By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – For the second consecutive year, Bedford North Lawrence’s Ava Ratliff has been named the national high school Catcher of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Ratliff, a Class 4A All-State selection, was named First Team All-American by the NFCA and MaxPreps. She was also recently honored with the Johnny Bench Award, which honored the top catchers in Indiana. Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
Ratliff earned all those honors after hitting 22 home runs, hitting .538 while driving in 53 runs during BNL’s 2023 campaign. She set school records for home runs, hits (57), doubles (16) and RBIs. That was quite the impressive encore to her freshman season, when she hit .538 with 21 home runs and 53 RBIs.
She also had a perfect fielding percentage in 250 chances and threw out 35 percent of runners attempting to steal during the 2023 season.
