Avah Oertel won the BCR’s first Triple Crown Award in 23 years last year as the area leader in home runs, RBIs and average.

Turns out, she was just warming up.

The Princeton junior slugger had more hits than Taylor Swift this spring.

She batted .607 with a school single-season record 17 homers, 59 RBIs, 19 doubles and 55 runs scored. With a year to go, she is already Princeton’s career leader for home runs (35), RBIs (137) and doubles (35).

She also led all area pitchers with a 2.47 ERA in the circle along with a 3-1 record.

Oertel was named unanimous Three Rivers East All-Conference and helped the Tigresses to a 21-9 record and the brink of a regional championship.

She was named First Team ICA Class 2A All-State.

For all of her accomplishments, Oertel repeats as the BCR Softball Player of the Year for 2026.

With coaching changes, including head coach Jessica Strauch, and the loss of key seniors, Oertel didn’t know what to expect this season. She even surprised herself with the numbers she put up.

“Coming into this season, I was nervous with two new coaches, losing the three seniors last year, so I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go for me,” she said. “I thought last year was already a big jump from my freshman year in improvement. I wasn’t expecting a bigger jump in my junior year.”

Oertel said she began working with renown area hitting instructor Trey Hannam and it paid immediate dividends.

“I feel like since working with him, I’ve been able to see the ball a lot better and making contact and even making adjustments from at-bat to at-bat. I feel that’s my biggest improvement, the biggest change overall in the box,” she said.

“I get what he’s saying, but then I don’t realize how big of an impact it makes until the pitcher’s pitching. It will be just something so simple, too. Last time it was squatting more with my legs and then you can tell how much more powerful I was.

“Every time it’s something little in my swing. It’s like a slow process that continues to work.”

Hannam said Oertel just needed some fine tuning.

“She came in with a lot of power last fall, but she needed guidance on how to be more quick and be more consistent with her swing so she could react instead of having to have perfect timing,” he said.

“Then paired up with that, having better direction with her swing so she could drive the ball middle, away and opposite field better. To put the cherry on top, (she had to have) more consistent confidence and belief in her swing.”

Oertel, who with 12 home runs next year would move her into the top 14 all-time in the state, said playing with and batting behind senior slugger Keely Lawson made her a better hitter. Between them, they belted 31 homers with 104 RBIs.

“Me and Keely were each other’s motivation because we would push each other, batting 2 and 3 in the lineup, (playing) shortstop and center we always had a talk,” Oertel said. “We were named as captains at the beginning of the year so we took on that role and worked together. Help anyone fix whatever needed to be fixed. Tell coach anything that was happening. I’ll definitely be a little lost without her and all those seniors.”

Oertel’s littlest fan, 9-year-old sister, Alivia, is an up and coming player for the Princeton Peaches. She’s already talking about beating all of her sister’s records.

“She says, ‘I’m going to beat it.’ I’m like, ‘Girl, OK,’” Avah said with a laugh. “Watching her now, it just makes my heart happy because she sat through all of my games. She’s always learning from her games. She’s my little role model, even if she’s so young.”

Oertel, who started the summer travel season with a bang with three homers in the first weekend, can’t ask for much more individually for an encore for her senior season. But there’s one thing she’s shooting for most next year.

“The big thing is, I want to win a regional championship for Princeton High School, especially my senior year,” she said. “I wanted to this year. I wanted to last year. I feel like each year we get super duper close. But this year was a good game. It came down to the final straw. Winning that regional championship and moving on to sectional would be huge.”

Oertel made an early commitment in November to play for the University of Illinois-Springfield. It’s helped to put her mind at ease and just play ball this spring.

“Once I committed, I felt like I played a lot more loose this season and played a lot more comfortable knowing I have somewhere to go after high school. It definitely made me more relaxed,” she said.

“I’m super excited. They were like my No. 1 school. It’s funny because they didn’t really show any interest until last summer and I committed Nov. 20. Every time I see something on Twitter about them, I get more excited. I can’t wait to see where that goes, too.”