Improving Lady Knights gain recognition
Published 9:44 am Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Buckingham County High School’s improving varsity girls softball team drew a variety of honors this season.
Leading the way for the Lady Knights, who enjoyed a winning season, was junior Emily Gormus, who made the All-Region 2A West first team and the All-Courthouse Conference 37 first team as a first baseman, while also making the all-conference second team as a pitcher.
“Her bat was phenomenal this year,” Buckingham Head Coach Mark Christian said.
Gormus led her team with a .522 batting average, 35 hits, including 15 doubles, 31 RBIs, an .836 slugging percentage and a .600 on-base percentage.
“She had absolutely zero errors this year, no physical errors at all, and that’s pretty much what sold everybody else on her nominations for conference and region,” Christian said. “She had a super-good year as far as hitting the ball and fielding.”
Gormus had 58 putouts.
As a pitcher, she threw a team-high 62.2 innings. She had a 3.016 earned run average and threw 40 strikeouts.
She also received the Buckingham County High School Outstanding Player of the Year award.
Last year, Gormus was named to the all-conference second team as an outfielder.
This year, senior Mattie Kish Heslip was selected to the all-conference first team and the all-region second team as an outfielder.
She recorded 28 hits and led the Lady Knights with 27 runs scored.
“Her speed is what does it,” Christian said. “If she got on, we put people in the hole, because she’s just that fast. And Jayda (Chambers) was behind her, and Jayda, with her speed, made things horrible, because they couldn’t get the out going to second, and then they try to get the out going to first, and Jayda’s fast enough where she was running out a lot of bunts, as well.”
Chambers, a sophomore, was an all-conference first team selection as an outfielder.
Heslip and Chambers combined for only nine errors.
Chambers had 18 hits and 25 runs scored.
“We had a phenomenal team speed this year, more than we’ve ever had that I can remember,” Christian said. “Even eight years ago or 10 years ago, when they were doing well, they didn’t have team speed the way that we had this year.”
Heslip was also named Buckingham’s Offensive Player of the Year.
Senior Elizabeth Love received the Knight Award for Buckingham and was named to the all-conference first team as a utility player and the all-conference second team at shortstop.
“She was a natural at shortstop, and she made some good defensive plays this year, and she also had five home runs for us,” Christian said. “She swung the bat, her average wasn’t super-great, but she came up with pivotal hits and home runs at great times.”
Love finished with 18 hits, 15 RBIs and 14 runs scored.
Last year, she received all-conference honorable mention at shortstop.
Freshman Mia Garrett made the all-conference first team as a pitcher in her first year on the varsity landscape.
She led the Lady Knights with 11 starts in the circle, pitching 58.2 innings. She threw 56 strikeouts and had an ERA of 4.176.
“Her numbers weren’t super knockout, but they were very good,” Christian said. “They were good numbers, and she had a some big games, like the no-hitter stuck out to people, and she pitched well in the one conference (tournament) game that we were playing in.”
On offense, Garrett recorded 19 hits and 11 RBIs.
Senior Alexis Crews received the Buckingham Coaches Award, and she was also named to the all-conference second team as a catcher.
Junior Raven Morgan made the all-conference second team as a third baseman, and she was also named Buckingham’s Most Improved Player.