Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / BCR Softball Player of Year: Princeton’s Avah Oertel keeps hitting on record pace

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BCR Softball Player of Year: Princeton’s Avah Oertel keeps hitting on record pace · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: BCR Softball Player of Year Princeton's Ava Ortel keeps hitting
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  on record pace. Written by Kevin Hieronymous, this article is
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  being read by an automated voice brought to you by
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  Everlett Alva. Ortel won the bcr's first Triple Crown award
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  in twenty three years. Last year as the area leader
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  in home runs, RBIs and average turns out. She was
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  just warming up. The Princeton junior slugger had more hits
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  than Elvis Presley this spring. She batted point six to
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  zero seven with the school single season record seventeen homers,
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  fifty nine RBIs, nineteen doubles, and fifty five runs scored.
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  With a year ago, she is already Princeton's career leader
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  for home runs thirty five, RBIs won thirty seven and
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  doubles thirty five. Urtel was named unanimous All Three Rivers
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  East All Conference and helped the Tigrises to a twenty
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  one to nine record and the brink of a regional championship.
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  She was named First Team ICA Class two A All
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  State for all of her accomplishments. Ertel repeats as the
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  BCR Softball Player of the Year for twenty twenty six.
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  With coaching changes, including head coach Jessica Strauch and the
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  loss of key seniors, Ortel didn't know what to expect
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  this season. She even surprised herself with the numbers she
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  put up coming into this season. I was nervous with
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  two new coaches losing the three seniors last year, so
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  I wasn't really sure how it was going to go
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  for me, she said. I thought last year was already
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  a big jump from my freshman year in improvement. I
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  wasn't expecting a bigger jump in my junior year. Ortel
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  said she began working with area renowned hitting instructor Trey
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  Hannam and it paid immediate dividends. I feel like since
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  working with him, I've been able to see the ball
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  a lot better and making contact and even making adjustments
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  from at bat to at bat. I feel that's my
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  biggest improvement, the biggest change overall in the she said.
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  I get what he's saying, but then I don't realize
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  how big of an impact it makes until the pitcher's pitching.
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  It will be just something so simple too. Last time
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  it was squatting more with my legs, and then you
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  can tell how much more powerful I was every time
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  it's something little in my swing. It's like a slow
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  process that continues to work. Hannam said Ortel just needed
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  some fine tuning. She came in with a lot of
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  power last fall, but she needed guidance on how to
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  be more quick and be more consistent with her swing
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  so she could react instead of have to have perfect timing.
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  He said. Then paired up with that having better direction
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  with her swing so she could drive the ball middle
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  away and opposite feel better to put the cherry on top.
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  She had to have more consistent confidence and belief in
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  her swing. Bertel, who with twelve home runs next year
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  would move her into the top fourteen all time in
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  the state, said playing with and batting behind senior slugger
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  Keiley Lawson made her a better hitter. Between them, they
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  belted thirty one homers with one hundred and four RBIs.
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  Me and Keighley were each other's motivation because we would
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  push each other batting two and three in the lineup,
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  playing shortstop and center. We always had a talk. Urtel said.
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  We were named as captains at the beginning of the year,
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  so we took on that role and worked together help
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  anyone fix whatever needed to be fixed, tell coach anything
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  that was happening. I'll definitely be a little lost without
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  her and all those seniors. Ertel's littlest fan, nine year
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  old sister Olivia, is an up and coming player for
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  the Princeton Peaches. She's already talking about beating all of
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  her sister's records. She says, I'm going to beat it.
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  I'm like girl okay, Ava said with a laugh. Watching
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  her now, it just makes my heart happy because she
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  sat through all of my games. She's always learning from
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  her games. She's my little role model, even if she's
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  so young. Ertle can't ask for much more individually for
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  an encore for her senior season, but there's one thing
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  he's shooting for most next year. The big thing is
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  I want to win a regional championship for Princeton High School,
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  especially my senior year. She said. I wanted to this year,
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  I wanted to last year. I feel like each year
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  we get super duper close. But this year was a
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  good game. It came down to the final straw. Winning
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  that regional championship and moving on to sectional would be huge.
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  Ortell made an early commitment in November to play for
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  the University of Illinois Springfield. It's helped to put her
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  mind at ease and just play ball this spring. Once
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  I committed, I felt like I played a lot more
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  loose this season and played a lot more comfortable. Knowing
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  I have somewhere to go after high school. It definitely
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  made me more relaxed, she said. I'm super excited. They
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  were like my number one school. It's funny because they
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  didn't really show any interest until last summer and I
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  committed November twentieth. Every time I see something on Twitter
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  about them, I get more excited. I can't wait to
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  see where that goes to