class that contains just four juniors and not a single senior. The Knights registered a 39-15 overall record and 15-3 conference mark, which included series victories over each conference foe they played (Temple series was cancelled due to rain).

This was the first time that Coach Gillispie received an individual postseason accolade since being named the 1992 N4C Conference Coach of the Year guiding Joliet (Ill.) Junior College.

Coach Felix took an offense that was batting .208 following the first 10 games and steadily raised the team’s average during the campaign by mentoring the hitters to a current .275. Coach Barrow, who won the 2008 C-USA Tournament as a player for the Knights, adds another pair of accomplishments with the program with a regular season title and coaching honor.

Joining Sullivan on the first team was Turnier, who paced the league with a 1.16 ERA and tallied 53 strikeouts in 48.1 innings of work. The Palm Beach Gardens native had a 6-2 league mark, while going 18-5 overall, fanning 193 in 144.0 frames and compiled a 1.26 ERA, ranking 13th nationally.

Turnier along with Audas, who was named to the league’s second team, were a big reason for the Knights posting the eighth-best ERA in the nation at 1.59. The pair combined for 380 of the team 434 strikeouts, which is second in the nation behind conference-rival USF.

Audas went 7-1 in league action with 49 strikeouts in 58 frames. The Plant City native picked up series-clinching wins over USF and Louisville. She tallied a 17-10 overall mark with 187 punchouts in 174.0 innings.

One of the Knights most consistent players was Goodman, who compiled a .313 avg. with 51 hits. The Long Beach, Calif., native drove in 14 runs. She increased her batting avg. in conference games to .362 and came around to score nine times.

Solidifying the middle of the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ lineup was Je. Ujvari. The Pensacola native blasted five home runs on the season including grand slams in the Knights wins over Boston College and Louisville. She recorded a .333 avg. and finished second on the team with 23 RBI.

2014 American Athletic Conference Softball Awards

Player of the Year

Pitcher of the Year

Rookie of the Year

Coaching Staff of the Year

All-Conference First Team

All-Conference Second Team

With the victory the Knights advance to the Regional Semifinal Saturday at 1 p.m. against No. 4-overall seed Florida. The winner of that contest will advance to the Regional final Sunday at 1 p.m.

“I thought we did a great job of taking control of the game early today,” head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie said. “We were really heads up in our base running and took advantage of balls in the dirt and change ups. That put us in the position to score when we needed to.”

Barrow put together one of the best performances of her career in the contest against the Golden Panthers, going 2-for-3 with a home run, one run scored, a walk, a stolen base and matched her career-best with five RBI. Barrow also posted five RBI just a mere two weeks ago on the road at UTEP on May 8, while hitting the only other grand slam of her career on March 25 at home against Cornell.

Also adding to the Knights’ five-hit total in the contest were Tiffany Lane (Moreno Valley, Calif.), Ashleigh Cole (Pace, Fla.) and Vanessa Perez (San Diego, Calif.), with each eventually scoring in the inning of which they posted the hits.

Senior Mary Helen Tyler (Marianna, Fla.) scored twice for the Black and Gold, while adding a sacrifice bunt and a walk, and Natalie Land (Mayo, Fla.) tallied the Knights’ only other RBI besides Barrow’s five. Morgan Bullard (Columbia, S.C.) also swiped a pair of bases in the contest.

Besides producing at the plate, Cole also shined in the circle for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, allowing only one run on five hits while striking out three in a complete-game outing. The win over FIU improved Cole’s record to 24-13 on the season and dropped her overall ERA to 1.46.

“Ashleigh did a great job of keeping FIU off balance, because they are such an aggressive hitting team,” Luers-Gillispie said. “She also was very successful in working in her change up and hitting her marks on the mound. I think that was a big key to us getting the win.”

The game started off on a high note for the Knights as Lane opened their half of the first inning with a single up the middle of the infield, advanced to second on an illegal pitch delivered by Kasey Barrett and moved to third on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Land. Barrow stepped to the plate with only one out and stroked a single up the middle to bring Lane in to score and give Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ an early, 1-0, lead.

For the second-straight inning, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ had its leadoff batter get on base when Cole posted a single to left field to open the second frame. Tyler laid down the sacrifice bunt, but FIU elected to go to second on the play and pinch runner Ashley Schmitt (Tampa, Fla.) slid in safely to put two runners on with no outs. Barrett then plunked Perez with a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. The hurler was able to muster two outs with a pair of strikeouts, but it was the keen eye of Land that brought another run across for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ as she drew a bases-loaded RBI walk to give Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ a 2-0 lead. The Black and Gold then extended its lead to six runs when Barrow crushed a home run over the left field fence to tally her second grand slam of her career and knock Barrett out of the contest.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s bats cooled slightly after the second inning, as the squad continued to put runners on base, but just could not get a timely hit to extent its lead. The Knights were held scoreless through three full innings, but had runners on in all but one.

The Golden Panthers managed to plate a single run in the top of the sixth inning following a single by Ashley McClain and a RBI double off the bat of Brie Rojas, but the Knights took the run back in the bottom of the frame on a bases-loaded wild pitch that brought Tyler in to score. The right fielder started off the inning with a lead-off walk and Perez moved her to second with a single to centerfield. An error by FIU’s third baseman loaded the bases, before the wild pitch gave Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the 7-1 advantage.

That score would be all the Black and Gold needed to take the opening round win from the Golden Panthers as Cole and the defense shut FIU down in the top of the seventh to seal the victory.

The regional winners will advance to super regional competition for a best-of-three series May 28-29 at eight campus sites.

The win over the Golden Hurricane improved the Knights’ record to 29-20 overall and 13-7 in league action, while it also moved the Black and Gold into second place in the C-USA standings, just behind East Carolina.

Cole improved her record to 18-12 on the year with her victory in the circle, as she struck out two batters and walked only one in the outing.

“Today just shows how much of a warrior Ashleigh is,” head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie said. “To be able to pitch nine innings yesterday and within 12 hours to come back and pitch a great game takes a lot of heart. She has really worked hard on getting her level of fitness to level it needs to be to stay in those long games. It just shows that all the hard work she has done has paid off.

Fellow seniors Barrow and Mary Helen Tyler (Marianna, Fla.) also came up big in the clutch for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in the victory. Barrow posted a hit and scored the game-winning run, while Tyler drove Barrow in with her game-winning RBI single in the fourth inning.

“Senior day is always emotional,” Luers-Gillispie said. “You now know why many coaches wear sunglasses when they are out there honoring their seniors. We are really going to miss these seniors and they’ve worked so hard this year. They’ve been a great group of leaders and have always been the ones to push their teammates. Their inspiration to get to the post season is really helping them push the team to excel. I was really proud of how the team really stepped up for each other.”

All five of the seniors had their families in attendance to share this special day with them and the tight knit group of leaders was happy to share this experience with one another.

The win improved the Knights’ record to 4-1 in league play and 17-11 overall, while the Cougars dropped to 3-3 in C-USA action and to 15-12 on the year.

With the sweep over Houston, the Black and Gold is off to its best start in conference play since joining the league for the 2006 season, while it also marked the first time in program history that Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ swept a C-USA series from the Cougars.

“Now that we are ahead in the conference, it’s going to be a different mentality for us,” Gillispie said. “Now we are the ones with the target on our back, which takes away our ability to sneak up on teams. But, if we can play all of our games with the energy and intensity in which we played this weekend, I think we will be able to beat anybody.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s Ashleigh Cole (Pace, Fla.) and Houston’s Amanda Crabtree battled hard in the circle for both squads, as they combined to allow only one run on nine hits between them. But, it was Cole who won the pitching battle to pick up her first complete-game shutout of 2010. The senior gave up only four hits, struck out a season-high eight batters and did not give up a walk in 9.0 innings of work to improve her record to 11-6 on the season.

“Every time Ashleigh goes out to the mound she gets stronger and stronger,” Luers-Gillispie said. “Even though the conditions weren’t perfect out there today, she hung tight and really controlled the tempo of the game.”

On the offensive front, Barrow was one of five Knights to post a hit in the contest with her home run in the ninth. Also recorded knocks for the Black and Gold were Tiffany Lane (Moreno Valley, Calif.), Mary Helen Tyler (Marianna, Fla.), Natalie Land (Mayo, Fla.) and Cole.

“I knew when I got up that I just needed to sit back on the ball one second longer and it would go,” Barrow said of the game-winning shot. “She threw me the exact pitch that I wanted to hit and I made the adjustment and took advantage of it.”

Land’s single to left field in the first inning extended her season and team-best hitting streak to nine games. The sophomore is now only one game away from matching her career-high 10-game hitting run that she posted as a freshman last season from April 4-19, while also sitting six games out from the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ record of 15 set by Breanne Javier in 2008.

Neither team could register a timely hit in the contest off of the two aces, with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ stranding five runners on base and Houston leaving eight runners on base.

The Knights had opportunities to score in both the fifth and eighth innings with runners in scoring position, while the Cougars threatened in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings. But, it was Barrow and the Black and Gold who finally posted the hit when it counted the most.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is back in action this week as it wraps up its 17-game homestand with contests against No. 17 Ohio State and Cornell. The Knights will face off with the Buckeyes and the Big Red Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, while also facing Cornell in a single game Thursday at 3 p.m.