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2026 NewsTribune Softball Player of the Year: Princeton’s Avah Oertel · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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