McMinnville’s Anna Bertrand won 22 games this year, pushing the Grizzlies to the state semifinals and earning 6A Pitcher of the Year honors. She finished her career with 0.44 ERA and nearly 1,200 strikeouts.
Marcus Larson
News-Register

Helping to lead McMinnville softball to heights it had never before reached, Anna Bertrand ended her high school career a champion, even with the Grizz falling in the state semifinals. She was named the Pacific Conference Pitcher of the Year. She later learned she had become the first player in the program’s history to be named the Gatorade Oregon Softball Player of the Year. And, this week, she topped off her list of postseason awards by being named the 6A Pitcher of the Year.

Player of the Year honors went to senior pitcher Taylor Schmidt, who led North Medford past Mac and to the state championship. Black Tornado coach Mike Mayben is the 6A Coach of the Year. The team is selected by a consensus of league representatives for each classification.

While may be a bit biased, Mac High coach Larry Nichols also knows a bit about softball. And he’s long known how special a player Bertrand is. In fact, after just the third game of the season, Nichols made his opinion clear.

“There are a lot of good pitchers in this state, but she’d be my choice,” he said. “If I had to pick one, she’d be it.”

As it turned out, the rest of the 6A agreed. And it’s no secret why.

Bertrand has been key in the resurgence of Mac High softball, leading the squad to the 2008 state quarterfinals and this year’s semifinals. No team in school history has reached as far. The three-time first-team all-state selection finished 22-4 this season with an 0.61 ERA, 11 shutouts and 280 strikeouts over 183 innings. Over her career, she was 87-16 with an incredible 0.44 ERA and nearly 1,200 strikeouts in 724 innings.

She’s no slouch on offense, either. In her final season with the Grizz, Bertrand batted .462 with five home runs and 30 RBIs, had a .514 on-base percentage and a .789 slugging percentage.

On top of it all, and she graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was a National Merit Scholar finalist.

Bertrand, who will play next season at Portland State, is currently in California playing with the Northwest Bullets in an 80-team tournament with a spot in the national tournament on the line.

Also making the first team was senior Bailee Niehus, who was listed among the state’s best infielders. Senior Alyssa Nichols was a third-team infield selection.

In 4A, Yamhill-Carlton pitcher Ashley Braden was a third-team pick while teammates Cortney Player (infield) and Alexis Findley (outfield) also made the third team. Both are juniors.

Y-C freshman Madison Ogden was an honorable mention infielder.

The 4A Co-Players of the Year were senior Kayla Braud, a shortstop, and sophomore pitcher Nyree White. Both are from Marist, as is the 4A Coach of the Year, Bob Hammitt.

In the combined 2A/1A selections, too, was Perrydale senior Christina Feil in the outfield.

Reynolds junior pitcher Jessica Reynolds was named 2A/1A Player of the year while Irrigon’s Jake McElligott was named 2A/1A Coach of the Year.