BLUFFTON, Ohio - One day after earning NFCA All-Central Region honors, sophomore Bobbi Adams (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) was named First Team All-Heartland Conference. Also recognized were senior outfielders Sydney Bowen (Convoy/Crestview) and Taylor Steinke (Findlay). Bowen took home Second Team All-HCAC and Steinke was selected Honorable Mention.
Adams hit a team-high .416 which is 11th all-time for a single season at Bluffton. Her four homers were tied for 6th in the Heartland Conference. She led the team with 24 RBI, 42 hits, a .594 slugging percentage and a .459 on-base percentage. Adams started all 33 games for the Beavers with 15 behind the plate, 13 at 3rd base and four at 1st base. She had six doubles, scored 12 runs and struck out just nine times in 101 at bats.
The swiss army knife put her name all over the single-game record book with nine RBI, three more than the previous school mark, and two homers which equaled the Bluffton record for dingers in a game when the Beavers traveled to Manchester University in March. She went 3-of-4 with two runs scored to go along with her nine RBI.
Bowen notched her first All-Heartland Conference honor following a career that saw the centerfielder start 95 of her 104 games as a Beaver. She was second on the team with a .340 batting average and 20 runs scored. Bowen had a home run, five doubles and nine RBI. Her .415 on-base percentage also placed her second for Bluffton this season.
The 78 runs Bowen scored are 14th on the career list and she is also tied for 3rd all time after being hit by eight pitches, including seven in 2021. Bowen was part of Bluffton's record-setting day at Manchester on March 16 when she equaled the school record with four runs scored in a game.
Steinke came away with her second All-Heartland Conference honor in the past month as she was Honorable Mention All-HCAC for women's soccer which also played this spring! She spent the month of March shuffling between the soccer pitch at Salzman Stadium and the Bluffton University Softball Field before being able to devote all of her energy to softball for the final four weeks of the season.
The four-year starter had a career-high .318 batting average as a senior. Steinke drove in 14 runs while slugging it at a .470 clip, second-highest on the team. She rapped five doubles, a triple and a home run during her final campaign. Steinke also crossed the dish nine times.
Bluffton finished the year with a 6-27 mark overall and 3-13 in the Heartland Conference (tied for 8th).
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