Immke ends season on top of IHSA record book for all-time home runs in a season
By Fred Kroner
In her final at-bat in her final high school softball game, St. Joseph-Ogden’s Shayne Immke broke the all-time IHSA season record for home runs in one softball season.
Immke slammed her 25th on Friday (May 19) at Sullivan, but the Spartans were outscored by Marshall, 12-8, in the championship game of a Class 2A regional tournament.
Addy Martinie hit two home runs, extending her season total to 16. Immke and Martinie each collected three RBI.
Katharine Short also drilled a homer and delivered two RBI. Sofie Siemsen was 2-for-4. Martinie ended 3-for-3 and scored two runs.
Short finished the season with six homers.
Immke’s historic blast was a two-run shot that came on what would have been the last pitch she faced as a high school player, unless she fouled it off. Her home run came on a 3-2 pitch and was indeed the final pitch she saw as a prep player.
Immke hit 17 homers in her final 18 games, including one streak of a home run in seven consecutive games.
The previous IHSA single-season home run record-holders with 24 were Goreville’s Taylor Odom (2012) and Schaumburg’s Elaine Walker (2015).
SJ-O held a 3-0 lead in the third inning, but was unable to sustain it. Marshall carried a 12-4 lead in the fifth inning.
SJ-O ends the season with a 25-11 overall record.
Immke led the Spartans in virtually every statistical category: batting average (.600), runs scored (77), hits (75), runs batted in (64), doubles (16), triples (13), home runs (25), extra-base hits (54) and games with two, or more, hits (23).
She was second to Peyton Jones (36) in stolen bases with 20.
She was one of nine SJ-O players (with at least 30 at-bats) who compiled batting averages of .300, or better.
The others were Jones (.520), Addison Frick (435), Addy Martinie (.430), Emma McKinney (.417), Halle Brazelton (.386), Alyssa Acton (.364), Katharine Short (.303) and Grace Osterbur (.301). Just missing that plateau was Sofie Siemsen (.290).
Jones tallied 54 runs for the year and had 22 games with two, or more, hits. Martinie delivered 57 RBI, scored 49 runs and swatted 16 home runs. Frick scored 43 runs and swiped 19 bases.
Timera Blackburn-Kelley was the top pitcher, compiling a 12-3 record and 2.88 earned run average. She struck out a team-high 61 batters and led the team in pitching appearances (18).
Acton (7-6) and Madison Stevens (6-2) were second and third respectively, on the team in innings pitched with 71 2/3 and 50 2/3. Stevens logged 43 strikeouts and ended with a 3.87 ERA. Acton pitched in 15 games and Stevens had 14 appearances.
Acton and Blackburn-Kelley each pitched three shutouts. Stevens threw two shutouts.
Immke, a senior, and Martinie, a junior, earned spots among the all-time SJ-O leaders, either for a season or for a career.
In the school’s single-season listings, Immke ranks first in triples (13), first in home runs (25), tied for third in runs scored (77) and tied for sixth in hits (75). From previous seasons, she also has the fourth-best (.651) and 10th-best batting averages (.608) for a season. Martinie stands sixth for home runs in a season (16).
In the career compilations, Immke ranks first in triples (29), second in home runs (51), second in batting average (.616), sixth in runs scored (194), seventh in RBI (164) and 11th in hits (202). Martinie stands fourth in home runs with 33.
