Softball's Kylee Gleason Named SC Gatorade Softball Player Of The Year
CHICAGO, ILL. —- South Carolina softball’s incoming freshman Kylee Gleason was named the 2019-20 South Carolina Gatorade Softball Player of the Year, the Gatorade Company announced today.
A native of Bluffton, S.C., she is the first May River High School student-athlete to win the prestigious award in any sport and is set to join former honorees Cayla Drotar and Bailey Betenbaugh at Carolina this fall. This marks the seventh-straight year a Gamecock signee has been named the Palmetto State’s Gatorade Softball Player of the year.
“I’m so honored to receive this prestigious award,” Gleason said following Thursday’s announcement. “Playing college softball has always been a life-long dream of mine and I’m thrilled that my dreams are becoming a reality. I’m very excited to be able to continue my career at South Carolina with such amazing coaches and teammates.”
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Gleason as South Carolina’s best high school softball player. She is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award to be announced later this year.
A middle infielder, she hit .762 in seven games this spring before the remainder of the season was canceled. In the full 2019 season, she hit .638 with 43 hits, 41 runs, 21 RBI and 36 stolen bases. Over the course of her career, she never finished a season batting below .483 on her way to a .555 high school career batting average with 134 stolen bases.
“The moment I knew I was going to pick Carolina was my freshman year of high school,” Gleason said on signing day this past fall. “It was my first game I saw them play. I’d never seen a team with so much passion and fight. They were focused but looked like they were having so much fun together. That is when I knew I wanted to be a Gamecock.”
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