Wisconsin’s Kayla Konwent named Big Ten Player of the Year

The Big Ten Conference announced its 2019 softball honors on Wednesday afternoon, revealing Wisconsin’s Kayla Konwent as its player of the year. The Badger also claimed first-team all-conference honors along with sophomore Taylor Johnson.

As noted in the Big Ten release, Konwent becomes “the first Badger ever to receive any individual conference softball award (Player, Pitcher, Freshman or Coach of the Year) since those honors were first presented in 1985.”

As of Wednesday, Konwent led the Big Ten in the following categories:

• Batting average (.479)
• Total bases (134)
• On-base percentage (.600)
• Slugging percentage (.918)

As of the publishing of this article, that .479 batting average ranks third in the country, while her on-base and slugging percentages currently hold her at fourth and fifth in the nation, respectively.

She leads Wisconsin (38-11, 15-8 Big Ten) in home runs (15) and RBIs (50) while also drawing 36 walks.

Johnson leads the Badgers in stolen bases (15) while ranking second in a variety of categories, including batting average (.366), hits (56), home runs (11), RBIs (42) and on-base percentage (.462).

Junior pitcher Kaitlyn Menz claimed a second-team All-Big Ten selection, while senior pitcher Angie Morrow received a Sportsmanship Award honoree.