Respect is respect.
As much as she understandably didn’t like it, it was definitively a measure of respect that Walled Lake Northern hewed to its game plan of not letting Novi’s Reganne Bennett beat them single-handedly by intentionally walking her in her final three prep plate appearances.
“I know she’s a big difference maker in the game. So I knew that I wasn’t gonna allow her just to beat us and, you know, make the other players on her team have to step up,” Northern coach Kristen Woodard said of walking Bennett intentionally in the Knights’ 7-1 district final win last weekend, a plan that went with an emphasis of just putting the bat on the ball against Bennett’s pitches.The recent Novi graduate got an even bigger gesture of the respect for her game on Friday, when she was named the Michigan Gatorade Softball Player of the Year.
She’s the second straight Oakland County player to garner the award, following South Lyon’s Ava Bradshaw, and the third overall, joining Troy’s Jessie Granger, who won it twice, in 2004 and 2005.
When you face Reganne, your team better be firing on all cylinders,” Howell head coach Scott Pasini said in the Gatorade press release. “On the mound, she is a dominant pitcher who doesn’t allow many runs. At the plate, she is equally as dominant.”
A 4.06 GPA student in the classroom, Bennett is dominant on the field, as well, hitting .598 with 18 home runs and 20 doubles, scoring 60 runs and driving in 63, posting a .664 on-base percentage and a 1.295 slugging percentage. In the circle, she went 11-5 with a 1.12 ERA, striking out 239 in 131.2 innings pitched.
The No. 18-ranked recruit in the nation in the class of 2023, according to Extra Inning Softball, Bennett is signed to play collegiately at South Carolina.
As the state POY winner, Bennett is now eligible to be considered for the national POY award, which will be announced later this month.
In addition to her classroom work and her work on the field, Bennett volunteered with the Novi HS Unified basketball team, as well as donating her time as an elementary school classroom aide.
Recent winners of the Gatorade Michigan Softball Player of the Year award
2022 — Ava Bradshaw, South Lyon
2021 — Kali Heivilin, Three Rivers
2020 — Gabi Salo, Escanaba
2019 — Lauren Esman, Richland Gull Lake
2018 — Jenny Bressler, Plymouth
2017 — Meghan Beaubien, Monroe St. Mary CC
2016 — Meghan Beaubien, Monroe St. Mary CC
2015 — Meghan Beaubien, Monroe St. Mary CC
2014 — Taylor Weaver, Romeo
2013 — Alyssa Huntley, Sterling Heights Stevenson
2012 — Briana Combs, Livonia Ladywood
2011 — Sara Driesenga, Hudsonville
2010 — Sara Driesenga, Hudsonville
2009 — Sara Driesenga, Hudsonville
2008 — Jenna Ignowski, Niles
2007 — Amanda Chidester, Allen Park Cabrini
2006 — Nicole Nemitz, Harper Woods Regina
2005 — Jessie Granger, Troy
2004 — Jessie Granger, Troy
2003 — Jill Deroache, Brighton
2002 — Ashley Smith, Portage Northern
2001 — Jessica Merchant, Wayland Union
2000 — Jessica Beech, Okemos
1999 — Robyn Golden, Belleville
