BLOOMINGTON — You couldn’t have scripted it better.
Ashley Prange’s high school softball career ended in about the most fitting way it could.
With her name already all over the record books and the accolades piling up this season, Prange finished her time as a New Palestine Dragon with a 4 for 5 day at the plate that was, of course, punctuated by a home run.
Prange competed in Saturday’s Indiana All-Star Classic at Indiana University in Bloomington, where she learned between the two North/South games that she had won the state’s highest softball honor.
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Adding to her list of honors, Prange was named Indiana’s Miss Softball.
She received a special jersey to wear for the second game and a plaque to go with it. With the teams batting in jersey-number order in the opener, Prange was ninth in the batting order in that game.
Miss Softball gets the obvious jersey number, though, being deemed the best in the state.
Wearing her newly-acquired No. 1 jersey, Prange led off the second game to a large ovation and promptly smacked a ball to deep right-center for a double.
“It was really cool, but I felt kind of awkward,” Prange said of wearing the Miss Softball jersey. “All the attention was on me.
“I don’t like to be the leadoff hitter. I got two strikes, but then I was fine after that.”
In the third inning, Prange crushed a ball to deep left-center, well over the fence for a two-run home run.
It was the perfect way for Indiana’s all-time home runs leader to cap off an incredible four-year run at New Palestine.
“That was awesome,” Prange said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to end any other way … even though I popped out my last at bat. But still, it counts. She threw a good pitch. That’s OK.”
Prange’s final at bat was a popout just out of the infield, her only time in the two games — a 5-3 win and a 9-3 win for the South team — that she didn’t reach base.
Being an all-star game, Prange didn’t stay at her usual shortstop position for long. She made a great grab early in the first game from short, but was shifted into right field later in the game and second base later in the second game.
The first and only ball hit her way during her innings as an outfielder was a deep fly ball. Prange caught it, but it admittedly wasn’t the smoothest of outs she’s recorded.
“I made that catch look awkward,” Prange said. “It wasn’t pretty. I was cracking up.”
The Dragons shortstop wasn’t done winning just yet on Saturday. After the final out was recorded, the teams stayed on the field for the All-Star Classic MVP presentation.
Her big day at the plate earned Prange her second plaque of the day as the MVP.
“I love how that went,” Prange said of the experience. “I thought it was so fun. I’m glad I got to meet new people; that was cool. It was a good day.”