Meigs County's Ashley Rogers, shown during a softball state tournament game in May, continues to rake in the honors since completing her senior season.Meigs County pitching ace Ashley Rogers can add a national player of the year to her list of many awards received after leading the Lady Tigers to their third consecutive softball state championship in May.
Extra Inning Softball recently chose Rogers as the recipient of its top honor. She had already been selected to All-America teams by Extra Inning, FloSoftball, MaxPreps, USA Today and Premier Girls Fastpitch, including being chosen to compete in the PGF All-America game July 27 at DeAnna Manning Stadium in Irvine, California. That showcase will be televised by ESPNU.
"Any national honor is really big," Meigs coach Jeff Davis said. "Nobody around here has ever received anything like that. That's huge for her and couldn't have happened to a nicer kid."
The nearly 6-foot University of Tennessee signee had a 29-2 pitching record last spring with an ERA of 0.20 and batted .437 with eight home runs and 37 RBIs for the TSSAA Class AA state champions. She totaled 398 strikeouts while walking six batters in 174 innings, but that was more than Davis had hoped to pitch her.
Rogers' throwing arm had begun bothering her in 2017 when she pitched five games in two days while helping Meigs win the second of its two Class A state titles. It turned out she had a stress fracture that caused her to miss the summer season with her traveling team.
The arm began bothering her again this past high school season, so the plan was to use No. 2 pitcher Savannah Scott more often. However, Davis said Scott was injured during Ooltewah's tournament March 23-24 at The Summit of Softball Complex, where Meigs gladly agreed to forgo playing the Gold title game against The King's Academy.
Rogers grinded on, pitching in some District 5 games she wouldn't have normally during the month or so Scott was out.
"Luckily most of those games went five innings," Davis said. "That helped us take care of her arm."
Davis said what may have helped most was her being away from softball completely for nine days when she was on a senior trip in late April, shortly before postseason play began.
"We got her through the tournaments, and it worked out pretty good," Davis said. "We would always ask Ashley how she was. She'd say 'Fine,' and we didn't ask anything else. With her mother (Lynda) being a doctor, I don't think they would've done anything to cause any risk to her long term."
In addition to her on-field exploits, Rogers may have swayed those in charge of the award at Extra Inning with her Father's Day tribute to her late father, Loring, who at 52 died shortly before Christmas 2016. Her essay ran June 17 on extrainningsoftball.com.
"It is a big deal to be considered for it, much less win it," Rogers said of the national award in a July 3 story on the Extra Inning website. "This award is such a huge honor and the result of hard work, but I wouldn't have gotten it without a number of people. I had such an awesome team and coaches that had my back through every step of the way.
"My amazing family, as always, was so supportive and encouraging through it all. The support system at Meigs County is honestly beyond compare, and I am so thankful to have been able to wear that uniform the past four years.
"Most importantly, I thank God for watching over me and giving me the strength to play the game I love."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.