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Friday, 29 July 2011 13:52

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News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan

Osceola High’s Alexa Ballard will play at Florida Atlantic University after being named the Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year.

OHS third baseman honored as Class 5A Defensive POY

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
No matter the obstacle, Osceola High third baseman Alexa Ballard just keeps getting better at softball.
As a junior, coming off thumb surgery, all she did was hit .552. That performance led to a scholarship to Florida Atlantic University with Coach Joyce Jones. She signed during the early period in November.


Ballard, however, had no intentions of resting on that performance for her senior softball season. After rehabbing an ankle sprain, Ballard again peppered opposing pitchers to the tune of a .453 batting average. She drove in 25 runs, scored 36 times and had 43 hits, numbers that  make her the Osceola News-Gazette Softball Player of the Year, an honor she shares with Harmony’s Lauren Harris.
“I didn’t quite do as well as I did last year, but I guess it was a good season,” Ballard said. “We had high expectations coming into the season, and I thought we did pretty well.”
Thanks in large part to Ballard and other senior scholarship winners like Nicole Osterman and Carmen Nadal (both signed to Miami-Dade  College in January), Osceola enjoyed its best season in a decade, winning the 5A-5 district championship and reaching the regional semifinals.
Ballard was named the Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year by Miracle Sports and was a first-team all-state selection. Osterman was a third-team pick.
Coach George Coffey never likes to lose gifted players, and he already misses Ballard, just weeks after the end of her high school career.
“Kids like Lexi (Ballard’s nickname) you just don’t come across that often,” Coffey said. “You can’t replace her, not for the way she plays the game, not with that great attitude she has. It hurts to see that type of player leave the program, but you know it’s going to happen.
“I’m happy for her, and I know that she is going to thrive in a very successful college program.”
Ballard is the fourth of Coffey’s players to sign a D-I scholarship, and the first since former Lady Kowboys Natalie and Megan Hord signed to Villanova after the 2006 season.
“It’s hard for me to compare myself to the Hords because they were such good players,” Ballard said.
But, as an all-state Class 5A selection by Miracle Sports the past two years, and as the Brighthouse Network’s Osceola County Player of the Year for 2011, Ballard’s résumé holds up against the best to play at OHS.
She was named the MVP of the East team at the state high school all-star games in Ocala, where she had three hits and homered in a 3-2 loss against the West.
Her success continues this summer. Her travel team, the South Florida Mini Bulls, qualified for the U-18 USA/ASA Nationals after winning at the ESPN Rise Games in June. Ballard homered in the championship game.
While Ballard looks forward to her career at Florida Atlantic, she said she will miss playing with Osterman, Nadal and senior pitcher Sasha Mendez.
“We’ve been together since the fifth grade,” Ballard said. “I’m going to miss being with them. But, for now, I’m concentrating on what I’ve got to do at FAU.”
Ballard said she was proud to play for Coffey and the Osceola program.
“The things I like about our program is that it is amazing; our coaches spoil us, but that’s because we worked so hard and we earned it,” she said.
“And, we have an honest program. I like playing for a team where the players are from where they’re supposed to be, not like some of the situations you see at other schools.”
Ballard said that in addition to her travel ball schedule she also is in a preseason training program for FAU.
“They have a former NFL player as a conditioning coach,” she said. “You have to meet high standards.”
 

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