OC Athletics
Murray Evans, Sports Information Director
WACO, Texas – The Heartland Conference named Oklahoma Christian softball player Madison Hagood on Friday as its Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2018-19, an award presented to student-athletes who excel both on the playing field and in the classroom.
Hagood, a senior pitcher from Comanche, Texas, is only the second OC athlete ever to receive the honor (joining men’s basketball player John Moon, a 2016-17 winner) since the university joined the conference before the 2012-13 academic year. Athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives at Heartland schools vote on the award, which is considered the highest honor bestowed by the conference.
“Madison was the total package at Oklahoma Christian,” OC softball coach Shanon Hays said. “She excelled in every area that a student-athlete could. Most importantly, she is an outstanding person as well. I am very happy for her!”
During her four years at OC, Hagood epitomized what it means to be a student-athlete, excelling in all areas for the Eagles. Hagood earned her bachelor’s degree in December 2018 with a 3.98 grade point average as a Mass Communication/Public Relations-Advertising major and is currently pursuing her master’s of business administration degree with a Marketing emphasis from OC.
Hagood was named this year to the Google Cloud Academic All-District team by the College Sports Information Directors of America for the third time in her career and soon will be named an All-America Scholar-Athlete by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association for the second time. She is a three-time recipient of the Academic Achievement Award from the Division II Athletic Directors Association and made the Heartland Honor Roll President’s List during every semester of her career.
She also was active in numerous areas of campus life, notably serving as editor-in-chief of OC’s campus online newspaper, The Talon, and as an officer in OC’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America.
On the field, Hagood helped lead OC to its best season as a NCAA Division II member in softball. She was an instrumental part of the program’s first team to win a conference championship, as OC captured a share of the Heartland regular-season title and then won the league’s postseason tournament title to advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time. Once there, the Eagles became the only No. 8 seed in Division II to advance to a regional championship round.
In the circle, she went 15-8 this season recording a 2.52 earned run average while striking out 101 batters in 155.1 innings pitched and throwing nine complete games. During her career, she earned All-Heartland honors four times (two first-team, two second-team) and was named as the league’s pitcher of the year in 2017.
She finished her career as the active leader in Division II for saves (17) and was named the Division II National Pitcher of the Week earlier this season by FastpitchNews.com.