2021 Great Midwest Softball All-Conference Team (PDF)
FINDLAY, Ohio – After the first two games in the tournament bracket, the 2021 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Softball All-Conference Team was released in front of the fans at Marathon Diamonds on Thursday morning.
The coaches voted for respective positions on the first, second and third teams, while individual award winners were also revealed, including the player, pitcher, freshman and coach of the year with the Elite 23 Award winner.
The top 8 seeds are at the Great Midwest Championship hosted by Findlay and utilizing the Anderson and Iriti fields to battle for a tournament title and an AQ into the NCAA Midwest Regional.
The Great Midwest Player and Pitcher of the Year awards were swept by Malone in the form of slugger Bailey Byers and staff ace Kelsey Byers. The Pioneers' tandem of All-American candidates was instrumental in helping Malone to the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament and a record of 24-9-1.
The senior catcher Bailey Byers led the conference in slugging percentage (1.048) and on-base percentage (.567) while tying for the league lead in homers (14) and batting average (.495). She was also third among all players in RBI (40) and was fifth in hits (52).
RHP Kelsey Byers was the consummate workhorse in the circle as she finished the regular season with a 1.73 ERA and 223 strikeouts in just 174 innings pitched. Byers' strikeout total was the second highest in Great Midwest history (295 by TNU's Haley Fagan in 2016) and her 22 wins rank third most in a single season in league history.
Byers is also second in Division II in total strikeouts only behind 249 amassed by Erskine's Hanna Houge and a major part of Malone leading the country in strikeout-to-walk ratio at nearly 13.5. She has gone the distance in 22 of 29 games this spring, another total that ranks second in Division II.
Both Byers sisters were named Schutt / NFCA National Player and Pitcher of the Week during the course of the spring season. The Pioneers did their work under Great Midwest co-Coach of the Year Kathryn Bzdafka who shared the honor with Trevecca Nazarene's Ben Tyree, who guided the Trojans to the conference regular season title.
The Great Midwest Freshman of the Year was Cedarville RHP Casey Bertke, who emerged out of her rookie season with a league-leading 1.45 ERA. Bertke was conference pitcher of the week and logged over 100 innings with top 10 strikeout numbers. She also tied for sixth in the league with eight winning decisions.
The Elite 23 Award softball winner went to Malone's Lauren Bennett, a sophomore infielder with a 4.0 cumulative GPA in Early Childhood Education.
The first team is loaded with positional standouts, including two-time conference player of the year MaKray Odom of Trevecca Nazarene. She was joined by teammates Carly Sperlich, a two-time conference player of the week this spring, and Lenna Robinson, a junior outfielder. Hillsdale, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, placed three on the first team including two-time player of the week Sam Catron, outfielder Natalie Stepanenko and staff ace Dana Weidinger, a two-time pitcher of the week. Ohio Dominican's Carson Hackerd received the honors for first team at first base while Findlay's Megan Fisher, the league leader in opponent batting average with nine wins in the circle also made the list. Kentucky Wesleyan duo of near 200 strikeout machine RHP Evyn Hendrickson and OF Mercyk Hardley (9th in batting average .392) also were voted to the first team by the coaches.