MIDDLETOWN >> In volleyball and in softball, Renee Edwards makes her presence felt.
The Middletown High School senior, now just days away from graduation, is a finalist for the 2014-15 Lake County Record-Bee Athlete of the Year award after starring for the Mustangs in both the fall and spring sports seasons.
A hard-hitting middle hitter for the Mustangs in volleyball, Edwards landed first-team honors on the All-North Central League I squad late last year. Fast-forward to the current spring sports season and Edwards is currently in the process of chasing down an eight-year-old Lake County record for most strikeouts in a single season. The left-hander has 234 strikeouts in just 133 1/3 innings and needs 15 more to tie and 16 to break the standing record of 249 set by Clear Lake’s Brittany Rumfelt in 2007.
Edwards wraps up her regular season today in Cloverdale. With the Mustangs on the bubble as far as making the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs are concerned, she’ll probably need at least one more game to take a shot at breaking the record. Middletown will apply for an at-large berth on Sunday when the Division IV field is set, according to coach Barry Glosser, who said his senior deserves every chance to make her mark in the county’s record books.
Record or no, Edwards is probably headed toward a first-team selection on the All-League softball squad, which would add a little more icing to her senior cake. That team will be selected next week by the league’s coaches.
Edwards will be considered for the Athlete of the Year award along with four other county girls. Finalists must be juniors or seniors who compete in at least two varsity sports and who are in good academic standing at their respective schools. The Athlete of the Year winners among the county’s girls and boys will be honored sometime next month along with Coach of the Year winners in boys’ and girls’ sports.
