Carly Adkins Joins Kent State Softball Coaching Staff
8/11/2022 10:46:00 AM | Softball
KENT, Ohio — Kent State softball head coach Eric Oakley announced the addition of Carly Adkins as an assistant coach. Adkins was the head coach at Southwest Baptist University, a Division II institution located in Bolivar, Missouri, last season.
"I am thrilled to have Coach Adkins joining our program," Oakley said. "The experience she brings, from her incredible playing career to her time in the MAC and her time as a head coach, will greatly benefit our student-athletes. I know our team will appreciate what she brings to the table, particularly when it comes to hitting and base running. I look forward to collaborating with her as we work towards our goals of winning championships and graduating student-athletes boldly prepared for life after sport."
Under Adkins' leadership this past spring, the Bearcats enjoyed their winningest season since 2018 and were also named a recipient of the Team Academic All-Great Lakes Valley Conference Award.
Adkins is familiar with the Mid-American Conference from her two seasons as an assistant coach at Bowling Green. The Falcons won their final five games of the abbreviated 2020 season to finish the campaign with an 11-6 record. Bowling Green went 27-27 overall in 2021 and posted the program's best winning percentage in MAC play since 2012 to finish fifth in the conference standings, which was three spots higher than where it was projected in the preseason coaches' poll. Individually, Madi McCoy had a monster senior campaign to earn All-MAC First Team accolades. McCoy posted a 1.119 OPS and launched 11 home runs, the most by a Falcon hitter since 2014. In her first full collegiate season, Greta L'Esperance hit for a .376 batting average and swiped 25 bases while also being selected to the MAC All-Defensive Team. The duo was BG's first pair of teammates to collect 60 or more hits since the 2004 season.
A four-year starter during her career at the University of Illinois, Adkins helped the Fighting Illini to a pair of NCAA Tournament berths and is the program's all-time leader with 68 doubles. She boasted a .343 career batting average and totaled 251 hits, 163 runs scored, 32 home runs and 160 RBIs in 224 games of action. Adkins earned All-Big Ten honors three times with first-team nods in 2015 and 2018 and a second-team selection in 2019. Known for her stellar fielding prowess in the outfield, she was named to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team on three occasions.
A CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team honoree as a redshirt senior, Thomas earned a Bachelor of Science in Community Health with concentrations in health administration and education from Illinois in Dec. 2017 and added a Master of Science in health administration in Dec. 2019.
Adkins' coaching career begin as a student assistant for the Illini during Fall 2019 before being hired in a full-time role at Bowling Green.
Prior to that, she played for the Cleveland Comets of National Professional Fastpitch in Summer 2019, helping the team double the win total from the previous year. The Comets went 20-22 and, partnering with Team Mexico, participated in numerous international competitions in addition to the NPF schedule.
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