Vote for the southwestern Illinois Softball Player of the Week April 11-16
Vote for the Belleville News-Democrat’s Softball Prep of the Week. Poll closes at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, April 21. To vote again, hit refresh.
Want to nominate an athlete? The BND Athlete of the Week highlights high school varsity softball and baseball players who put in outstanding performances from the week prior to the opening of the poll. If you want to suggest someone to be included, send an email to Garen Vartanian at gvartanian@bnd.com.
Please include the athlete’s name, school, class, position, and applicable game performance statistics. Coaches must be willing to verify information.
To be clear, this poll is not scientific. In fact, we invite you to vote as many times as you want. It’s all for fun, BND readers. People also may submit the same athlete from week to week.
We are planning to post the results later this week after the poll closes.
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Here are this week’s nominees:
Zoie Boyd, Edwardsville High School, junior, OF. In recent action, Boyd had a hit and scored the team’s only run in a 1-0 victory against Southwestern Conference rival Belleville East. As of Friday, Boyd was hitting .350 on the season with 6 RBI and 9 runs scored.
Valerie Combs, Nashville High School, junior, C. In recent games, Combs went 8-for-9 with 5 doubles, 2 home runs, 9 RBI, 6 runs scored and 1 stolen base. As of Friday, Combs was batting .432 on the season with 8 doubles, 2 triples, 3 home runs, 20 RBI, 13 runs scored and 2 stolen bases.
- Maddie Davis, Waterloo High School, senior, INF/C. In recent games against Collinsville and Triad, Davis went 6-for-13 with 2 round trippers and 4 RBI. As of Friday, Davis was hitting .516 on the season with two home runs and 12 RBI.
Lizzie Ludwig, Freeburg High School, senior, P/INF. Ludwig helped the Midgets to a 3-1 win against Cahokia Conference rival Columbia, tossing a complete-game 1-hitter while striking out 11. She also had a hit and an RBI in the game. Overall, as of Friday, Ludwig was 5-1 on the season with a 0.42 earned run average and 52 strikeouts in 33 innings. She also was hitting .421 on the season with 3 home runs and 17 RBI as of Friday.
Ryleigh Owens, Edwardsville High School, senior, P. In recent action, Owens tossed a 3-hit, complete-game shutout against Southwestern Conference rival Belleville East while leading the Tigers to a 1-0 victory. As of Friday, Owens was 4-0 on the season with an earned run average of 1.00, while fanning 37 in 28 innings of work. She also was hitting .393 with 5 RBI.
Payton Todd, Belleville West High School, senior, P. In recent games, Todd faced 62 batters and only allowed 5 earned runs, leading her team to two victories. As of Friday, Todd had 33 strikeouts with 5 wins on the season to go with a 3.19 earned run average, while also posting 11 RBI.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM.