Clay High softball pitcher Gabby Ellis received Clay County Athletics’ Athlete of the Week Award for the perfect game she pitched against the Orange Park Raiders on Feb. 27.
A perfect game is one of the highest honors a pitcher could earn at any level of the game. A perfect game is when a pitcher along with their defense does not let anyone on the opposing team reach first base safely via hits, walks or errors. In that game against Orange Park, the Mercer signee pitched in seven innings and faced 21 batters, striking out 14 of them while Clay’s defense got the other seven outs.
Ellis’ perfect game solidifies herself as one of the best softball players in Clay County. So far this season, Ellis has pitched in 25 innings, has 38 strikeouts and a 0.84 ERA, while only giving up eight hits and three earned runs.
Ellis has been a dominant player in Clay County for the past couple of seasons. In her first full season as a sophomore, Ellis pitched 157.1 innings and had an 18-9 record with an ERA of 1.11. She also struck out 164 out of the 664 batters she faced.
Ellis also had a dominant junior season, despite missing the first part of the season due to injury. She finished the year with an 8-6 record and an ERA of 1.14 in 20 appearances. Ellis pitched in 111 innings, gave up only 74 hits and struck out 141 batters of the 463 she faced. She was a focal point of Clay’s success in the 2022 playoffs. Clay made it to the Final Four thanks to Ellis holding the West Florida Jaguars to zero runs and five hits in the extra-inning Regional Championship.
With the continued dominance with Ellis on the mound, Clay has the potential to make another deep run into the playoffs this season.
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