Marietta native wins Best Female College Athlete award at ESPYS

A Marietta native and University of Florida softball player won the award for Best College Female Athlete at the 2017 ESPY Awards.

Kelly Barnhill, a Pope High School graduate, is currently a sophomore pitcher at the University of Florida.

She helped lead the Gators back to the Women's College World Series with a nation-leading 0.51 ERA and 13.0 strikeouts per seven innings.

Not only did she set single-season school records with those numbers, she also set records in lowest opponent batting average (.121), most combined shutouts (10), most strikeouts looking (100) and lowest stolen base percentage (.333).

Here are just a few of Barnhill's season highlights:

• Pitched second career no-hitter against Kentucky
• Entered the 6th inning of a scoreless game against Florida State and struck out three to seal a win over the No. 1-ranked Seminoles
• Has 14 wins and nine shutouts over Top 25 opponents in the 2017 season

"I think it is the highest honor an athlete can really receive," Barnhill said. "To win would be an even greater honor, to be able to represent not only myself, but my family, my community here in Marietta and my school back in Gainesville."

Barnhill said she was excited for the awards ceremony and the chance to be around other great athletes.

"It kind of hit my like, oh wait, there's a red carpet event and these famous big athletes are going to be there like Michael Phelps and Serena Williams. Dang, this is going to be cool," she said.

She was nominated for the ESPY along with some of the best in their respective sports: Stanford's Inky Ajanaku for volleyball; West Virginia's Kadeisha Buchanan for soccer; Washington's Kelsey Plum for basketball; and Maryland's Zoe Stukenberg for lacrosse.

Cox Media Group