Paisley Selected 10th In NPF Draft
March 18, 2011 | Softball
March 18, 2011
Akron Racers | National Pro Fastpitch | NPF Draft Results
ORLANDO, Fla. - East Carolina senior All-America selection Toni Paisley was chosen by the Akron Racers as the 10th overall pick in the National Pro Fastpitch College Senior Draft Friday evening. Paisley became the first Pirate to be drafted into the professional league.
National Pro Fastpitch is a four-team league consisting of the Akron Races, Chicago Bandits, USSSA Pride and NPF Diamonds. The teams play games Thursday through Sunday from early June to mid-August.
A year ago, Paisley was named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I All-America Third Team, becoming the third All-America selection in program history. She also repeated as a Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I All-Region Team member, Conference USA Pitcher-of-the-Year and First-Team All-C-USA selection.
After going 3-0 and striking out 20 while leading the Pirates to their first league tournament title, Paisley was named Most Valuable Player of the Conference USA Tournament. During the season, she was selected as the league’s pitcher-of-the-week seven times, tying her own mark from the 2009 season and Southern Miss’ Courtney Blades (2000) for the most-ever C-USA Pitcher-of-the-Week honors in a single season. For the campaign, Paisley recorded 22 solo shutouts, the second-highest total in the nation. She finished the year ranked fourth in the NCAA in earned run average (1.09), 10th in strikeouts (East Carolina single-season record 356), 11th in hits allowed per seven innings (3.89), 14th in victories and 30th in strikeouts per seven innings (9.00).
“I am extremely happy for Toni and the opportunity she has earned,” head coach Tracey Kee said. “I have no doubt she will continue to compete even on the biggest stage. This is a positive for Toni as well as our entire program.”
So far this season, Paisley is 15-4 with a 1.16 earned run average. Tuesday in the first game of a doubleheader against Charleston Southern, she threw the fifth no-hitter of her career, the third most in Conference USA history. The Lakewood, Calif., native has struck out 171 batters in 126.1 innings and walked just 19. She has followed up her 22-shutout campaign with 10 solo blankings in 2011.
Paisley has also inched her way up numerous East Carolina and Conference USA career-record lists this season. She broke the league and school career strikeout marks against St. John’s with her 949th career whiff and now has 1,065 punch-outs. Her 101 victories place her one behind Jenny Parsons (1990-93) for the ECU standard and seven short of DePaul’s Lindsay Chouinard (2000-03) for the C-USA record. Paisley’s 1.27 career ERA and seven saves are the fifth-best marks in league history. In addition to the strikeout standard, she is the Pirates’ all-time leader in shutouts (51) and stands second in games started (125) and complete games (109).
Paisley and the Pirates (21-8, 1-2 C-USA) return to action this weekend with a three-game Conference USA series at Marshall (10-13, 0-3 C-USA). The teams play a doubleheader starting at 1:00 p.m. Saturday and finish the set with a 12:00 p.m. single contest Sunday.
