RIVERSIDE, Calif.--- A strong start and finish gave California Baptist’s Emma Holden the nod in the final round of The Press Enterprise Performer of the Year.
On the first day the junior pitcher jumped out to a big lead over Redlands’ Amanda Lievanos, but the Bulldog fans closed the gap to make it a contest.
Then, with just over three hours of voting left, CBU supporters came out in full force to give Holden the win thanks to a 65-13 voting advantage in the Lancer’s favor.
In all Holden received 888 votes in the final compared to Lievanos’ 697.
According to The Press Enterprise both collected votes from some rather unexpected places.
The poll received votes from four different continents with Lievanos grabbing 44 from Canadian IP addresses, and seven from Mexico; she also got one apiece from China and Germany.
Holden’s fans spanned seven countries, including Canada, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Serbia, and the U.K. Throughout the entire competition Holden notched 1,454 votes to give CBU its first PE Performer of the Year winner.
HOLDEN
Holden (35-2) was an integral part of the Lancers season atop the NAIA rankings.
The National Pitcher of the Year set a CBU record for strikeouts in a season (351), and led the country in three major categories: ERA (0.590), opponent batting avg. (.102), and hits allowed per game (2.98). She is CBU's career strikout leader with 707 Ks in her first three years.
The San Carlos native saved her best for last, going 5-1 in the postseason with a ridiculously low 0.17 ERA. Her lone loss came in a complete game one-hitter and she tossed a no-hitter in the opening round of the NAIA Championships
