The Gatorade State Softball Players of the Year were selected based on athletic production and impact in the 2015-16 season. Each winner also demonstrated high academic achievement and exemplary personal character, including volunteerism, sportsmanship and community leadership.
For a list of the other Gatorade State Softball Players of the Year winners, click here.
THE WINNER: Maddy Barone
THE BASICS
School: Silver Lake Regional (Kingston, Mass.)
Grade: Senior
Position: Right-handed pitcher
Height: 5-foot-9
Athletic achievement: She led the Lakers to a 22-0 record entering the South Division 1 sectional tournament. The returning All-Scholastic Division 1 Player of the Year as named by The Boston Globe and Boston Herald, Barone posted a 20-0 record with a 0.76 ERA and 190 strikeouts against just 14 walks in 128 innings pitched entering the postseason. Also a four-time Patriot League All-Star, Barone batted .467 with 13 extra-base hits, 29 RBI and 38 runs scored, recording a .481 on-base percentage and a .747 slugging percentage through 22 games. She led Silver Lake to the 2015 Division 1 championship game as a junior.
Academic excellence: Also a basketball, soccer and gymnastics standout, Barone has maintained a 4.26 weighted GPA.
Exemplary character: In addition to donating her time as a youth softball instructor and umpire, she has volunteered with the Holidays in Halifax Committee and as part of multiple initiatives to support our armed forces, including her school’s Deployment Buddies program and the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Scholarship Foundation.
THE PRAISE
“Maddy is a generational player, in that I have coached varsity for 14 years and this type of individual comes along very rarely,” said Rod Laniewski, head coach at rival Duxbury High. “Yes, Maddy has been a dominant pitcher her entire career but it doesn’t end there. She bats third for the No. 1-ranked team in Eastern Mass. If she wasn’t pitching, there is not a position she could not play.”
THE FUTURE: Barone has signed a National Letter of Intent to play softball on scholarship at Southern New Hampshire University this fall.