GREENVILLE, S.C. – After completing her senior campaign at Mid-America Christian, pitcher Rachel Eggleston became just the second MACU Softball player in program history to be named a three-time NCCAA All-American as Eggleston was selected to the Second Team.
The Kiowa, Oklahoma native has been selected as an All-American in each of the last three seasons at MACU, garnering First Team honors in both 2022 and 2023 before reigning in Second Team accolades in her final campaign for 2024.
Eggleston joins former teammate Regan Martin as the only other Evangel to collect three All-American honors after Martin earned Second Team accolades in 2018 as well as First Team honors in 2019 and 2021.
Eggleston wrapped up her sensational 2024 campaign with a 13-5 record in the circle with a 2.11 ERA in 132.2 innings of work over 26 games, including 19 starts. On the whole, her 2.11 ERA is the fifth-lowest for an Evangels pitcher in a season in program history while also setting single season top five marks in WHIP (1.21, 3rd), strikeouts (121, 5th) and opponent batting average (.215, 5th).
Overall, the righty hurler saved her best performances for last in her MACU career after leading the Evangels to their first ever appearance in the NAIA Tournament. After coming in relief during the second inning in MACU's first tourney game against Dickinson State on May 13, she struck out a career-high 12 batters and allowed no runs on just four hits without walking a batter over six scoreless innings in the 2-0 defeat.
In her final start as an Evangel, Eggleston put together one of the best performances of her illustrious MACU career as she tossed a complete-game shutout against No. 15 College of Idaho in an elimination game to lead the Evangels to a 4-0 victory on May 14. In that start, Eggleston allowed only two hits and worked around five walks while striking out a pair.
Eggleston did make one last appearance in the final game of the season against Dickinson State as she entered in the top of the seventh and punched out the only batter she saw for her 121st strikeout of the season on May 14.
On the whole, Eggleston wrapped up an incredible four-year career and despite suffering from a torn ACL that caused her to miss nearly the entire 2021 season, Eggleston still finished her incredible MACU career as the program's record holder in multiple statistical categories, including: wins (51), ERA (2.18), opponent batting average (.230), WHIP (1.06) and strikeouts (409). Eggleston also posted career top five marks in games pitched (93, 3rd), games started (74, 3rd), complete games (39, 3rd), shutouts (11, 2nd) and innings pitched (462, 2nd).
On-top of being named a three-time NCCAA All-American, Eggleston has been named an NCCAA All-Central Region recipient three times, earning NCCAA Central Region Player of the Year in 2022 while coming in second in the voting 2023 and 2024. Eggleston is also the first MACU pitcher to also be selected as an All-Sooner Athletic Conference First Team honoree three times as well to go along with an NAIA All-American Honorable Mention selection in 2022.
