AUGUSTA — Hailey Perry was happy just to be nominated. Imagine her surprise when she took home the hardware.

The Hermon High School senior was named the 2017 Miss Maine Softball recipient Thursday at Cony Family Field prior to the start of the Class A/B softball senior all-star game. Perry, who hit over .575 to lead the Hawks in hitting, was chosen over five other finalists, including Lilly Volk of undefeated Class A state champion Scarborough.

Hermon High School catcher Hailey Perry was named the 2017 Miss Maine Softball recipient during a presentation between senior all-star games Thursday at Cony High School. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

The award is given annually to Maine’s top senior player.

“The six girls that were nominated, I know a lot of them, and I know their talent,” Perry said. “I knew it was going to be a hard award to win. I was excited just to know I was in the top six (finalists).”

Perry became the second straight Hermon player to win Miss Maine Softball, following Karli Theberge last season.

Perry will join Volk — unbeaten this season as a pitcher for the Red Storm — at the University of Maine next year.

“I wanted to go out-of-state for a while, but when I figured out that I actually had a chance to go play at UMaine, I was like, ‘I have a chance to go 20 minutes from home and play the game that I love, why wouldn’t I do that?’ I’m really excited about playing there,” Perry said. “It’s going to be tough and push me to extremes I’ve never been pushed to before, but I’m ready for it.”

Perry, who was part of Hermon’s Class B state championship squad as a freshman and the Class B North regional champion as a sophomore, led the Hawks with 34 hits and 27 runs scored this season. She also had 22 RBIs and struck out only four times all season.

During this past season, in which Hermon advanced to the regional semifinals for a second straight season, Perry said it began to sink in that her high school career was coming to a close.

“Playing for Hermon all four years has been awesome,” Perry said. “This whole season, being a senior, it hit me hard halfway through the season that I was almost done with high school ball. It was crazy to think that. I’ve put so much time into Hermon High School softball and made so many close friends, this whole year in itself has been a great year. I’m sad that it’s over, but I’m also happy to start a new beginning at Maine.”

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC