Guiding a team that far exceeded pre-season expectations, Missouri first-year softball coach Ehren Earleywine was named Big 12 Coach of the Year Thursday.
It is the second time the Jefferson City native has been awarded a trophy for coaching excellence. Earleywine was honored as the ACC’s Coach of the Year in 2005.
Mizzou was picked to finish eighth in the conference this season, but ended the regular season with an overall record of 37-21 and a 13-4 mark in the Big 12. They enter Saturday’s conference semifinals against Oklahoma a day after dispatching Texas with a 3-0 win to open the Big 12 Tournament.
Earleywine is Missouri’s third head coach to win Big 12 Coach of the Year and just the second to do so in his first season.
