Payton Rogers came up big at a critical moment in a key softball game. The freshman’s big hit gave her team its third sectional championship in four years. A reward was gathering the most votes to be named the Pontiac Daily Leader Athlete of the Week, which covered June 2-7.
Rogers delivered the game-winning walk-off base hit off Metamora’s pitcher to lift Pontiac past the Redbirds in the Class 3A sectional final at East Peoria.
Rogers garnered 12,778 votes, which was 61.67 percent of the overall total on the Athlete of the Week poll this week. Pontiac’s Nevaeh Vogt finished second after collecting 5,605 votes, which was 27.05 percent. Lexington’s Jaxson Goodrich tallied 1,452 votes (7.01 percent) to take third place. Placing fourth was Izzy Hinz of Pontiac, who garnered 503 votes (2.43 percent). There were 20,719 votes cast.
Also nominated were Lexington’s Blaine Friedmansky, Kayden Knight, Miles Lainhart and Drake Powell, as well as Pontiac’s Elena Krause and India Mattingly.
We nominate a group of stars each week during the high school sports season, and you get to go and vote in our poll. The voting at pontiacdailyleader.com ends at noon each Friday. You may email Erich Murphy at emurphy@gannett.com by 9 a.m. each Monday to submit a potential nominee who may be placed on the ballot. Please include the name, school and statistics for that athlete for the week.
Erich Murphy is a reporter for the (Pontiac) Daily Leader. He can be reached at emurphy@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Find out who won Daily Leader Athlete of the Week poll for June 2-7
Reporting by Erich Murphy, Pontiac Daily Leader / Pontiac Daily Leader
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