Related Links:
The Capital University softball coaching staff, under the direction of 15th-year head coach Nan Payne, has been picked as the Ohio Athletic Conference Softball Coaching Staff of the Year by the conference coaches, the league announced Monday.
Payne and assistants Andrea Klingle and Alan Tharp guided the Crusaders to the program's most wins in school history (34) and to its first OAC regular season championship since 2002. The team also reached the OAC Tournament for the first time since 2007 and hosted it for the first time in school history.
Capital, which registered a 15-game winning streak to end the regular season, is the No. 2 seed in this week's NCAA Division III Tournament Regional at Trine University in Angola, Ind. The Crusaders take on seventh-seeded Thomas More (Ky.) on Thursday at 4 p.m.
The Crusaders finished seventh in the league a season ago but have improved offensively, defensively and in pitching in 2013. Capital is averaging better than six runs per game and boasts a 2.80 earned run average. The Crusaders are fielding .967 as a team and two regular starters haven't committed an error all season.
Payne and her staff last earned the award in 2002, when the team won a then-school record 30 games, won the conference regular season title and reached the NCAA Tournament.
