A local softball sensation has achieved yet another honor in a growing list of accolades.
Academy at the Lakes’ junior Alexis Kilfoyl, who recently guided the Wildcats to its first state softball title, has been named the 2017-2018 Gatorade Florida Softball Player of the Year.
The honor, which takes into account athletics and academics, distinguishes Kilfoyl as the state’s best high school softball player.
She now becomes a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award.
(Courtesy of Academy at the Lakes)
The 6-foot-2 right-handed pitcher led the Wildcats to a 26-4 record and the Class 2A state championship this past season.
Kilfoyl posted a 23-1 mark in the circle with a 0.32 earned run average and 249 strikeouts in 154 innings pitched.
Likewise dominant at the plate, Kilfoyl produced a .482 batting average with five home runs, 35 RBI, a .585 on-base percentage and a .788 slugging percentage.
In the state title game on May 22, Kilfoyl fired an 11-inning shutout and knocked the game-winning double in the Wildcats’ 1-0 win over Monticello Aucilla Christian Academy.
Besides in-state success, Kilfoyl has been on the national radar for some time.
Last summer, Kilfoyl was a member of the 2017 USA Softball Junior National team, the youngest of the 24-player roster.
And in January, FloSoftball.com ranked Kilfoyl as the nation’s No. 1 player in its “2019 Hot 100” recruiting list.
She has been a verbal commit to the University of Alabama since her freshman season.
Off the field meanwhile, Kilfoyl has maintained a 3.78 grade-point average and is a member of the Mu Alpha Theta mathematics honor society.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
