By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
BATTLE CREEK – Southwest lower Michigan dominated the Miss Softball selections for 2009.
Niles' Jenna Ignowski, who will play at Eastern Michigan University next season and Lakeshore's Amy Knapp, who will ply her trade at the University of Michigan, were selected for the honor over the weekend.
Ignowski led the Lady Vikings to a 35-5 record this season and the Division 2 state championship on Saturday.
Ignowski finished her four-year varsity career at Niles with a 109-27 overall record, which ranks her 12th all-time in the state record book.
Ignowski also had 86 career shutouts and 18 perfect games, both state records. Her 29 career no-hitters is fourth best, as are her 1,595 strikeouts.
Ignowski had a career earned run average of 0.32, which is third best all-time.
She walks away with a pair of individual hitting records – two home runs in a single game in the semifinals against Clio and a 4-for-4 performance, which ties four other players.
She pitched nearly 1,000 innings over her four years and faced more than 3,200 batters.
In 2009, she struck out 497 batters with only 20 walks and just 69 hits in 256 innings pitched.
She had 30 shutouts and 12 no-hitters.
Ignowski was named the 2008 Gatorade Michigan Softball Player of the Year.
She has also been all-conference four years and All-State from 2007-09.
Knapp hit .425 for her four-year career at Lakeshore.
She scored 123 runs, had 65 RBIs, 177 hits and only 13 strikeouts in 416 at-bats.
Knapp, who has a career fielding percentage of .952, also stole 35 bases for the Lancers.
Knapp was all-conference all four years and All-State the past three seasons.
She also lettered in basketball from 2007-09.
Academic All-State
For the second straight season, Niles earned Academic All-State honors as a team.
Dowagiac also was named Academic All-State as a team.
Earning individual honors were Erica Gordon and Demi Schrader for Niles and Caitlyn Courtney from Dowagiac.