Thunderbirds junior pitcher Sela Rodriguez warms up as the defending state softball champions Bettye Davis East Anchorage practiced at the AK Firecrackers training facility on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (Bill Roth / ADN) For the second year in a row the honor of being recognized as the top high school softball player in Alaska belongs to Bettye Davis East Anchorage’s Sela Rodriguez, who was announced as the 2025 recipient on Monday.
“First I want to express how thankful I am for being chosen for this award,” she said. “It means the world to me. Being recognized for my performance throughout this year’s season truly makes me grateful for the work I’ve put in during the offseason.”
After breaking out as a sophomore and leading the Thunderbirds to a Division I state championship, the junior dual-threat playmaker produced another dominant season. She starred on the mound as a pitcher, in the infield at third base and at the plate as one of the most potent sluggers in the state.
“Sela is a great athlete that’s a problem for opponents whether she is in the circle or in the batter’s box,” South Anchorage head coach Brandon McCutcheon said in a statement. “She hits for high average and power. Any time she connects with the bat you hope it’s not a home run. In the circle, she keeps the batters guessing with her spin pitches and effective change-up.”
At the time of her selection, Rodriguez compiled a record of 14-3 in the pitching circle with a 0.979 ERA while striking out 159 batters over 78.2 innings on the mound. At bat, she hit at clip of .603 with 11 home runs, 49 RBIs and 25 runs scored. She also compiled a .641 on-base percentage, a 1.466 slugging percentage and a 2.106 OPS.
“During the season, (East head coach) Virginia Griffith pushed me to go after my goals,” she said. “She was always reassuring me that all the work would pay off one way or another. She taught me a lot about what it means to play as a team, but to also play my game. When I was down on myself, she reminded me that softball is about having fun. Virginia taught me to always wear a smile, even when things didn’t go as planned. I also want to thank my catcher, Valley Wakefield. She’s been a huge impact on my game the last year and she’s walked with me through thick and thin this offseason.”
Other accolades that she accumulated over the past year included being named Cook Inlet Conference MVP and USA Softball Alaska All-Tournament MVP. She also maintained a 3.69 weighted GPA in the classroom and in her spare time, volunteered locally as a youth softball instructor.
“I want to thank my parents,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve sacrificed time, money, and energy on me to get me where I am today. They’re my biggest supporters, and I couldn’t have asked for a better momma and dad.”
While her Thunderbirds weren’t able to successfully defend their state title in Anchorage this past weekend, the Soldotna baseball team completed a third straight successful defense of its Division II state title by claiming a fourth consecutive championship in Kenai at at Coral Seymour Field.
“It’s still sinking in,” Soldotna head coach Kenneth Gibson said. “It was a really big deal for a lot of those guys to be the fourth one in a row. A lot of the guys have had a state title every year they were there.”
The Stars took care of business on Saturday evening as they defeated the hosting Kenai Central Kardinals 8-2 to extend their dynastic run and continue to reign supreme at their level. Leading the way was senior Trenton Ohnemus who pitched a complete game, recording 13 strikeouts while only allowing three hits and a pair of runs. The Stars had five players record RBIs including sophomore Jett Brophy who led the team with two run-scoring hits.
“With Trenton on the mound, we didn’t see that many balls in play that we had to respond to,” Gibson said.
Ohnemus is one of the four seniors on this year’s team that graduated as a four-time state champion. As a freshman in 2022, he pitched three scoreless innings against North Pole in the state semifinals
“Trent is just a solid kid all the way through and for him to be able to pitch in that, he’s been the starting pitcher in the last three championships,” Gibson said. “He sure likes being that guy and he’s been that guy throughout his time with the program.”
Concerns about rain caused the cancellation of the third- and fourth-place games and while Gibson admitted that it had an impact on the game, it was still business as usual for his team.
“We were able to get the ball in play and we knew it could be an impact so we kind of pushed running the bases a bit,” he said. “If you got out on the grass or tried to make a quick throw, (Kenai) had a couple times where they weren’t able to throw home or make the play at first because their feet were slipping out on them.”
Having multiple classes of players with championship experience has helped the program continue to build momentum year after year.
“We do end up with a high expectation because of what we’ve accomplished already and for this group, it started out a little bit hard because I had three of them injured the first three weeks of the season,” Gibson said. “Some of the young guys had to step up and get better and that helped us in a lot of ways and gave us more depth.”
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