2019 Home Run Sports Athletes of the Year

HR Sports PNG

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	10^th	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.

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	6^th	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	6^th	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!