With a very young team coming into the 2024 season, a senior like Gabby McConnell is something any coach would feel blessed to have.
The veteran pitcher helped her Tigers to a tie for second in an extremely competitive Mid-State League Buckeye Division, to a Division II district runner-up trophy and earned her name on the trophy for the Dave Truex Award as Pickaway County’s outstanding senior softball player.
“Anyone who gets to coach someone like Gabby is truly lucky. I wish I could have a million of her come through,” first-year Circleville coach Hayden Ellis said. “She’s super special and I think that shows in every sport that she plays.
“She’s excelled in everything, not just softball.”
The Tigers went through the season with 14 freshmen and sophomores to go with McConnell and fellow senior Ella Michael.
“It was important for us to have someone like Gabby, as dominant as she is in the circle, especially knowing that we were going to be young behind her,” Ellis said. “We played a really tough schedule this year and I think we can really say that we were in every game that we did lose this year, except one or two, and a big part of that is Gabby being in the circle.”
During the regular season, McConnell pitched 107 innings for the Tigers. She struck out 101 batters and had an ERA of 1.891 (1.142 in MSL play). Opponents hit only .228 against her and she had 33 1-2-3 innings. In the postseason, she had a 1.474 ERA and opponents batted .176 against her.
McConnell put up those numbers despite not being able to spend a lot of offseason time working on her game. In the fall she was earning First Team All-MSL and First Team All-District honors in volleyball along the way to claiming the inaugural Lori Koker Award as the county’s top volleyball player.
In the winter, she was a key part of the Tigers’ basketball team that won 24 straight games and was a Second-Team All-MSL selection and Second Team All-Pickaway County.
“I tried to throw a little bit in the wintertime. Nothing too crazy, but I just try and get into it,” McConnell said. “I know my team has been working all winter, so I just tried to be sharp by the start of the first game, so I don’t let my teammates down.”
McConnell was sharp in the circle and with her bat. She hit .471 in the regular season with a .526 on-base percentage and a .662 slugging percentage.
In the post-season, she threw a two-hit shutout to get the first win. She had three hits, including a home run, to help her team to an upset of Hillsboro in the district semifinals. McConnell yielded only three hits in a 2-1 loss to Unioto in the district finals.
Her season’s performance earned her First Team All-Mid-State League Buckeye, First Team All-Southeast District and First Team All-Ohio honors.
“We were really young. Coming in I didn’t really know how it would be since we graduated a lot of seniors,” McConnell said. “But I think we really worked hard to be where we were, and we held each other accountable. I just think we played for one another.
“We were a tough team, especially in a tough league. We battled for everything we got.”
“She was a huge, huge leader especially going toward the end of the year – all year – but really stepped up the last couple games of the season,” Ellis said. “She really stepped up into a huge leadership role a lot more vocally than what she had in the past.”
With high school complete, McConnell has decided to attend Shawnee State University in Portsmouth where she will study radiology and cut back to just one sport — softball.
“It’s definitely going to be different and challenging,” McConnell said. “They had the program I wanted and really liked their coach and their program. It’s not too far, so I like that, and I get to play softball, which is a plus.”
Ellis can’t wait to see what McConnell can accomplish when she’s focused solely on softball.
“I think she can go in and start pitching and be a four-year starter at Shawnee — she just has to know how good she is and apply herself that way,” Ellis said. “I think she can do a lot of great things down there.
“Just knowing that Gabby never really applied herself in softball and wanting to go to the next level and play, it says a lot about her. It’s her finally realizing how good she is – I think everyone else saw it, but I don’t know if she necessarily believed it at first.”
• The Dave Truex Award was created last season with Circleville’s Cara Cooper being recognized as the inaugural winner.
Truex recorded 416 wins in 28 seasons leading Circleville and had another 156 wins before that as the baseball coach.
