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

Taylor Hettenhausen of Okawville 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, Hettenhausen, a sophomore pitcher, fired a perfect game in the Lady Rockets’ first regional contest while striking out 10 batters in 5 innings. She then helped lead Okawville to a regional championship by allowing only 1 walk and throwing a complete game with 4 strikeouts. Hettenhausen finished the season with a 10-5 mark and 3.20 earned run average.

Hettenhausen tallied 69% of the votes to finish ahead of other BND nominees Adi Foutch of Breese Central High School, Elise Gibson of Belleville West High School, Lexie Griffin of Edwardsville High School, Maggie Grohmann of Highland High School and Lizzy Ludwig of Freeburg 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), Avery Budde of Breese Central High School (Week 5) and Owens (Week 6).