Elkins and Landry Named All-Americans

LAFAYETTE – A record-breaking season for Lexie Elkins and career-high production by Shellie Landry earned the two members of the 11th-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns softball team All-American honors, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced on Wednesday.

Elkins, who set a new single-season school home run record with 32, was named a first team All-American for the first time in her career. The Victoria, Texas, native was selected at catcher, making her the top honoree in the nation at her position.

It's the second straight season Elkins has been recognized by the NFCA, adding to her second-team status from a year ago.

Landry had an all-around, career-best showing recording new personal bests for average (.372), runs (49), hits (64), doubles (16), home runs (20) and total bases (142). The production resulted in the Lafayette area native's first career All-American honor, being placed on the second team as an at large selection.

"It is a high honor whenever our players are chosen to represent our team and community as All-Americans," Louisiana softball head coach Michael Lotief said. "Both Lexie and Shellie are deserving, not only because of their skills and ability to perform, but also because of their leadership, commitment to excellence and desire to get better every day."

It's the fifth straight season and 24th time in the past 27 seasons, dating back to 1989, that Louisiana has had at least one individual named All-American.

The selection of Elkins and Landry to the 2015 NFCA Division I All-America team increases the total number of All-American selections in program history to 48.

Adding in Landry to the list, there are now 29 different Ragin' Cajuns that have been bestowed All-American honors. Elkins becomes the 13th in the storied program's history to garner All-American recognition at least twice in a career.

"Both of those kids started out near the bottom and because of their hard work, persistence and belief in the process are now being recognized as ending up on top," Lotief remarked. "Besides being great competitors, they are both good students and great teammates who would be the first to be thankful to all who believed in them along the way."

Elkins is the first Cajun named to the first team since Christi Orgeron in 2012. Landry is the first Lafayette area native named All-American since Karli Hubbard in 2009.

The two-time reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year, Elkins unseated Danyele Gomez as the Cajuns single-season home run record holder with her 32 home runs surpassing the 30 hit by Gomez in 2006. It marked the second straight season she eclipsed 20 home runs, after hitting 24 in 2014.

She produced seven multiple-home run games and 11 games with three-plus RBI. A slugging percentage of 1.077 allowed her to set another single-season school record.

A Top 26 finalist for USA Softball Player of the Year, Elkins led the nation in RBI per game averaging 1.54 per game. Her 83 RBI represents the third-highest tally in school history and she joins Christi Orgeron as the only players to reach 80 RBI.

Landry ranked Top 20 in the NCAA in total home runs and home runs per game. She was among the nation's Top 50 in both slugging percentage (.826) and RBI per game (1.09).

The Cajuns' left fielder produced a base hit in 41 of 54 games played. By posting at least one hit in 25 of the final 31 games her average remained above .350 from March 16 through the season's end.

Landry collected 18 multiple-hit games and 18 multiple-RBI games reaching three-plus hits five times and three-plus RBI six times. She did not commit an error in 69 chances, tracking down 65 fly ball outs.

The Ragin' Cajuns finished the 2015 campaign with a 42-12 record. Louisiana claimed its second straight Sun Belt Conference regular championship and 13th in the 15 years of league competition since 2001. The squad hosted an NCAA Regional at Lamson Park for the third time in the past four years and advanced to an NCAA Super Regional for the fourth straight year.

2015 NFCA DIVISION I ALL-AMERICA TEAM

*First Team*
Pos.	Player	School
P	Cheridan Hawkins	Oregon
P	Miranda Kramer	Western Kentucky
P	Shelby Turnier	UCF
C	Lexie Elkins	Louisiana
1B	Lauren Chamberlain	Oklahoma
2B	Emily Carosone	Auburn
3B	Kasey Cooper	Auburn
SS	Bianka Bell	LSU
OF	Haylie McCleney	Alabama
OF	Allexis Bennett	UCLA
OF	Kelly Christner	Michigan
UT/P	Lauren Haeger	Florida
DP or UT/Non-Pitcher	Amber Freeman	Arizona State
At-Large/2B	Sierra Romero	Michigan
At-Large/2B	Kelsey Stewart	Florida
At-Large/UT/P	Ally Carda	UCLA
At-Large/SS	Shelby Pendley	Oklahoma
At-Large/OF	Alaynie Page	South Carolina

*Second Team*
Pos.	Player	School
P	Paige Parker	Oklahoma
P	Megan Good	James Madison
P	Alexis Osorio	Alabama
C	Ivie Drake	Georgia State
1B	Kayla Bonstrom	Stanford
2B	Alex Hugo	Georgia
3B	Jenna Lilley	Oregon
SS	Delaney Spaulding	UCLA
OF	Bailey Landry	LSU
OF	Cheyenne Cordes	California
OF	Janie Takeda	Oregon
UT/P	Sara Groenewegen	Minnesota
DP or UT/Non-Pitcher	Sahvanna Jaquish	LSU
At-Large/P	Megan Betsa	Michigan
At-Large/UT/P	Rainey Gaffin	Tennessee
At-Large/OF	Shellie Landry	Louisiana
At-Large/C	Chelsea Goodacre	Arizona
At-Large/DP or UT/Non-Pitcher	Stephany LaRosa	UCLA


*Third Team*
Pos.	Player	School
P	Carley Hoover	LSU
P	Lacey Waldrop	Florida State
P	Allie Walljasper	LSU
C	Erika Piancastelli	McNeese State
1B	Shelby Friudenberg	Baylor
2B	Demi Turner	Alabama
3B	Marisa Runyon	Alabama
SS	Kellie Fox	Arizona
OF	Tiffany Howard	Auburn
OF	Sierra Lawrence	Michigan
OF	Katiyana Mauga	Arizona
UT/P	Jailyn Ford	James Madison
DP or UT/Non-Pitcher	Cortni Emanuel	Georgia
At-Large/OF	Emilee Koerner	Notre Dame
At-Large/P	Haylie Wagner	Michigan
At-Large/SS	Kristen Brown	North Carolina
At-Large/3B	Missy Taukeiaho	Cal State Fullerton
At-Large/P	Aleshia Ocasio	Florida
At-Large/OF	Kiki Stokes	Nebraska

RAGIN' CAJUNS SOFTBALL ALL-AMERICANS ARCHIVE
1989: Stefni Whitton
1990: Stefni Whitton (1st)
1991: Dorsey Steamer
1992: Dorsey Steamer (1st), Cathy Sconzo, Kyla Hall
1993: Kyla Hall (1st), Lynn Britton
1994: Kyla Hall (1st), Kathy Morton (1st), Stephanie DeFeo (1st), Lynn Britton, Alyson Habetz, Lana Jimenez
1995: Cheryl Longeway (1st), Kathy Morton (1st), Lynn Britton, Stephanie DeFeo, Lana Jimenez, Tiffany Whittall
1996: Cheryl Longeway (1st), Lynn Britton
1997: Stephanie DeFeo, Tiffany Clark
1999: Tiffany Clark, Kelli Bruce
2000: Tiffany Clark (1st), Jana Mower
2001: Alana Addison
2002: Becky McMurtry
2003: Danyele Gomez, Becky McMurtry
2004: Brooke Mitchell (1st)
2005: Danyele Gomez
2006: Danyele Gomez (1st)
2008: Holly Tankersley (1st)
2009: Karli Hubbard
2011: Gabriele Bridges, Christi Orgeron
2012: Christi Orgeron (1st), Nerissa Myers, Katie Smith
2013: Brianna Cherry, Sarah Draheim
2014: Lexie Elkins, Christina Hamilton
2015: Lexie Elkins (1st), Shellie Landry

#GeauxCajuns

Players Mentioned

Lexie Elkins

Christina Hamilton

Shellie Landry

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