Poll results: Belleville West senior BND Softball Player of the Week in southwestern IL

Ahmad Lathan, Garen Vartanian
·3 min read

Olivia Anderson of Belleville West 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, Anderson, a senior first baseman, led her team with a .600 batting average and an on base percentage of .626 in 3 games last week. According to coach Kassandra Korte-Schaab, Anderson’s hits came in key moments to bring in 3 RBIs, to help her team to a perfect week.

Anderson entered the weekend batting .396 with 3 homers, 20 RBI and an on base percentage of .500. She secured 76% of the votes.

Here were the other candidates for the week of April 10-15:

  • Jackie Amann, Mascoutah High School, senior, LF. Amann secured her first home run of the season against Belleville West. Overall, Amann has 6 doubles and 11 RBIs for the season.

  • Valerie Combs, Nashville High School, senior, C. In 5 games last week, Combs went 8-for-20 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 7 runs scored and 8 RBI.

  • Nicole Edmiaston, Freeburg High School, senior, 1B. Edmiaston had 2 hits and 2 RBI in a 12-1 win over Breese Central. Edmiaston also had 2 hits and 4 RBI in a 8-3 victory over Columbia.

  • Olivia Geralds, Red Bud High School, sophomore, P. Geralds went 4-0 on the week while striking out 22 batters allowing 1 walk and only surrendering 2 earned runs in 29 innings pitched. She had shutout wins over Carlyle and Sparta and picked up 2-1 victories over Waterloo and Newton. According to Musketeers coach Brian Boeving, Geralds stepped up big last week as the team dealt with some injuries and gave the Musketeers 4 great starts.

  • Autumn Gilley, Marissa High School, senior, INF. Gilley batted over 800 for the week and didn’t commit an error while playing shortstop.

  • Ava Hamilton, Belleville East High School, senior, SS/OF. Hamilton had 2 runs and 1 RBI in a 14-1 win against Collinsville. She then had 3 hits and 2 RBI in a 15-4 victory over Murphysboro.

  • Maya Hataway, Belleville East High School, senior, CF. Hataway is batting .515 on the season and currently has a 17-game hitting streak. She has 35 hits, 20 runs, 23 stolen bases, and 16 RBI. Last week she was 8-for-19 with 6 runs scored. She also had multiple “web gems” on defense last week, according to coach Natalie Peters.

  • Lyla Hess, Red Bud High School, junior, UT. Hess had 3 hits and 4 RBI in a 11-1 victory over Gibault. She had 2 hits and 4 RBI in a 15-0 win over Greenville.

  • Grace Presely, Alton High School, junior, P/OF. Presley rang up 17 strikeouts in a 5-1 win over Granite City. Presley also had 1 hit and 1 RBI in a 12-5 loss against Belleville West.

  • Samantha Roulanaitis, Freeburg High School, junior, P. Roulanaitis notched 14 strikeouts in a 12-1 victory over Breese Central. She also posted 7 strikeouts and allowed just 2 hits in a 9-0 against Staunton.

  • Avery Rost, O’Fallon High School, senior, P. Rost is currently leading the team in batting average (.500), on base percentage (.571), and RBI (7) for players with more than 5 at bats. According to Panthers coach Jamie Corbier, Rost has pitched the majority of the innings this year for the Panthers (33). She led the Panthers to a complete game 14-4 Southwestern Conference victory against Collinsville on April 11. She also had 2 hits and 2 RBI during that game as well. Corbier also said Rose is a leader for O’Fallon on and off the field.

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.