Two Bulls Named All-American

[Bullsfan]

Ellis and Groves Earn All-American Honors

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (May 27, 2004)-Two members of the University of South Florida softball team were named to the 2004 Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I All-American team.  The awards were announced Wednesday in Oklahoma City.  Holly Groves was named to the 2nd team as the Designated Player while Leigh Ann Ellis was named to the 3rd team as an at-large selection.

Groves from Seminole, Florida led the Bulls in almost every offensive category in 2004. Groves hit .422 during the ’04 campaign with 18 home runs and a nation leading 82 RBI. The slugger holds USF career records for home runs with 33 and a slugging percentage of .590. Groves holds single-season records for batting average (.422), hits in a season with 95, home runs (18), RBI (82), total bases (167) and slugging percentage (.742).   Groves was a Conference USA first-team selection, she was named to the 1st team Southeastern All-Regional Team as well as to the All-Region tournament team at the Tallahassee region.   Groves led the team in the NCAA regional with a .400 batting average while going 6-for-15 with four runs scored, a home run and two RBI. Groves hit her 18th home run of the season in third game of the tournament against Florida, over the left centerfield fence.

Despite being a Bull for only two seasons the lefty-hurler from Barboursville, West Virginia has set single season records at USF for victories in back-to-back years.  In 2003 Ellis shattered the previous record of wins in a season with a 34 win season. The ‘south paw’ returned in 2004 and broke her previous record with 43 wins. She recorded back-to-back 300 plus strikeout seasons, 320 in 2003 and 313 in ’04. Ellis also logged 610 innings pitched for the Bulls in two years.  Ellis was named Conference USA Pitcher of the Year, along with Groves was named to the 2nd team Southeastern All-Regional Team.  Ellis finished the NCAA Regional tournament with a 3-2 record while posting a 2.00 ERA. She started all five games for the Bulls, pitching 28.0 innings with 36 strike outs on her way to a spot on the All-Region tournament team.

Ellis and Groves becomes only the fifth and sixth All-American at USF in softball.  Leslie Kanter in 1986, Lisa Wunar in 1987 and Monica Triner a two-time All-American in 1998 and 1999 are the Bulls who earned All-American status.

http://gobulls.usf.edu/Sports/News.asp?i=787&s=Softball

[bulls96go]

great!