Story by Richard Tortorelli , Oklahoma City University Athletics

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sports Illustrated highlighted Georgia Wall from Oklahoma City University by featuring her in the Faces in the Crowd section of its magazine.

Wall became the third Star included in the long-running Sports Illustrated feature in the June 27, 2016 issue with Lebron James on the cover on newsstands currently. The Faces in the Crowd recognizes the best up-and-coming amateur athletes from around the country.

A freshman from Marlow, Okla., Wall paced the Stars to their ninth softball national championship, taking NAIA Softball World Series most valuable player recognition. Wall posted a 6-1 record with a 0.61 earned run average with 21 strikeouts in 46 innings during the World Series.

Wall collected first-team NAIA all-American, second-team NFCA NAIA all-American and Sooner Athletic Conference freshman of the year. Wall notched a 28-1 record, NAIA-best 0.47 ERA and 169 strikeouts in 192.1 innings pitched in 2016.

Oklahoma City became the fourth national champion to negotiate the elimination bracket to win the NAIA Softball World Series. The Stars (67-3) won the SAC regular-season crown and the NAIA Championship Opening Round Oklahoma City Bracket this year. OCU has won national titles in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2016.

Ashley Sholer became the first OCU student-athlete listed among the Faces in the Crowd in the July 3, 2006 issue after capturing the NAIA women's golf individual championship in record-setting fashion as a freshman.

Emily Webster from the Stars made the Faces in the Crowd in the March 23, 2015 Sports Illustrated. Webster finished her OCU wrestling career 118-0 with four Women’s College Wrestling Association championships.

Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd feature has been around since 1956. From 1956-2006, Sports Illustrated had featured 15,672 athletes, many who had gone on to even more greatness in their athletic careers including Lew Alcindor (who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Terry Bradshaw, Chris Evert, Magic Johnson, Jack Nicklaus, Andy Roddick, Herschel Walker and Bill Walton.