Highest honors: Local athletes named to All-State Team

Published 6:56 pm Monday, June 10, 2019

Honors keep coming for athletes in Pike County. Eight local baseball players and two softball players were named to the All-State Team on Saturday morning.

The 10 All-State players were voted in by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. The AISA state champion Patriots had four players earn All-State Honors with head coach Allen Ponder winning Coach of the Year. The Charles Henderson Trojans had two earn the honor, as did the Goshen Eagles. On the softball side, The Patriots and Eagles each had a player receive the honor.

Holt Steed and Davis Allen took home first-team honors for the Patriots. Chandler Golden was named Second Team All-State and Jade Sikes was an honorable mention.

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Allen spent much of his time playing in the outfield for the Patriots. Allen finished the season hitting .429 with 36 runs batted in and a 1.052 OPS. Steed led the way for the Patriots on the mound in 2019. He finished the season with a 2.14 ERA and had one strikeout per inning’s pitched. He racked up 52 strikeouts in 52.1 innings pitched.

Golden contributed on the mound and at the plate in 2019. The senior had a .306 batting average with five home runs and 38 RBI. He added 14 doubles and had an OPS of 1.029. On the mound, Golden had a 2.73 ERA with 43 strike outs in 38.1 innings pitched. Golden pitched the final game of the state championship series and earned the win and Tournament MVP.

Sikes hit .390 for the Patriots during his senior season. He had 31 RBI and had 11 doubles.

Brock Huner, fresh off earning the Messenger All-Area Player of the Year Award, was named First Team All-State. Teammate Lawson Scarbrough was named as an Honorable Mention.

Huner did it both on the mound and at the plate in 2019. Huner had a 9-1 record on the mound with a 1.81 ERA. He racked up 50 strikeouts with 15 walks. At the plate, Huner hit .497 with one home run and 29 RBI. He had nine doubles and scored 45 runs.

Scarbrough batted .435 with 2 home runs, 51 RBI and 15 doubles.

The Goshen Eagles had a duo of All-State players following the 2019 season. Bryan Galloway was named first-team All-State as a designated hitter, while McGwire Stanley was named to the second team as an infielder.

Galloway sported a .535 batting average with two home runs and 23 RBI. He had an on-base percentage of .646.

Stanley also hit over .500 on the season. He finished with a .507 batting average with one home run and 26 RBI. He added seven doubles and seven triples.

Pike Liberal’s Grace Rushing and Goshen’s Kate Warrick took home All-State Honors. Grace Rushing was named second-team All-State, while Warrick was named as an honorable mention.

Rushing was named All-Area Player of the Year in 2019. She hit .419 with one home run and 42 RBI. She had an OPS of .992.

“I just went up there and had fun,” Rushing said earlier this month. “There wasn’t really a secret for me. It was not overthinking and doing what is natural. If I went up there thinking about it, knew I wasn’t going to do well. I just have to be calm and let what I learned show for itself.”

Warrick played all over the field in 2019. In her senior season, Warrick hit .422 with two home runs, 27 RBI and 25 runs scored. She finished with 17 doubles and struck out just 12 times in 109 at bats.