Written by Nic Fraraccio \/\/ Photo by Macy Cox<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior pitcher Abby Burch received her second career statistical champion award last Monday after recording 19 saves during the 2023 softball season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Arkansas native led Division I, II and III in saves, beating Chloe Leverington from Saint Martin\u2019s University and Keira Bucher from the University of Maryland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 19 saves, Burch broke the NCAA Division II single-season saves record. Alex Lewis from the University of Alabama in Huntsville set the previous record in 2009 with 18 saves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burch also broke the single-season school record set in 2019 by Emma Dwyer, who finished the season with 12 saves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burch said assistant coach Chris Wiman and her father kept track of the save count throughout the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs soon as I broke the Harding record, they kinda let me know what the national record was gonna be,\u201d Burch said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burch kept a clean slate during the 2023 season, not allowing a single earned run during the regular season conference schedule. Overall, Burch finished the season with a 0.87 ERA and 40 strikeouts across 48 and \u2153 innings pitched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harding\u2019s closer added depth to one of the best pitching staffs in the Great American Conference (GAC). Junior pitcher Riley Price said she would always feel a sense of relief when Burch closed games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI knew if I could do it, Abby could go in there and take care of everything,\u201d Price said. \u201cThere\u2019s nobody like Abby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senior provided multiple key moments for the Lady Bisons throughout the season. In her final appearance, Burch shut down Oklahoma Baptist University, advancing the team to the NCAA Central Region One championship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burch completed her fourth win of the season by striking out GAC Freshman of the Year Kennedy Clark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burch said the victory was one of the most exciting moments during the 2023 season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI normally don\u2019t like to celebrate on the field, but I celebrated that one because it was such a good feeling,\u201d Burch said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Junior catcher Brooke Johnson said the victory displayed Burch\u2019s \u201ckiller mentality\u201d within the circle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe has that grit like she wants it and she\u2019s here to work for all of us,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cShe stepped on the rubber saying, \u2018I don\u2019t care who you are, I\u2019m about to go to war.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the fall semester continues, Burch and the Lady Bisons will continue to practice in preparation for the 2024 season. Burch said she would love to see the student body support the Lady Bisons during the spring season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCome out and support. We really do appreciate it,\u201d Burch said. \u201cWe are excited to see where the season takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Nic Fraraccio \/\/ Photo by Macy Cox Senior pitcher Abby Burch received her second career statistical champion award last Monday after recording 19 saves during the 2023 softball…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":18749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18752,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18747\/revisions\/18752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}