STARKVILLE, Miss. – Seniors
Yvette Alvarez of
Sahuarita (Sahuarita, Ariz.) High School and
Samantha Gale of
St. Cloud (St. Cloud, Fla.) High School, and junior
Hannah Avants of
Chico (Chico, Texas) High School have all been named as the High School Players of the Week for their respective regions by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association for games played through Feb. 28, 2011.
Representing the West Region, Alvarez has appeared in 6 games for the Mustangs, pitching 3 complete games, with a record of 4-2. She has held opponents to a .187 batting average, and has an ERA of .95 over 29 innings pitched. Alvarez has been equally hot at the plate, hitting .538 in 29 at bats with 16 RBI's. She has hit HR in 4 out of her last 6 games highlighted by her performance against Catalina Foothills, where the senior went 4-4 with 1 HR and 4 RBI's.
From the South Region, Gale a pitcher who spends time behind the plate when she is not in the circle, hit .400 over 5 games last week for the Bulldogs. In a big win over Poincianna she was 5 for 5 with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 RBI's. On the mound so far this season, Gale (5-3) sports a .93 ERA holding opposing teams to a .109 batting average in 45 innings pitched.
Earning top honors from the South Central Region, Avants leads the Chico Dragons this season hitting an impressive .885, with an on-base percentage of .900 and a slugging percentage of 1.462. She was perfect at the plate in 5 out of her last 7 games, highlighted by a for 5 outing against Bridgeport where she blasted 2 doulbes and had 4 RBI's on the day. A catcher, Avants is also burning up the basepaths this season with 14 stolen bases in 15 attempts.
MaxPreps.com, the official high school statistical provider of the NFCA, provides all statistics for the NFCA High School Player of the Week award.
To nominate a player for the award, the coach must enter his or her athlete's game stats into MaxPreps.com by Sunday evening to be eligible for that week's award. The NFCA High School Players of the Week, one for each high school region, will be announced by the Association on www.nfca.org every Monday during the spring season.
MaxPreps is a free stat tool that is available to high school coaches across the country and is one of the most recognized and respected high school athletics web sites on the internet. Coaches that enter their team's stats on Max Preps will not only be nominating their players for this award, but they will be getting their team's information out to thousands of high school sports fans, as well as college coaches across the country.
To obtain a coach's login, please contact: kmccauley@maxpreps.com or call (800) 329-7324 x5153. To enter a team's stats on the MaxPreps website, please
click here.
For any questions regarding the award and the nominating process or for more information, please contact Michelle LaBella at (662) 320-2155 or michelle@nfca.org.