Hartwig Repeats as Player of the Year as Four Earn Skyline All-Conference Softball Accolades
NEW YORK — Leading the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) softball team to their winningest Skyline season in team history, junior Ashleigh Hartwig has been named the 2021 Skyline Conference Softball Player of the Year, classmate Alexis Buchanan joins her on the All-Conference First Team and sophomores Sierra Bedrin and Nicole Trani receive Second Team praise.
The quartet steered the Bears to a 17-10 mark overall as the team set program bests in league wins (12) and league winning percentage (.571) while matching a program-best fifth-place finish.
Hartwig adds to her NFCA All-Region First Team honors announced last week with her second-straight Player of the Year and All-Skyline First Team accolades at the third base position. As a freshman in 2019, the Santee, California native was the first rookie to be named Skyline Player of the Year. She also is the only Bears student-athlete to earn All-Skyline honors in multiple sports, a women's tennis Second Team selection in 2019.
A two-time Player of the Week this season, Hartwig compiled the most prolific offensive season in program history, setting new Bears single-season records for batting average (.556), slugging percentage (.914), and on-base percentage (.598) — breaking standards that stood since 2005. She also became the fastest player in team history to record 100 hits, reaching the milestone in just 63 games and 199 at bats. Hartwig led the league in the regular season in OPS (1.512), RBI (59) and hits (34) and was second in home runs (4) and doubles (11).
Hartwig assembled impressive streaks this season. She recorded an impressive 18-game hitting streak and a 25-game reached base safely streak. She succumbed to just one strikeout all season, on the second-to-last day of the regular season, which snapped a streak of 46 games and 205 plate appearances dating back to March 2019 without a strikeout.
Buchanan moved across the diamond to earn First Team honors at first base adding to her Second Team accolades as a shortstop her rookie season. She was also named to the All-Sportsmanship Team. The junior from Murrieta, California played and started all 27 games this season, all but one at first base where she made just one error, finishing with a .995 fielding percentage. At the plate she compiled a .333 batting average, assembling a 10-game hitting streak and was the team's third-leading run producer with 18 RBI. She also led the team with seven stolen bases (tied for seventh in the Skyline) getting caught just once.
Bedrin was the team's second-leading hitter with a .373 batting average and .482 on-base percentage while batting out of the leadoff spot. The sophomore was also tied for second in the league in walks (11) and finished tied for seventh in doubles (8) and runs scored (25). Named as a Second Team outfielder, the Rocklin, California native also compiled a 4-0 record in the circle in five appearances (two starts) and 17.2 innings of work, and led the pitching staff in strikeouts per seven innings.
Batting behind Hartwig at cleanup, Trani helped form the formidable threat in the heart of the Bears lineup and was the Skyline leader with six home runs, which also matched a Bears single-season record. The Bears starting shortstop for all but one game this season finished second on the team in slugging percentage (.698) and was eighth in the league in RBI (23). The Staten Island native highlighted her season with a 3-for-3 effort, four RBI, and home runs in back-to-back at bats against SJC Long Island that earned her Player of the Week honors — one of her two weekly awards this season.
The all-conference teams and Player, Rookie, and Coach of the Year awards are voted on by the Skyline Conference's head softball coaches based on regular-season play.
Softball All-Conference Team Announced
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