BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The Boiling Springs search for a new softball coach has come to an end and the person taking over the reins of the Bulldogs program is a familiar face to the area, as former USC-Upstate and Chesnee pitcher Hannah Houge bas been selected to lead the Boiling Springs softball program.
"I’ve always wanted to be a coach, so this is a dream of mine,” said new Boiling Springs softball coach Hannah Houge. “It was a good timing situation with Coach Piazza, who has been a great coach, retiring after ten years leading the program and it just so happened that I was interested in a head coaching role after spending years coaching travel ball teams. I think it’s a perfect time for a young female coach to come in and build a relationship with this young team that will be built on a foundation of trust and integrity.” Houge brings a lot of successful playing experience with her to the Bulldogs head coaching job, especially from the pitching circle, as her college career contained stops at both USC-Upstate and Erskine University. She spent this past season leading the Spartans to their best season in school history with a 48-10 record where they won the 2022 Big South Conference regular season championship. She finished the year with a 28-7 record with a 1.68 ERA and 292 strikeouts while being named to the NFCA D1 Southeast All-Region Second Team and to the Big South All-Conference First Team. Prior to this past season at USC-Upstate, Houge also had an impressive career at Erskine University where she won 20 games as a sophomore while holding a 0.92 ERA before the majority of her junior season was lost to the Covid pandemic. At Chesnee she was the Region I-2A player of the year while also being named to the North-South All-Star team. Houge feels that her head coaching career starting so soon after her playing career came to an end will help her be able to relate to the athletes that she'll be coaching this upcoming season. "I think just coming off the playing field I’m still fresh with the game,” said Houge. “I understand what people are doing now in softball and why they’re doing it which I believe gives me a special perspective that some others may not have. I’ve also been able to play under two great coaches, both named Coach Hawkins (one at USC-Upstate and one at Erskine), and I’m going to take everything I’ve learned from both of them and share that with these girls.” Being able to get her first head coaching job in an area where she played her high school softball and ended her college career is a special opportunity according to Houge. ”It’s a special opportunity and a privilege to be back in my hometown, which Covid kind of allowed, because it allowed me to come back and play my last year at Upstate this past season,” said Houge. “I believe being back at Upstate brought around the opportunity to be the coach at Boiling Springs which I believe just worked out as God planned. Everything just came together and it’s a privilege to be a part of this journey." When looking at the Boiling Springs softball roster Houge says she is looking forward to working with a young team and what they can build as the team continues to build into the future. ”I know they are a young team but I think that’s the best type of team to have with a new coach coming in,” said Houge. “Just being able to build everything from the ground up, I’m really just excited to be able to develop and pour more into those younger players so that we can build a program with a sturdy foundation.” On Friday Boiling Springs pitcher became the first Boiling Springs athlete to win the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year honor, in Gatorade’s 37th year of naming it’s player of the year.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Smith as South Carolina’s best high school baseball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Smith joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo High School, Mich.), Jon Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Wash.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman High School, Tenn.), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas), Rick Porcello (2006-2007, Seaton Hall Preparatory School, N.J.) and Kris Bryant (2009-10, Bonanza High School, Nev.). The 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior left-handed pitcher and outfielder posted a 6-1 record with a 0.54 ERA and 120 strikeouts against just 22 walks in 51.2 innings this past season, leading the Bulldogs to the Class AAAAA quarterfinals. The state’s top prospect in the Class of 2022 as rated by both Perfect Game and the Prep Baseball Report, Smith is also the nation’s No. 10 prospect according to Baseball America. At the plate, he batted .337 with 28 RBI and 17 runs scored, compiling an OPS of 1.056. He was a 2021 Perfect Game All-American Game invitee and a member of the 2021 Team USA 18U National Team. An active participant in the Boiling Springs First Baptist Church student ministry, Smith has volunteered locally at homeless shelters and in association with multiple community cleanup initiatives in addition to donating his time to holiday toy-collection drives. “Tristan Smith has been blessed with a lightning bolt for an arm,” said Boiling Springs High School head coach Jeff Lipscomb. “He is literally unhittable in high school baseball. He’s a very talented player.” Smith has maintained a 3.45 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Clemson University this fall, but is projected as an early round selection in July’s Major League Baseball draft. The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport. Smith joins recent Gatorade South Carolina Baseball Players of the Year Will Taylor (2020-21, Dutch Fork High School), Caden Grice (2019-20, Riverside High School), Trotter Harlan (2018-19, Hillcrest High School), and Geoffrey Gilbert (2017-18, Bishop England High School), among the state’s list of former award winners. *Some information is directly from Gatorade’s press release of the award |
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