by DENTON – After claiming their first ever outright regular season conference championship, the North Texas softball team earned four of the five individual specialty awards from the league office on Tuesday while placing a program-best eight players on the all-conference teams. The four specialty awards are the most by any one team in conference history.
Hope Trautwein was named the Pitcher of the Year, Tuesday DerMargosian was named the Newcomer of the Year, Janie Worthington (Kiowa/Caddo) was tabbed the Freshman of the Year and Rodney DeLong earned Coach of the Year honors.
Worthington becomes the first player in program history to be named the Freshman of the Year after a phenomenal rookie campaign. The freshman became the first player in program history to account for an unbeaten regular season as she posted a 9-0 record, including a 7-0 mark in conference play. She’s posted the third-lowest single-season ERA so far in 2021 and is holding opposing batters to a .163 batting average while only issuing 10 walks compared to 94 strikeouts. In her final start of the regular season, Worthington tossed the first no-hitter of her career as she struck out five and walked one at Louisiana Tech on May 8 after accounting for three no-hit innings and picking up the win in a 10-inning thriller on May 7.
Along with their individual accolades, all three players were named First Team All-Conference by the league’s coaches. Trautwein earns First Team distinction for the second time in her career after earning the distinction in 2019, DerMargosian and Worthington join the First Team to give North Texas the most First Team All-Conference players they’ve had in a single season. Worthington is the only freshman that made it on the First Team.
