Softball Canada and Home Run Sports Announce 2019 Athlete of the Year Award Recipients

November 19, 2019

Softball Canada - Richmond, B.C. – Softball Canada and Home Run Sports (a division of Kahunaverse Sports) are very pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of newly created Athlete of the Year awards that will recognize Canada’s best and brightest athletes. The recipients were selected by Softball Canada’s Awards Committee with input from coaches and Canadian Championship supervisors and based on performance at Canadian Championships and international play. The award recipients were announced at the Softball Canada Hall of Fame & Awards Banquet held in Richmond, B.C. on Saturday night.
 
The recipients of the 2019 Athlete of the Year awards are:  

FEMALE FAST PITCH ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
VICTORIA HAYWARD

 
Batting

Event Result GP PA AB H HR RBI R SB AVG
Canada Cup Gold 9 29 26 9 0 2 7 1 .346
Pan Am Games Silver 6 21 17 6 0 1 3 2 .353
Olympic Qualif. 2nd 6 20 18 10 1 7 8 7 .556
Total   21 70 61 25 1 10 18 10 .410

 

Victoria Hayward (Toronto, Ont.) was consistently strong throughout the summer, helping lead Canada’s Women’s National Team to a gold medal at the Canada Cup, a silver medal at the Pan American Games and a berth to 2020 Olympic Games at the WBSC Americas Softball Qualifier. Team Canada’s leadoff batter maintained a .410 batting average and a .486 on-base percentage across those three events and led the Olympic qualifier with 10 hits and 7 stolen bases.

 

MALE FAST PITCH ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
BRYAN ABREY

 
Batting

Event Result GP PA AB H HR RBI R SB AVG
World Champ. Bronze 7 15 11 6 4 6 8 0 .545
Canadians Silver 9 30 25 8 3 5 8 0 .320
Total   16 45 36 14 7 11 16 0 .389

 

Bryan Abrey (Richmond, B.C.) had an outstanding tournament at the plate to help the Canadian Men’s National to a bronze medal finish at the WBSC World Championship, leading the tournament in slugging percentage (1.636) and homeruns (4) to go along with a .545 batting average. He followed that up with a strong showing at the Men’s Canadian Championship, helping the Sooke Loggers to a silver medal finish by hitting three homeruns, two doubles, driving in five runs and scoring eight runs.

 

FEMALE FAST PITCH MINOR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
KENDRA FALBY

 
Batting

Event Result GP PA AB H HR RBI R SB AVG
Canada Cup 10th 6 19 17 6 0 2 2 2 .353
World Cup Bronze 10 34 28 13 0 2 9 13 .464
Total   16 53 45 19 0 4 11 15 .422

 

Kendra Falby (Tampa, Fla.) helped lead the Canadian Junior Women’s National Team to its best-ever finish at the WBSC U19 Women’s World Cup with a bronze medal. Falby had 13 hits, scored nine runs and broke the WBSC U19 Women’s World Cup record with a total of 13 stolen bases. She also had six hits and a .353 average competing in the Women’s International division at the Canada Cup.

 

MINOR MALE FAST PITCH MINOR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
CONNOR BROOKS

 
Batting

Event Result GP PA AB H HR RBI R SB AVG
U16 Canadians Gold 9 28 22 10 1 4 10 1 .455
U19 Canadians 6th 9 29 22 12 1 4 5 0 .545
U17 Qualifier Gold 6 23 17 5 0 1 5 0 .294
Total   24 80 61 27 2 9 20 1 .443

 
Pitching

Event Result IP W L S H ER BB SO ERA
U16 Canadians Gold 40.2 6 0 0 12 1 6 81 0.17
U19 Canadians 6th 17.1 2 1 0 14 9 11 35 3.64
U17 Qualifier Gold 6.0 1 0 0 2 4 6 9 4.67
Total   64.0 9 1 0 28 14 19 125 1.53

 

Connor Brooks (Napanee, Ont.) won Gold medals at both the U16 Canadian Championship with the Napanee Express and the U17 Men’s Pan American Championship with the Canadian Junior Men’s National Team. A dual threat at the plate and in the pitcher’s circle, Brooks registered 27 hits and a .443 batting average to go along with 125 strikeouts and a 1.53 ERA across those three events. He also collected plenty of Canadian Championship hardware, taking the Top Pitcher and Top Player of the Championship Round awards at the U16 event, and was named to the U19 All-Star team.

 

FEMALE SLO-PITCH ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
MICHELLE LORENZ

 
Batting

Event Result GP PA AB H HR RBI R SB AVG
Border Battle Loss 3 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 .500
Canadians Gold 13 40 36 19 0 14 20 0 .528
Total   16 43 38 20 0 15 20 0 .526

 
Pitching

Event Result IP W L S H ER BB SO ERA
Border Battle Loss 13.0 0 3 0 42 25 4 0 13.46
Canadians Gold 66.0 11 1 0 139 60 8 20 6.36
Total   79.0 11 4 0 181 85 12 20 7.53

 

Michelle Lorenz (Toronto, Ont.) represented Canada for the third time as a member of the Women’s Slo-Pitch Border Battle team, handling most of the pitching duties. Despite tough results at the Border Battle, Lorenz was stellar at the Women’s Slo-Pitch Canadian Championship with 19 hits, 14 RBIs and 20 runs scored to go along with a .526 batting average, while starting all 12 of her Kahunaverse / Miken Ladybirds games in the pitcher’s circle on route to a gold medal performance. She was named the Top Player of the Championship Round at the event.

 

MALE SLO-PITCH ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
JUSTIN PENNELL

 
Batting

Event Result GP PA AB H HR RBI R SB AVG
Border Battle Loss 4 18 17 12 2 8 8 0 .706
Canadians Silver 16 66 59 41 5 25 38 0 .695
Total   20 84 76 53 7 35 46 0 .697

 

Justin Pennell (Edmonton, Alta.) represented Canada for the sixth consecutive year at the 2019 edition of the Slo-Pitch Border Battle, leading the team with 12 hits and six doubles at the event. At the Men’s Slo-Pitch Canadian Championship, he was named the Top Batter with 41 hits and 38 runs scored and a .695 batting average.
 
Congratulations to the six recipients of the Home Run Sports Athlete of the Year Awards!

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For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing & Communications
Softball Canada
p: (613) 523-3386 ext. 3105 | m: (613) 795-1996
w: www.softball.ca | e: gleblanc@softball.ca