It was December when junior Olivia Simone (Whitesboro) and her teammates found out their next softball season at Cazenovia College would be their last because the school would be closing at the end of this year.

That announcement, she says, explains a “give it my all” approach that helped carry the Wildcats to the finals of the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) championships and helped a highly motivated Simone earn NAC Player of the Year honors.

“This year, it was just, ‘I’ve got to give it my all.’ It was like that for all of us. It was really emotional,” said Simone, whose school record-setting “all” was good enough to lead the conference in hitting.

Playing catcher and the outfield and batting third in the lineup, Simone hit .515 and also led the NAC with school-record totals of 21 doubles and 69 hits. Her seven RBIs and three doubles set single-game program records and she was second in the conference in RBIs (45), on-base percentage (.544) and slugging percentage (1.245).

Three years ago, Simone hit .197 while starting every game as a Cazenovia freshman. She raised that to .353 last year, when she was named to the All-NAC West Division Second Team. 

“As a freshman, I was a little nervous. Last year, I tried to change my mindset. It was like, ‘OK, I know that I can do this.’ I just saw the ball totally differently,” said Simone, whose father, former fast-pitch softball pitcher Angelo Simone, had everything to do with that transformation.

“He’s taught me everything I know about softball,” she said. “It’s all because of him. He still throws me batting practice all the time.”

Simone had a 19-game hitting streak this season, including a 4-for-4 day when she scored four times and drove in seven runs. After an early loss in the double-elimination NAC tournament, she helped Cazenovia win four straight games - three in one day - by going 11-for-19 with 10 runs scored and five RBIs. 

After a 1-0 championship game loss to top-seeded Husson University, Simone was named to the NAC’s All-Tournament Team.

“It comes down to her work ethic,” Cazenovia coach Chris Comino said. “She’s always been a talented player, but she works and works and works at it. Hitting is her craft. She batted over .500 and if you ask her, it wasn’t good enough. She’s always wanted more and more. She’s just a hitting machine. She took a lot of pitchers deep into counts and once they made a mistake, she capitalized on it.”

Simone hasn’t decided where she will be playing next season, but she does have plenty of Division III and Division II options. She is majoring in elementary education and she says academics are her top priority. But softball? “It’s up there.”

Simone was joined on the All-NAC West Division First Team this season by Cazenovia senior Madison Cieslak (Whitesboro) and two SUNY Poly stars - senior pitcher Trinity Critelli (Frankfort/Frankfort-Schuyler) and junior second baseman Kimberly Birmingham (Camden).

Cieslak earned first-team honors for the second straight year. She led the league with 11 home runs and was third in the NAC with 41 RBIs.

Critelli also repeated as a first-team selection. She threw three no-hitters and had four shutouts, finishing with a 16-4 record, 3.21 ERA and 189 strikeouts in 117 2/3 innings.

Birmingham was fifth in the NAC with a team-high .460 batting average. She had three home runs and was first in the league in triples (6), fourth in RBIs (37) and runs (35), and sixth in on-base percentage (.510).

SUNY Poly seniors Gabriella Ellixson (Whitesboro/Notre Dame) and Maddelyn Hoehn (Oriskany) were named to the All-NAC West Division Second Team. Outfielder Ellixson was a .381 hitter and leadoff batter and catcher Hoehn, a first-team pick last season, batted .330 with seven doubles.

SUNY Poly senior pitcher Joy Stevens (Marcy) made the NAC Sportsmanship Team for the second time. She was 4-0 with a 1.77 ERA.

Utica University junior Erica Sanford (Boonville/Adirondack) was the Pioneers’ Empire 8 Conference Sportswoman of the Year. She batted .298.

Herkimer College’s Olivia Friend (Oneida) will enter the finals of the NJCAA Region III Division III District B tournament with a .556 batting average, three homers and 40 RBIs in 31 games. She had a pair of three-hit games in the Generals’ semifinal series win over Monroe Community College.