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Emma Williams named Putnam County Softball Player of the Year
There are few ways for a team to compliment a player better than refusing to let said player beat them.
Depending on the sport, the way for a team to do so can come in a variety of ways.
In softball, intentionally walking a player in a big spot to get to a different player in the batting order is a clear example.
Emma Williams got that treatment from South Vermillion this year.
Never mind it was in a sectional final. Or that it happened three times, finally throwing to the Cougar catcher only after Wildcats had fallen behind in the contest.
It was a level of respect that Williams had earned, batting .449 across the 2023 season with 40 hits, 36 RBI, 21 runs, nine doubles, a triple and 10 home runs, drawing 14 walks against 11 strikeouts for a .529 on-base percentage, a .910 slugging rate and a 1.439 OPS.
Williams’ efforts for North Putnam, which won the Putnam County Softball Tournament and a second softball sectional title, earned her the title of Putnam County Softball Player of the Year.
The Cougar senior added to her hitting prowess with strong defense behind the plate, recording 144 putouts and 10 assists with only six errors on the season, adding three stolen bases when allowed to run.
Williams was not always a catcher but necessity in youth softball led her down a path she would stay on for the long haul.
“I started catching when I was around nine years old,” Williams said. “I was actually on (North Putnam assistant coach) Chris Brewer’s rec team at the time and Ashley Weir was our catcher.
“She had a heat stroke one time and, as we had no one else at the time, Chris threw me in catcher’s gear to go play and ever since then, that’s where I’ve played.”
As her freshman year came, Williams was listed as No. 2 on the depth chart with Baylee Osburn returning as a senior behind the dish.
This spurred Williams into action, working even harder to try and break into the lineup, though COVID would render any decision moot for the 2020 season.
“When I started out in high school, I found out I wasn’t the starter at catcher and would be the backup,” Williams noted. “I put in the work and went to catching lessons because I wanted to be the starter. I wanted to be relied on.
“When COVID hit, I worked throughout it in my garage, doing all the drills and workouts I could find to put me over the top. By sophomore year, we had a new coach; I worked as hard as I could and, at the end of the day, I found my spot in the lineup.”
Williams would start as a sophomore and, outside of occasional forays into the field, would remain ever-present in the North Putnam lineup, averaging .463 at the plate across her three years of play in a position that often takes its toll on offensive stats.
Part of the reason Williams was rock solid on both offense and defense was being conditioned to handling all innings during travel ball.
“I’ve caught for so long that I’m used to being in games all the time,” Williams said. “For a time in travel ball, I was our only catcher due to injury, so I had to be good at both fielding and hitting.
“It conditioned me to be able to catch for seven innings and still be able to perform offensively as well.”
Heading into the 2023 season, and even before that, North Putnam had continually run into a wall called South Vermillion in sectional play, having seen three seasons in a row come to an end at the hands of the Wildcats, including a loss in the 2021 sectional final.
Having been so close to winning a sectional as sophomores, Williams said the senior group, which included Kyndal Brewer, Karyssa Miller, Brilye Schmitz, Ashlyn Stacks and Kylie Rust, had an all-for-one mentality going into their final season together.
“We talked about it after the loss last year and before the start of this year,” Williams said about what the seniors had in mind for the season. “We had to give it our all as this would be our last time playing together.
“We wanted to play for one another. We grew up with each other and if we got down during the season, we just needed to remain calm and stay focused.”
As part of preparation for the 2023 season, Williams spent the summer with Indiana Magic Gold Willis, finding herself in a similar situation as she stepped into the team.
“Playing for Indiana Magic required a lot of work to be put in,” Williams pointed out. “We had to send proof that we went to lessons twice a week and we were out of state every weekend.
“It was a lot of pressure but I wanted to perform to show that I belonged on that team. Initially, I wasn’t going to be the starting catcher but I wanted to be and the competition made me a better player. Because of the work I put in, I did end up starting on the team.”
Not everything was smooth sailing to start Williams’ senior year, however.
Starting in goal for the North Putnam girls’ soccer team, Williams had her campaign curtailed due to a concussion that lingered from midseason onward, not only keeping her sidelined from the pitch but also keeping her from some softball workouts.
“It took a while because of the severity of the concussion,” Williams said about missing the back end of her soccer season as well as softball workouts. “I allowed my body to take its time and worked my way back into workouts.
“When I felt good, I worked hard and when I didn’t feel as good, I rested. I did what my body told me to do.”
While North Putnam had a very experienced core of players at the top, much of the Cougar squad beyond the six seniors was very young and inexperienced.
Needing the youth to come along quickly, Williams said she offered her experience whenever possible to make sure everyone was up to task.
“I tried to be as encouraging as possible,” Williams said. “I tried to give my softball wisdom to the newer players where they needed it and tried to be as supportive as possible because it was a young group.
“I knew what it was like to be a young players as I was always playing up in age on my teams.”
North Putnam started the year 6-3 prior to the Putnam County Softball Tournament with a 1-1 mark in WIC play, defeating Brown County but falling to eventual conference champion Sullivan.
“I was a little nervous to see how the season was going to go,” Williams said about the first two weeks of the season. “I didn’t know who was going to be where at some points. Sometimes we performed; sometimes we didn’t.
“I was always performing myself but at the same time, I was excited to play with this group of seniors. We started with one another and we were going to finish with one another.”
At the County Tournament, North Putnam sliced through South Putnam to reach the final where Greencastle waited.
In what would likely be considered the game of the 2022-23 sports season, the Cougars and Tiger Cubs battled through 12 tense innings of play, ending when Williams sent a two-run shot over the center field fence for a 7-5 win.
“That game was probably the most stressful game in my life,” Williams admitted. “Everyone knows that both teams don’t particularly like one another.
“That said, Greencastle was pretty talented and I was really hoping to beat them. The game kept going back and forth; I thought they had us for a little bit and it while it was really stressful, overall, it was one of my favorite games I ever played in.”
And to win it in walk-off fashion?
“It was fantastic,” Williams added. “It was amazing.”
North Putnam would go 10-6 the remainder of the season though struggled in WIC play, going 4-4 in conference games to finish .500 and fifth overall in the standings.
The grind of the season was apparent but Williams said she simply powered through it.
“Our schedule was on the harder side and I was kind of nervous how we would do with some of those games,” Williams said. “We lost some games we should have won but, overall, we were hanging in there.
“Physically and mentally, I was hanging in there as well. There were a lot of innings to catch but it was also my senior year.”
Sectional play began with a bye for the Cougars into the semifinal where they defeated host Southmont 16-2, setting up another winner-take-all meeting with South Vermillion in the final.
A 1-0 lead turned into a 4-1 deficit after four innings with missed chances piling up quickly and a nagging feeling starting to take hold as the innings began to slip away.
“Once we got to the fourth and fifth innings, it kind of clicked that that game could have been it, the last time we were on the field together,” Williams said. “It would be the last softball game for Ashlynn, Karyssa and Kylie.
“That motivated us to do what we could for them, no matter the outcome.”
North Putnam would make its last chances count as Brewer hit a grand slam in the sixth, Hailee Daigle singled home a run to tie the game in the seventh and Schmitz walked off with a single to plate the sectional-winning run.
“It was an awesome moment,” Williams said. “We had all dreamed of winning a sectional after getting kicked out by South Vermillion each year.
“To be in a regional was awesome.”
The regional itself would not go as well for the Cougars, who fell at Cascade 8-0, ending their season 20-10 but with the sectional title the group had long craved, a second postseason award for the team to go alongside the sectional title from 2006.
Across the season, Williams said she felt she gave the team the best she had at both sides of the dish.
“I felt like it was the best I had in me,” Williams said about her offensive output. “There were some points where I shouldn’t have struck out or had better pitch selection but you gotta work with what you have.
“I felt like our defense was the best it has been in years We had games with some errors but also made amazing plays and, all-around, it was pretty solid.”
Williams’ County Player of the Year award was among several the senior earned for her efforts, adding to a list which included All-WIC, Class 2A All-State and being selected to the Softball Coaches Association of Indiana North-South All-Star Game, going 2-for-4 in the two games with a single, double and run scored.
“It was pretty fitting,” Williams said about her postseason awards sheet. “I worked really hard for it and to finally get that recognition and see all of my hard work went toward something is pretty cool.”
Williams, an Oakland City University softball commit, will now call Gibson County her new home but said she hoped the returning players remembered her as much for her play as well as how she kept things lively off the field.
“I definitely want the girls to remember how I played,” Williams said. “There was never a point where I was down or negative.
“I was always the one trying to crack jokes, to stay positive and keep things up in the dugout. I hope that’s something I’ve left for the other players to carry on.”