Brooke Smitherman recently completed a remarkable first season at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss.

Smitherman, who played in the Clanton City Park youth league and played travel ball with Clanton-based Freedom Fastpitch and Strike Zone Travel Sports, played first base for the Lady Choctaws under coach Brooke O’Hair.

In her rookie season, Smitherman led the Choctaws in most offensive categories, including batting average (.486), slugging percentage (.886), on-base percentage (.582), home runs (9), doubles (15) and walks (21), and finished in the top four in several other areas.

Smitherman’s batting average set an all-time single season record at Mississippi College, while her home runs and total base numbers put her second in the record book. She was also third in doubles and fifth in runs batted in (37).

On defense, she led the team in putouts while making only three errors on the year.

Smitherman finished the year with the best batting average in the American Southwest Conference. The ASC had four teams ranked in the top 25 of the nation and includes last year’s NCAA DIII national champion.

She also finished second in the conference in on-base percentage and slugging percentage while finishing in the top 10 of several other categories.

She was recently named to the first team All-ASC for her accomplishments.

Smitherman also received some national recognition, getting as high as fifth in the NCAA for slugging percentage, 12th for batting average and 18th for on-base percentage.

Smitherman said it’s important to her to be able to give back to the sport and the city that made these opportunities available to her, so she thanked the city of Clanton and all the people that worked to bring the sport of softball here.

She plans to work with local youth this summer by holding clinics in Clanton and coaching a travel team at Strike Zone Travel Sports.