Poll results: Freeburg junior pitcher BND Softball Player of the Week in southwest IL
Samantha Roulanaitis of Freeburg 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, Roulanaitis, a junior pitcher, racked up 9 strikeouts in a 10-0 win over Breese Central. She also had 3 hits and 1 RBI in an 11-1 win against Belleville West.
Overall, Roulanaitis — who secured 94% of the votes — entered the weekend batting .624 with 7 home runs and 48 RBI while boasting a 21-1 record on the mound with a 1.01 earned run average and 206 strikeouts in 139 innings pitched for the 28-1 Midgets (10-0 in the Mississippi Division of the Cahokia Conference).
Here were the other candidates for the week of May 1-6:
- Jayna Bast, Red Bud High School, junior, 1B. Bast went 9-for-19 last week with 4 doubles and 6 RBI in helping the Musketeers to a 5-0 week and moving their overall record to 23-7 entering the week (7-2 in the Illinois Division of the Cahokia Conference).
Avery Boehm, Mascoutah High School, freshman, OF. Boehm hit a HR and had 4 RBI in a 13-5 win against Jerseyville, helping the Indians enter the week at 7-14 overall and 2-5 in the Mississippi Valley Conference.
Sophia Boente, Belleville West High School, senior, SS. Boente is the leadoff hitter for the Maroons — who entered the week at 11-17 overall, 4-5 in the Southwestern Conference — and leads the team in batting average (.389) and RBI (24). On Saturday, she had 1 hit and 1 RBI in a loss to Highland.
- Maddie Greenfield, Belleville East High School, senior, C. Greenfield had 2 hits and 4 RBI along with a HR in a 20-0 victory over Granite City for the Lancers, who entered the week at 22-7-1 overall and 8-1 in the Southwestern Conference.
- Karsen Jany, Columbia High School, senior, 2B/OF. Jany hit a walk-off grand slam to help the Eagles defeat Roxana 13-12. Columbia entered the week at 15-11 overall and 5-5 in the Mississippi Division of the Cahokia Conference.
Riley Nelson, Edwardsville High School, senior, P. Nelson threw posted strikeouts in a 10-2 win over Belleville West. She then had 7 strikeouts and allowed just 1 hit in a 13-0 victory against Teutopolis. Nelson’s efforts helped the Tigers improve to 23-4 and 9-0 in the Southwestern Conference.
The poll ended at 8 a.m. Friday.
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.
The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Please email nominations to gvartanian@bnd.com.
Previous winners: Aubrey Weaver of Belleville West High School; Olivia Anderson of Belleville West High School; Brooke Goetter of Lebanon High School; and Malia Robertson of O’Fallon High School.
This story was originally published May 15, 2023 at 6:30 AM.