Friday Features: UNA’s Clark bombs her way to national honors, title within reach
By Mike Perrin
Brooklynn Clark had a season for the history books at the University of North Alabama. And so did her UNA softball teammates – who have put together three straight wins in the World Series and begin play in the best-of-three national championship showdown today.
Clark not only became the third-ranked Lions’ first first-team All-America performer, she made it twice over (Division 2 Conference Commissioner’s Association and National Fast-Pitch Coaches Association) and was D2CCA Ron Lenz Player of the Year. UNA’s second first-team All-American is first baseman Clark’s teammate Anna Gayle Norris, chosen at the designated player spot by D2CCA while Courtney Shields and Reagan Tittle were honorable mention selections.
Clark also was UNA’s first Gulf South Conference Player of the Year, the 2016 HERO Sports D2 Softball Fan Choice Award winner and an All-South Region pick by both polling services.
And, speaking of firsts, behind Clark’s stellar season the Lions won their way to the NCAA Division II World Series for the first time in program history. Clark is having an incredible run in the Series, too – as are the Lions – as she belted home runs in her first two at-bats, has driven in five runs, scored six times and reached base in every plate appearance thus far. She’s hitting .800 in Denver and has two stolen bases.
Coach Ashley Cozart’s squad is 58-6 on the season, thus far, and is riding an eight-game winning streak.
“A lot of our success has to do with the team chemistry that we have,” Clark said. “We all get along so good and that goes a long way for a team. I have never had as much fun with one team as I have had this year.
“Being in the national championship has been our goal since Day One. We knew we were good enough and deserved to be there, but we’re not going to settle for just being in the tournament. We want to come back to Florence with a national title.”
While this is UNA’s first trip to the final series of the year, Clark won two national championships at LSU-Eunice. UNA teammates Raven Cole and Dani Cruickshank were freshmen on Clark’s second junior college title team. “It was an awesome feeling because that is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Clark said. “Not very many athletes can say that they have won two national titles.”
Clark’s two-time once-in-a-lifetime dream came true in junior college, but it wasn’t her first collegiate dream. “I have been playing softball since I was about 4 or 5, along with basketball,” the 5-foot-10, 22-year-old. “My dream was always to play college basketball because that was my first love and at the time I liked basketball more than softball.
“My junior and senior year in high school I kind of changed my mind and wanted to play college softball. I went on a visit to LSUE and loved it there so I decided to stick with softball and I do not regret my decision one bit.”
This year, the senior from Seadrift, Texas, set UNA single-season records with 18 home runs, 104 hits and 83 runs batted in. She led the nation with a .500 batting average in the regular season (that she has boosted to .507 in the World Series) and the GSC with an .868 slugging percentage (now .863) and a .549 on base percentage (now .550). Clark has struck out only eight times in 205 at-bats.
In her first season in Florence a year ago after transferring from LSU-Eunice, Clark hit .325 with 22 RBIs and eight home runs. Not too shabby, but in her eyes, “I was disappointed in myself last year because I knew that I was better than what I was showing. I just knew that this was my last year to ever play college ball so I wanted to make it memorable and have the best season yet,” she said. “I just practiced more on seeing better pitches and just making solid contact.”
Clark, a Sports Management major with plans to coach softball one day, said she found a home in Florence with the Lions like most student-athletes do – by focusing on relationships. “I really loved the environment and the location of the school,” she said “I also knew that UNA had a pretty good softball program and I knew a few of the girls already on the team. Coach Cozart and Coach (Whitney) Hawkins are really good people and they would do anything for anyone and I love a coach who cares about their players outside of softball. That was a big reason of why I decided to come here.”
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