Addie Edwards helped Heritage High School’s softball program return to the top of its classification last fall.
Now she has been recognized as the top player in the Peach State — and with her senior season still ahead, Edwards has already secured a special place in Heritage history.
Nearly untouchable as a pitcher this past season, which she started with a streak of 103 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run, the 5-foot-4 right-hander’s dominance in the circle helped propel the Generals to the GHSA Class AAAA state championship in October. The fourth title in program history began a new reign for the Catoosa County program, which had won three in a row from 2018 to 2020 before finishing third in 2021 — the first time in 12 years at least one area GHSA softball team didn’t win a state championship — and going 0-2 as one of the final eight teams in its classification at the state tournament in Columbus in 2022.
Individual recognition came Edwards’ way on Friday, when Gatorade honored her as Georgia’s softball player of the year, an award that factors in “excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community,” according to a news release announcing the selection. Edwards is the first player in program history to be chosen.
“To win this award means a lot because there have been amazing players throughout Heritage softball,” Edwards told the Times Free Press. “Rachel Gibson was an amazing pitcher, too, who went to Clemson (as a class of 2021 signee) and is now at Georgia. I have had to go through her shadow and have been compared to her. So to get my name out there and live up to expectations really is a big deal to me.”