Southern Illinois softball head coach Kerri Blaylock will be inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2022, it was announced late Friday night at the NFCA National Convention in Las Vegas.
Blaylock, who is entering her 23rd season at the helm of the Salukis, is part of a four-person induction class that also includes Sandy Montgomery (SIUE, ret.), Jenny Allard (Harvard) and Mary Jo Truesdale (Sheldon High School). The group will officially join the NFCA Hall of Fame on Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, at the association’s national convention in San Antonio, Texas.
A 1989 graduate of the University of Evansville, Blaylock began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Southeast Missouri State University. The Herrin, Ill. native took the reins of Southern’s softball program in 2000 after having served nine seasons as an assistant under Kay Brechtelsbauer, including five as the team’s pitching coach.
As a first-year head coach in 2000, Blaylock led SIU to a 41-22 record. Over the course of her first seven years, she guided SIU to five-straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2003-07, as the Salukis remain the only MVC school to accomplish that feat. In fact, SIU has finished in the top half of the MVC every season after the 2000 season and have won 30-plus games in 18 of her 21 full seasons as head coach- the most 30-plus win seasons in the MVC during that time period.
The winningest coach in Saluki softball history, Blaylock passed fellow Herrin, Ill. native Itchy Jones for the most wins by a head coach – male or female – in SIU’s illustrious history with Southern’s 11-1 win over Indiana State on April 25, 2021.
As good as the Salukis have been on the field during Blaylock’s tenure, they’ve been even better in the classroom. No program in the nation has finished top-10 in team GPA more than the Salukis have during her stewardship. Southern has done so 15 times since 2000- five more than the next closest program (Robert Morris, 10) and three times more than the next closest Valley team (Indiana State, 5). Southern’s 26 Academic all-Americans, of which 14 have come during Blaylock’s tenure, rank second to only Nebraska for the most of any DI softball program.
Blaylock had a stellar playing career in addition to her coaching successes. She attended the University of Evansville, where she developed into one of the Aces’ all-time leading hurlers. During her career, she put together a record of 77-48 with a 1.54 ERA and struck out 365 hitters in 857.2 innings of work. Blaylock still holds virtually all of Evansville’s pitching records and was named the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Player of the Year in 1988. Evansville recognized Blaylock’s success on the diamond by inducting her into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1995.
Off the field, Blaylock, who earned a master’s degree from Southeast Missouri State in 1991, has been a fixture in the softball community.
Blaylock has been a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) for over 30 years, and served as the DI representative on the NFCA’s Board of Directors from 2018-20. She also served on the NCAA Division I Softball Committee, helping to decide the NCAA tournament field.