Poll results: Here’s the high school softball player of the week in southwest Illinois

Ryleigh Owens of Edwardsville High School is the winner of this week’s Belleville News-Democrat Softball Player of the Week high school poll, as selected by readers of bnd.com.

In recent action, Owens, a senior pitcher/outfielder, had a big week on the mound, going 3-0 with shutouts against Calhoun (allowed just 2 hits, 4-0 win); Pleasant Hill (1 hit, 4-0); and Quincy Notre Dame (3 hits, 6-0).

Owens followed those performances with a strong outing against O’Fallon in which she allowed just 2 hits and 1 earned run in 6 innings while collecting the victory.

Overall, Owens is a perfect 15-0 on the season with a 0.51 earned run average and 113 strikeouts in 96 innings pitched. At the plate, Owens — also the Week 2 Athlete of the Week winner — is batting .315 with 10 RBI this spring as well.

Owens tallied 48% of the votes to finish ahead of other BND nominees Jaylyn Brister of Columbia High School, Kelly Fuller of Highland High School, Peyton Hilpert of Belleville West High School, Jill Kuhl of Nashville High School, Madalyn Trauernicht of Highland High School, Ailene Walker of Belleville East High School and Emily Wolff of Edwardsville High School. The poll ended at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.

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.

Anyone can nominate a varsity high school softball or baseball player for an upcoming poll by emailing gvartanian@bnd.com. The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Previous softball poll winners: Emily Allen of Belleville West High School (Week 1), Ryleigh Owens of Edwardsville High School (Week 2), Jordyn Heckert of Okawville High School (Week 3), Brylee Anderton of Collinsville High School (Week 4) and Avery Budde of Breese Central High School (Week 5).