The Sweet Home High School softball team voted pitcher Savannah Hutchins its Most Valuable Player.
Coach Karyn Hartsook presented the awards during the team’s annual awards banquet June 4.
Softball players also voted to name utility player Jasmine Carter Most Improved and shortstop Sunhee Bitter Most Inspirational. Bitter also won the Coaches Award.
In 16 games, Hutchins had an earned run average of 3.488, giving up 38 walks, 110 hits and 88 runs, 48 of them earned. She struck out 103 batters.
At bat, she hit .374 and had an on-base percentage of .436, going 34-91at the plate. She scored 19 runs and had 22 RBIs. She was named Second Team All-League.
Bitter hit .490 with an on base percentage of .569, going 48-98 at bat. She collected 14 RBIs and scored 42 runs. Bitter was named First Team All-League infielder and Honorable Mention All-State.
Also receiving All-State honors were center fielder Ally Tow, First Team, and Ashtyn Walker, Honorable Mention infielder. Both also were named First Team All-League.
Graci Zanona was Second Team All-League catcher, and Bailee Hartsook was Second Team All-League infielder.
Tow was selected to play in the post-season All-Star Softball Series at Oregon State University June 3, hitting a grand slam over the center field fence. She played on the East-West team against the North-South team, winning the first game 20-3 and then, after sending their pitcher to the North-South team, winning the second game 6-5.
The Huskies ended their season 10-5 in league, finishing third behind sixth-ranked Elmira and second-ranked Junction City, and 19-9 overall. The Huskies were ranked 12th in the state.
They defeated Hidden Valley in the play-in round, beat McLoughlin 7-5 in the first round and lost 8-4 to Philomath in the quarterfinals. Philomath lost 5-0 in the semi-finals to La Grande. La Grande went on to beat Henley 6-1 for the state championship.
“It wasn’t how we wanted to end,” Hartsook said, but the team made it deep into the playoffs before coming up short at Philomath.
“The team got along all year,” she said. “It was fun having a lot of freshmen with us.”
Many on the team had never played together, Tow said, but they meshed well.
Even when many might not have expected them to keep going, her team did.
“They fight, and they don’t quit,” Hartsook said.
Visiting McLoughlin in the first round, “a lot of us went there not expecting to win,” Tow said. “We scored a couple of runs. They didn’t. We just kept rolling through them. I think they came into it thinking they were going to roll over (10-run) us pretty easy.”
Bailee Hartsook had a couple of big hits and got things going, Tow said.
Moving on to Philomath, Tow’s team played all right, she siad. “They just hit the ball more than we did.”
Receiving their first letters this year were freshmen Savannah Hutchins, Graci Zanona and Bailee Hartsook; sophomore Jasmine Carter; and junior Kate Hawken.
Second-year letters went to sophomores Allison Miner, Ashtyn Walker and Torree Hawken.
Earning their third letters were juniors Marissa Kurtz, Sydney Mauer and Sunhee Bitter and senior Kylie Armstrong.
Senior Ally Tow won her fourth varsity letter.