In its 28th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, the Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Tori Finucane of Bishop O'Connell High School as its 2012-13 Gatorade Virginia Softball Player of the Year. This is the second year in a row that Finucane has been honored with this award, and she is the second Gatorade Virginia Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Bishop O'Connell High School. Former O'Connell standout, Kelly Engman, was honored in 2006.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Finucane as Virginia’s best high school softball player. Finucane is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award announced in June.
The returning Gatorade State Player of the Year--a 5-foot-7 senior right-handed pitcher--led the Knights (30-1) to the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament title and the Virginia Independent Schools state championship this past season, both for a second straight year. Finucane posted a 26-1 record with one save, a 0.21 ERA and 341 strikeouts in 164 innings pitched. She allowed 40 hits and walked 31 batters with nine no-hitters, including five perfect games. At the plate, the two-time WCAC Player of the Year batted .554 with six home runs, seven triples, 45 RBI and a 1.054 slugging percentage.
Finucane has maintained a 3.63 GPA in the classroom, while serving as editor of The Visor and volunteering locally as a youth softball coach and mentor.
“Tori Finucane’s performance on the softball field is above reproach, both offensively and in the pitching circle,” said Frank Husson, head coach of Urbana (Md.) High. “Her numbers are a testament to her determination and demonstrate the results of her sound work ethic.”
Finucane has signed a National Letter of Intent to play softball on an athletic scholarship at the University of Missouri this fall.
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