West enjoys great rookie year for BG

By John Kovach

The Canfield graduate was the team’s top defensive player and made All-MAC.

Strong on both offense and defense, Melissa West from Canfield High capitalized on her versatility to enjoy an all-around successful freshman season for the Bowling Green State University softball team.

West, a third baseman for Canfield’s Division II state championship softball team last year, was named the Bowling Green defensive player of the year as a third baseman during the team’s recent awards banquet.

In addition, she was selected to both the All-Mid-American Conference first team and the All-MAC Freshman first team — only the second Bowling Green player to be named to both squads in the same season. She also was the fourth Falcon to make the All-MAC Freshman team.

“Defense has been one of my stronger points throughout my career,” said West, who started every game at third base — the first Bowling Green freshman to do so — leading the Falcons in assists (117) and finishing with a .902 fielding percentage. “I always was able to play defense pretty well.”

West also was one of the Falcons’ top hitters and led the team in hits (117) and triples (5). In fact, her five triples tied for fourth-most in school history in a season and ranked 17th in the nation.

“I had a couple of games where I had two triples in one game. I was getting contact on the ball and it was rolling to the fence,” said West, who batted .280 in 143 at-bats, and scored 18 runs, drove in 10 and had eight doubles and one homer.

And West excelled in the classroom. The daughter of Craig and Vera West, Melissa achieved a 4.0 grade-point average for both the fall and sping semesters. She is undecided on her major.

West said year-round practice and strong support from coaches and players have been big factors in her strong start at the NCAA level.

“Throughout the season, I could tell that I got a lot better. At first I felt like everyone was better and stronger, but it evened out a lot,” said West, who said the team ran into some obstacles which contributed to a poor record.

The Falcons went 13-33, including 8-14 in the MAC, under third-year coach Shannon Salsburg.

“A lot of different things happened to the team. We had some injuries and some of the girls left the team,” said West. “But we have some encouraging signs for next year. We are losing only one senior starter, Hayley Weimer, and she’s [one of] our best hitters and pitchers. She was the only senior we had on the team and we have a big class coming in.”

Weimer was named Bowling Green’s most valuable player and offensive player of the year.

West was one of four incoming freshmen last year but one of only two to complete the season.

“We started the season with four freshmen but two left and we were down to two,” said West. The other freshman was infielder Rachel Proehl.

Also winning team awards were junior outfielder Susan Sontag (most improved) and sophomore pitcher-outfielder Zada Lines (Falcon Award).

While at Canfield, West helped the Cardinals win three straight Metro Athletic Conference championships under coach Ronie Haurin, and was a two-time pick to the all-state, All-NEO and All-MAC teams.

In her junior year, she led the Cardinals with a career-best .478 batting average and .841 slugging percentage, including a team-high nine doubles, five triples, four home runs and 25 runs scored.

West also earned four letters in basketball and was the captain of her team as a junior and senior, and won the 2008 U.S. Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete award.

kovach@vindy.com