The naming of Haley Rathel and Zaikia Dawson as co-pitching award winners, Rathel as scholastic award winner and Dawson as highest batting average award winner highlighted Thursday night’s Bainbridge High School varsity honors at the annual Lady Cats Softball Awards banquet at the school cafeteria.

The Lady Cats junior varsity and middle school teams were honored Thursday night as well.

Lady Cats varsity coach Eugene Singletary praised Rathel for her outstanding academic achievements.

“The rules for the academic award were changed this year,” Singletary said.

In the past, you had to have an 85 or above average in all of your academic subjects to be a scholar athlete. This year, you have to have a 90 or above average in all of your academic subjects and at least a 1,000 score on the SAT test or an equivalent score on the ACT test to win your sports academic award.

“Haley exceeded all of those goals. She is an outstanding scholar athlete and that is what it is all about,” Singletary said.

Dawson and teammate Vanessa Jones, who won the best infielder award, received a special award that will be given annually in their names. It is called the Zaikia Dawson and Vanessa Jones Be Smart, Put Out Award named for a special play that they used to record many infield outs.

Dawson and Jones were named to the All-Region 1AAAA first team. All-Region 1AAAA second-team selections were Rathel and Carmen Finn.

The best outfielder award was won by Tiffany Hand, the most improved player award was won by Diamond Bouie and the coaches award was won by Finn.

Junior varsity awards were presented by coach Latreisha Moon.

Laura Cerone was named most improved infielder, and Tawna Gay was named most improved outfielder,

The junior varsity highest batting average and best pitcher awards went to Avis Jackson and Brittany Simpson.

The most improved junior varsity player was Jocelyn Beard and the junior varsity coaches award winner was Carolina Crowder. The Bearcat Award, which goes each year to a player who improves greatly offensively and defensively, went to Kristen Bennett.

Middle School Lady Cats awards were presented by coach Lindsey Jarrett. They went to Maegan Harrison as most improved infielder, Brittany Moore as most improved outfielder, Magen Vaughn for having the highest batting average, Caitlin Cato for being the most improved pitcher and Brooke Dobbins for being the most improved player. Brooke Bates won the coaches award.