James Madison interim head coach Loren LaPorte has filled out her coaching staff for the 2018 season with the hiring of Libby Morris as pitching coach.
The second assistant’s position had been vacant since LaPorte’s promotion earlier this fall. That move followed the departure of former head coach Mickey Dean, who accepted the head coaching position at Auburn in September.
Morris most recently had been on staff at Jacksonville University, where she spent the 2017 season as a graduate assistant manager. She was promoted to assistant coach after the season. The Dolphins have three games remaining on their fall slate.
Jacksonville marked Morris’ first full-time coaching position, as she served as a volunteer assistant at Randolph College prior to joining the Dolphins program for the 2017 season.
A graduate of Longwood, Morris was a part of two Big South championship-winning teams and appeared in the NCAA tournament’s regional round in both 2013 and 2015. She earned conference tournament MVP honors in each of those years and ranked fourth on the program’s all-time wins list at her career’s end.
At JMU, Morris will be tasked with leading a pitching staff that includes defending National Player of the Year Megan Good. The Dukes pitching staff posted a team ERA of 1.29 in 2017 and struck out 374 batters in 384 innings.
Good took the lion’s share of credit for those numbers, with a 0.63 ERA, .147 opponent’s batting average, 271 strikeouts, and thirty-eight wins to her credit, but each of the five players who appeared in the circle for the Dukes posted a season’s ERA below 3.00.
The Dukes ended 2017 with a 52-8 record and an 18-2 conference mark and took home their second consecutive conference tournament championship before going 2-2 in the Baylor-hosted regional in the NCAA tournament.
