OGDEN — The inner workings of college conference award processes can vary around the country, from how coaches place their votes, who is nominated for each award and who is ultimately chosen to receive the honors.

No matter the process, it was noticeably peculiar that Weber State softball — who, no matter how they finished in this week’s Big Sky Conference tournament, had already secured all-time records for best overall winning percentage and best regular-season conference winning percentage in the conference’s history — somehow did not have a player win either player of the year or pitcher of the year.

An obvious choice for either was WSU senior Arissa Henderson, the BYU transfer and former West Coast Conference pitcher of the year in 2019 who did receive the Big Sky’s newcomer of the year award.

At the end of the regular season, Henderson was 14-1 in the circle to go with a Big Sky-best 2.04 ERA and, at the plate, hit .333 with eight home runs and 23 RBIs in only half-time hitting work. She hit a home run once in every nine at-bats.

She won neither of the big regular-season awards — though that’s likely now more of an irritation than any kind of true, gnawing vexation.

That’s because Weber State finished the job emphatically to hoist a second team championship trophy this season, defeating Idaho State 10-0, and Sacramento State 9-0 and 8-0 to win the conference tournament and head to the NCAA Tournament with a 38-10 record.

Henderson won the first and last of those games in the circle. In 10 innings, she allowed eight hits, no runs (obviously), struck out five and walked one. Her pitching record for the season is now 16-1 and her ERA is 1.88.

“I was pretty comfortable the whole time,” Henderson said about Saturday’s performance. “I know I have a good staff behind me … and we have great hitters, I know we’ll put up runs. So from the get-go, I was pretty confident.”

At the plate this week, she hit 3 for 8 with five RBIs, scored three runs, and hit a grand slam against Idaho State. Her season average at the plate is now .338, to go with nine home runs and 28 RBIs.

As good as she was Wednesday against Idaho State, she was even better Saturday to win the title against Sacramento State. She allowed just two baserunners in five innings, one of which reached when an infield fly was lost in the sun, and only two balls made it out of the infield. Henderson induced 11 groundouts, two soft, infield lineouts and one outfield flyout, while striking out one.

Head coach Mary Kay Amicone said she knew from the first inning Saturday that Henderson was going to bring the goods.

“Even at the plate, before she got a chance to pitch, she stayed within herself and had a great at-bat. She’s that quiet competitor, that humble competitor, that’s just like ‘I’m going to do whatever I can for our team to win and have success,'” Amicone said.

Henderson threw a complete game in Weber State’s season opener, a 5-1 win over Fordham on Feb. 11 in which she allowed five hits and struck out 10. Fordham won the Atlantic 10 softball tournament championship Saturday and won 30 games this season.

She pitched a complete-game one-hitter against Texas A&M, a 2-1 win in which she struck out seven. A&M, from the money-bloated SEC, went 29-26 this season.

Her only loss in the circle came at Utah, a 5-1 defeat in which WSU’s only run was Henderson’s solo home run. Utah was 27-27 this season and is hoping to hear its name called for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

Henderson pitched an eight-inning complete game in a 4-3 win over San Diego State, striking out five and spreading eight hits while allowing two earned runs. San Diego State won the Mountain West Conference (which does not contest a conference tournament) and went 37-14 this season.

All of those nonconference wins are paramount to the NCAA Tournament seeding Weber State will receive.

For her two games this week, Henderson did get to walk to the middle of the infield dirt Saturday afternoon for some individual hardware. She was named tournament MVP.

Finally, Henderson got an official nod for the impact she’s made this season. In her lone season at Weber State, she won’t climb very high on record leaderboards, but she’ll leave as one of the best to ever lace it up for the Wildcats.

“She’s an incredible person. Very quiet, very humble. But just ice in her veins,” Amicone said about Henderson in March. “She just is a cold-hearted assassin, if you will. She loves every challenge, she loves to play, and our team has embraced her and she’s just come along with us.”

Newsletter