Extra Inning Softball’s National Club Player & National Club Team of the Week – July 15, 2020

Our Extra Inning Softball National Club Player & National Club Team of the Week series moved into Week 5 for the 2020 summer season with today’s edition.

The Club Player/Team of the Week features great individual and team accomplishments from the past weekend along with those who were Runners-Up with similarly strong performances.

This week’s honorees are from games and tournaments in the week of Monday, July 6 through Sunday July 12,  2020 and has a strong Purple & Gold coloring this week!

Scroll to the bottom for details to submit info for future candidates.

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National Club Player of the Week:

Mari Hubbard (Birmingham Thunderbolts 2023 – Burns)

Mariami ‘Mari’ Hubbard has been an offensive and defensive team leader for the Birmingham Thunderbolts 2024 Burns team this entire summer. This weekend, she was an offensive and defensive team leader at the Atlanta Legacy Showcase, batting .583 (7-for-12) with a double, five runs scored, with two walks, and a HPB offensively and notching 16 outs (A + PO) with two double plays from 2nd (4-3) and SS (6-3) defensively. The Bolts were 5-2 for the weekend.

Mari, ranked 165 (81st infielder) by Extra Inning Softball for the 2024 class, wears #81 for her August 1st birthday and is in the top 2-3 for many offensive categories on a team with eight girls ranked in the top 75 of the 2024 class.

This season Mari is batting .486 thru 22 games (.500 thru 26 games, counting friendlies). On the Bolts team this season, she leads the team with a 69.05% QAB rating, has the 2nd highest batting average (.486), 2nd highest OBP (.488), 2nd highest Contact Percentage (.971), third highest slugging (.543), and third highest OPS (1.031).

Mari primarily plays 2nd base, but also plays SS, LF, RF, and Catcher. She played 2nd base and batted .441 (15-for-34) during the Thunderbolts PGF National Championship run last year.

Over a three-year period with the Bolts, Mari has a .380 batting average (114-for-300) with 32 walks and only 11 strikeouts in 361 plate appearances (.963 contact percentage, one strikeout per 32.8 plate appearances). Defensively, her fielding percentage typically ranges from 93-96%.

Going into her freshman year, she is already a two-year varsity starter/letterman playing 2nd (2019) and SS (2020) for the 7A Huntsville High School (Alabama) Lady Panthers. Academically, Mari takes advanced Math classes and concluded her 2020 school year with straight A’s.

Mari’s mother and name originates from the former Soviet country of Georgia, located by the Black Sea and Caucasus Mountains. When she is not playing softball, Mari has enjoyed flying across the world to see family and friends six times.

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Runners-Up / National Player of the Week

* McKayla Betts, a 2022 MIF/3B/OF for the Germantown Devils had a huge week at the Atlanta Legacy tourney as she batted .818 in five games with an OPS of 1.718. The incoming junior went 9-for-11 including nine singles and six runs scored. She also was perfect in the field.

McKayla is being recruited by SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 schools along with several other DI and DII programs. For the seasons she’s hitting .475 with 10 RBIs and only has made one error.

Scroll down to see who else was honored as Runners-Up for the week & who took the National Club Team of the Week!

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How to Submit Information:

Each week during the summer, Extra Inning Softball will recognize a National Club Player & Team of the Week.

Those honored will typically be announced on Tuesdays. The cutoff for submitting the nominations for Player & Team of the Week will be Mondays at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST.

* Individually, we’re looking for standouts who excelled in the circle, at the plate or in the field so be sure to nominate your favorite performance(s) by submitting the following:

• Player Name
• Grad Year (example: Class of 2021 or Incoming Senior)
• Position(s)
• Club team name with city/state
• Stats for the week (be as detailed as possible!)
• Up-to-date season stats if possible
• Recruiting information if applicable
• Any interesting background on the player
• Action and/or head shots
• If possible, contact info if we’d like more info or quotes

* Teams to be considered should include info such as record, key wins, standout performances and more for the week.

Email your info and photos (1-4 as available) by the cutoff of Mondays at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST to: [email protected].