The post-season awards and honors continue to pile up for Trenton High School sophomore sensation Aubrey Utley. Most recently the Lady Bulldogs’ windmiller was named to the Class 2 Missouri All-State first team by a panel of Missouri softball coaches.
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The award comes on the heels of Utley’s all-district and all-region selections garnered earlier this month.
Utley put together a very good season on the hill for the Lady Bulldogs. She set the single-game, single-season and career school strikeout records.
Utley struck out 269 batters this season, moving her career mark to 452. She also boasted an ERA of 0.73 and held opponents to a lowly .135 batting average.
“I am extremely happy for Aubrey,” Head Coach Steve Richman said. “It is a great accomplishment for her to be honored like this, especially as just a sophomore.”
Utley pushes most of the credit off on her catcher Lindsey Derry.
“I have to give a lot of thanks to my catcher Lindsey,” Utley said. “She’s the one that pretty much told me what to do. She called the pitches.”
Utley also attributes much of the team’s success to the seniors.
“We had great leadership from Aimee (Gutshall) and JaNea (Whitney),” Utley said. “We were able to put things together and win games.”
Gutshall points out that the extra work put in by Utley helped herself as well as the team.
“Aubrey put a lot of time in to what she did,” Gutshall said. “She worked really hard and she was a team leader for us. She helped us win a lot of games and we are really proud of her for all of her accomplishments.”
Richman agrees that the extra effort put in by Utley is paying dividends.
“She pitches in the gym and puts a ton of time in,” Richman said. “All of those things she works on are starting to pay off for her.”
Of all the accolades Utley has received over her two-year career, the sophomore ranks this one pretty high at the top of the list.
“It’s an honor for me,” Utley said. “Of the awards I have gotten this one ranks pretty high.”