Florida softball’s Kelly Barnhill won the 2017 ESPY Award for Best Female College Athlete on Wednesday night, adding yet another award to her long list of accolades from this season.
Barnhill, a former standout at Cobb’s Pope High School, had a year to remember as she helped the Gators finish as runners-up in the Women’s College World Series. The sophomore led the nation with a school-record 0.51 ERA and 12.98 strikeouts per seven innings to go along with a 26-4 record and 359 total strikeouts — four off the school record. She had two separate stints of at least 40 innings without giving up an earned run.
She is one of 20 softball players competing for Team USA this summer.
n addition to the ESPY award, Barnhill’s long list of accolades from this season include:
- 2017 Honda Sports Award
- 2017 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year
- 2017 espnW Player of the Year
- 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-American
- NFCA All-America First Team
- SEC Pitcher of the Year
- All-SEC First Team
- Five-time SEC Pitcher of the Week
Barnhill edged out Stanford’s Inky Ajanaku (volleyball), West Virginia’s Kadeisha Buchanan (soccer), Washington’s Kelsey Plum (basketball) and Maryland’s Zoe Stukenberg (lacrosse) for the award.
