WFSCA Award-Winners
Three pitchers and a shortstop earned respective Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Player of the Year honors released last week, all of which happened to be on state championship teams. The quartet of Kelly Franks, Emily McClelland, Kirsten Tomlinson and Ashley Holz earned this week's Splash of the Week.
Franks, a senior pitcher from Stevens Point, won her second Division 1 state title in the past three seasons thanks to a 26-1 individual record in the circle with an ERA of 0.3 and 258 tallied strikeouts in 2011. She has quickly become one of the Panther greats for the most accoladed program in the state across all divisions, as SPASH's state tournament victories over Madison La Follette, Chippewa Falls and Wilmot earned the eight state title and sixth in the past 11 years. Franks gave up just one earned run on seven hits while striking out 25 batters faced in the three-game series.
Union Grove's McClelland was the Division 2 Player of the Year as the top-ranked Broncos eked out a pair of state tournament victories en route to the title. McClelland batted .565 for the season with a team-high 49 hits, 31 RBI and 15 stolen bases. The junior shortstop also saw some time in the circle though, amassing a 5-0 record in 39.1 innings pitched with a 1.42 ERA and 63 strikeouts.
Tomlinson was Poynette's horse in the circle all season long, but the junior hurler also swung a pretty demonstrative bat as well. She went 25-1 on the year with a save and an ERA of 0.34 and 275 strikeouts, but also led the Division 3 state champion Pumas with five homeruns, 54 RBI with a batting average of .500 and a slugging percentage of .875. Poynette finished the season 28-1 after impressive 11-0 and 4-0 state tournament victories over Hurley and Pacelli respectively.
Holz made news two years ago as the only pitcher to have thrown a perfect game in state softball history, and this year the junior didn't disappoint as she led her Oaks to another Division 4 state title. She went 23-2 on the year with a save while boasting an ERA of 0.56 and striking out 199 batters. Hols also tallied an Oakfield-high 51 RBI with a .489 batting percentage at the plate.
The WFSCA also announced Stevens Point's Tom Drohner as the 2011 Coach of the Year while Bruce Schaefer from Chilton was honored as state Umpire of the Year.
Honorable Mention
West Allis Lightning 17U: The boys from the greater Milwaukee area made waves out West by winning the 2011 Southern California Volleyball Association Junior Boys Classic last Monday. West Allis dropped just three sets in pool play before knocking off teams from Balboa Bay, Calif., St. Louis and Mountain View in northern California to take the 17U team title. The team consisting of Trevor Novotny and Tim Heyrman (Catholic Memorial); Michael Schneck, Cody Kaminski, Bryan Manning and Peter Hurtz (Marquette); Matt Nieberle and Nicholas Olson (New Berlin United); Alex Jelacic (Waukesha West); Kyle Rohde (Brookfield East); Joshua Kirchner (Hamilton) and Adam Kessenich (Shorewood) will head to the Junior Championships for a week-long tournament starting Wednesday in Minneapolis.
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