NEW ORLEANS (JMU Athletics) – Following a stellar weekend, James Madison softball’s Payton List has been named Sun Belt Player of the Week, the conference office announced on Tuesday Afternoon.

It is the first Sun Belt weekly honor of 2025 for JMU Softball and the first of List’s career. Prior to the season kicking off, the Beaver, Pa., product was named to the preseason All-Sun Belt team, following her SBC Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Sun Belt honors after the 2024 campaign.

List dominated the opposition in JMU’s five-game slate in the Lakeside Book Company Tournament at Veterans Memorial Park on March 7-9. In the contests, the redshirt sophomore compiled a .625 batting average (10-for-16), with four home runs, a double, nine RBI, and 10 runs scored. Including her appearance against Liberty on March 4, List is batting .579 in addition to a slugging percentage of 1.263 on the week.

On March 8, List walked off Binghamton with a first-pitch two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to lead the Dukes to their then-third straight victory.

In James Madison’s matchup with Fordham on Saturday, List cranked a three-run home run in part of an emphatic 12-run bottom of the first inning. After trailing 9-0 to start the contest, JMU scored 15 unanswered runs against the Rams, marking the largest comeback victory in program history.

The Dukes’ super-utility player leads the team in batting average (.421), slugging percentage (.860), runs scored (16), hits (24), runs batted in (16), and home runs (7).

Her four-RBI showing against Fordham was a single-game career-high and three runs scored against Radford tied her career-high as well.

In the circle, the redshirt sophomore made two appearances against Radford and Binghamton and totaled 5.2 innings pitched, giving up two earned runs while fanning five.

JMU will travel to Virginia to play a midweek with the Cavaliers on Tuesday at 4 p.m. on ACCNX, and then travel to Mobile, Ala., to open their third season of Sun Belt Conference play against South Alabama on March 14-16 on ESPN+.

— JMU Athletics —