Star James Madison College softball participant Lauren Bernett, who assisted the college in its historic function to the Ladies’s Faculty Whole world Sequence, died of clear suicide, authorities claimed Wednesday.
The dying of Bernett, a sophomore catcher who was third on the Harrisonburg, Virginia, college’s group in residence operates and subsequent in RBIs, was declared Tuesday by JMU President Jonathan Alger.
“Our hearts are aching, listening to the information of the discount of certainly one of our pupil-athletes,” Alger claimed in a press release. “Lauren Bernett was a significant-accomplishing member of our softball group and an ideal ambassador of JMU and our athletics software program.”
The college’s assertion didn’t situation a result in of demise, however Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson talked about on Wednesday that Bernett evidently died of suicide.
“We’re within the process of conducting a demise investigation into the incident and it’s right now categorised as an evident suicide,” Hutcheson talked about in a assertion.
“The formal report from the Medical Examiner’s Enterprise is pending, and out of respect for her relations and buddies, there is no such thing as a different info to launch right now.”
As a freshman final yr, Bernett, of McDonald, Pennsylvania, began 43 video video games because the Dukes went 41-4 and superior to the Ladies’s Faculty Surroundings Assortment for the initially time in class heritage.
The Dukes received their very first two on-line video games in Oklahoma City simply earlier than bowing out to perennial electrical energy residence, and eventual champion, Oklahoma.
The Dukes are 21-21 this calendar 12 months and former performed on Sunday, beating Drexel, 11-4, in Philadelphia. Bernett skilled a banner exercise, doubtless 4-for-4 with a homer and two doubles.
The Colonial Athletic Association on Monday named Bernett the convention’s participant of the 7 days.
JMU’s subsequent 5 scheduled video video games, two in direction of Longwood on Wednesday and some additional this forthcoming weekend from Delaware, have been canceled.
Bernett’s demise is the newest of numerous important profile suicides of female Division I athletes.
Wisconsin runner Sarah Shulze died on April 13. She struggled with balancing “athletics, lecturers and the wants of each working day life-style” that “overcome her in a single, determined prompt,” based on a family assertion.
Stanford soccer goalkeeper Katie Meyer died on March 1, leaving mom Gina Meyer to query if the put collectively pressure of faculty and sports activities was as effectively significantly.
“There may be stress and nervousness and there’s stress to be wonderful, to be the easiest, to be No. 1,” Gina Meyer instructed NBC’s “Now.”
Stanford acquired the countrywide title in Meyer’s freshman calendar 12 months in 2019 as she stopped two penalties within the Cardinal’s shootout victory in extra of North Carolina within the championship online game.
Should you or somebody you already know is at risk of suicide, be sure to cellphone the Nationwide Suicide Avoidance Lifeline at 800-273-8255, textual content material Talk to 741741 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/assets for additional strategies.
Gemma DiCasimirro contributed.
