High school softball is getting back onto the fields across the country and is a welcome sight after most of the 2020 spring season was cancelled.
Each Tuesday for the next several months we’ll honor top performances nationwide; if you’d like to have a player considered, scroll down to see how to fill in a nomination.
Players below are recognized for play in games Sunday, Mar. 7, 2021 through Saturday, Mar. 13, 2021…
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Extra Inning Softball’s National High School Player of the Week
* Jenna Madison, a 2024 infielder with Curry (Jasper, Alabama) High, played nine games last week which culminated in her winning the Tournament MVP at the Smith Lake Classic. The team went 9-0 and is currently 23-3 with Jenna’s performances amazing enough to earn her National Player of the Week honors.
The freshman hit .770 with 20 hits for the week including seven singles, eight doubles, three triples, two home runs and 21 RBIs. Equally impressive, she had a .800 on-base percentage and didn’t strike out once.
Did she expect to have such a prodigious outburst, we asked her.
“At the beginning of the week, I hit a lot of front toss with my dad,” Jenna explained, “and I usually get a feeling if I’m going to have a good week. When I first started hitting on Monday, I felt really good and knew it was going to be a good week.”
If there’s such a thing as being “in the zone,” the high schooler was certainly in it… did she feel like she couldn’t be stopped?
“Yea, you can say that!” Jenna laughed. “I was in my zone, focusing on myself and my team, and was happy how we were winning and kept pushing myself to my limits. I just kept going with the flow.”
Of all her accomplishments, the one Jenna said she was most proud of wouldn’t be one that you’d first think of.
“I believe I got out five or six times during the week,” she recalls, “but didn’t let it impact me negatively. I went outside my dugout and worked on what I could do to improve and do better. To make adjustments and improve on that is what makes me feel best about the week.”
Jenna is a Top 50-ranked player in the 2024 Extra Elite 100 and her club coach, Justin Kaplan of the Birmingham Thunderbolts, told Extra Inning Softball this weekend:
“Jenna is a stud at the plate. She is a gap-to-gap line drive hitter who is a threat every time she goes to the plate. In the field she has tremendous range and great instincts to go along with a very strong arm and can play anywhere in the infield. Off the field she’s an awesome teammate and sweet kid who is an absolute pleasure to coach.”
Runner-Up National Player of the Week
* Haylee Monden, a 2023 P/1B with Camden Fairview of Camden, Arkansas, helped her team go 4-0 last week as she pitched a perfect game and a no-hitter.
She went 26 innings giving up just three hits, one earned run and one walk while striking out 66.
She also had a monster week at the plate going 7-for-10 and was walked five times. For the season she has 76 K’s in 30 innings and only one earned run to date.
Honorable Mention National Players of the Week
* Senior pitcher Sage Hoover of Rains (Emory TX) High, the #1 ranked 3A team in Texas, pitched three games—all of them shutouts against ranked teams—last week.
She pitched a total of 17 innings and faced 59 batters and struck out 32 of them while allowing no runs and not even a strikeout.
For the season to date, Sage has gone 16-0 in her starts. She has given up only two runs, both coming on a home run by Dee McClarity of Sachse High, but her numbers for the year are impressive: she’s thrown 90.2 innings with 208 strikeouts versus just three walks, an ERA of 0.15 and a batting average allowed of just 0.74.
*** Scroll down to see more Honorable Mention National Players of the Week…
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Nomination Process
Each week during the spring and summer high school seasons, Extra Inning Softball honors a National High School Player of the Week.
Honoree are announced every Tuesday ; cutoff for submitting the nominations is each Monday at noon EST/9 am PST.
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 Senior)
- Position(s)
- High school 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
Email info and photos (1-4 as available) by the cutoff of Monday at noon EST/9 am PST to: info@extrainningsoftball.com.
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Extra Inning Softball National High School Players of the Week (Past & Present)
2021
- Mar. 16: IF Jenna Madison (Curry, Jasper, Alabama)
- Mar. 9: P/IF Annabelle Widra (Spain Park, Hoover, Alabama)
- Mar. 2: C/3B Elizabeth Moffitt (Prosper, Texas)
2020
- Season cancelled in March due to COVID-19 pandemic
- Mar. 17: P Kenzi Lyall (Alleghany, Sparta, North Carolina)
- Mar. 10: C Maci Bergeron (Notre Dame, Crowley, Louisiana)
- Mar. 3: IF Jayda Coleman (The Colony, Texas)
- Feb. 26: IF/P Micaela Wark (Reedy, Frisco, Texas)
2019
- Jun. 10: P/1B Sydney Supple (North, Oshkosh, Wisconsin)
- May 27: P Aynslie Furbush (Winter Springs, Florida)
- May 20: SS Bailey Dowling (St. Joseph-Ogden, St. Joseph, Illinois)
- May 13: P Britton Rogers (Cypress Ranch, Cypress, Texas)
- May 6: C Neely Peterson (Cypress Creek Middle, Wesley Chapel, Florida)
- Apr. 29: OF/IF/P Angela Zedak (Marist, Chicago, Illinois)
- Apr. 22: SS Kali Heivilin (Three Rivers, Michigan)
- Apr. 15: 3B Trinity Cannon (Forney, Texas)
- Apr. 8: P/1B Sydney Supple (North, Oshkosh, Wisconsin)
- Apr. 1: OF Leea Hanks (Eustis, Florida)
- Mar. 25: P/IF Madison Inscoe (Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, Suffolk, Virginia)
- Mar. 18: 1B/OF Avery Goelz (Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton, Florida)
- Mar. 11: OF/2B Tanya Windle (Cactus, Glendale, Arizona)
- Mar. 4: SS Hallie Wacaser (Bentonville West, Centerton, Arkansas)
- Feb. 25: P Stevie Hansen (Norco, California)
2018
- May 27: P Lexi Kilfoyl (Academy at the Lakes, Land O’ Lakes, Florida)
- May 20: P Ashley Rogers (Meigs County, Decatur, Tennessee)
- May 13 (tie): P Sydney Supple (Oshkosh North, Oshkosh, Wisconsin)
- May 13 (tie): OF Lexi Voss (Marist, Chicago, Illinois)
- May 6: P Danielle Williams (Amador Valley, Pleasanton, California)
- April 29: P Montana Fouts (East Carter, Grayson, Kentucky)
- April 22: IF Kasey Simpson (Keller, Texas)
- April 15: SS Jayda Coleman (The Colony, Texas)
- April 8: P Megan Faraimo (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego, California)
- April 1: C Macy Simmons (Hamilton, Chandler, Arizona)
- March 25: C Paige Pfent (Springstead, Spring Hill, Florida)
- March 18: SS/OF Deja Westbrook (Arcadia, California)
- March 11: P Megan Faraimo (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego, California)
