Vermont Softball Player of the Year, Borrazzo leaves behind lasting legacy

Recent South Burlington High School graduate Emily Borrazzo might be the 2023 Gatorade Vermont Softball Player of the Year, but to her friends, family and teammates it is her dedication and ultimate love of the sport that really gets the win.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one student athlete in each state for every sport. The selection process is administered by a selection committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine state winners in various high school sports.

The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field.

Borrazzo came to love softball early on thanks to her sisters and family, who encouraged her to cultivate the passion when she was just 6 years old.

“My parents always wanted the three of us to play a sport year-round,” she explained. “Both of my sisters were pitchers, so I would go to their games, and on the sidelines, I’d be mimicking their pitching motion.”

Borrazzo also won Gatorade Softball Player of the Year last year.

Throughout the years, she dabbled in soccer, basketball and even golf, but softball has always been her first love, teaching her some of life’s greatest lessons: resiliency and learning how to overcome self-doubt.

“When I’m on the mound, if someone gets a good hit or something like that, when I was younger, I would usually just dwell on that and be like, ‘Oh, I should have pitched this and I should have focused harder,’ but I’ve learned you can focus on it for only 30 seconds and then just focus on the next batter and what you’re going to do differently next time,” she said. “You just have to bounce back. It’s also taught me to be really intentional with what you’re doing.”

This season the right-hander led the Wolves to the Division I state tournament, compiling a 10-5 record through 15 games in 97 innings. Her earned run average was 0.94, and she struck out 164 batters with just 16 walks.

At the plate, Borrazzo batted .571 with four home runs and 16 RBI, scored 26 runs, and struck out just once.

When she’s not on the mound, Borrazzo enjoys baking, biking, hanging out with her friends and playing board games.

“My family gets kind of sick of me playing board games. I’ll play a board game with anybody honestly,” she joked.

Although softball seems to be something that just runs in her blood, she said she owes much of her success to her team and coach Hailey Reilly, who Borrazzo says made team bonding a top priority this year.

“One of my big philosophies as a coach is yes, softball is really important, but also being a good human is really important,” Reilly said. “I think that (the team) really rose to that expectation of just how to treat each other and how to be a team in many ways.”

She explained the season as one of “ups and downs” and although there were periods of disappointment, there were also moments of “fantastic individual performance,” including Borrazzo’s performance on the pitcher’s mound.

“She was such a force as a player and as a leader and just cared so much about everybody else and their experience,” Reilly said. “We struggled with that consistency in games, and she was able to keep the score really low. So even when it was tough to get runs on and people around, the score was so low because she pitched every single game for us. We really didn’t give her an option for any breaks, and she just took all of that in stride.”

Reilly described Borrazzo as the kind of player that’s the first to get to practice and the last to leave, a quality so ingrained in her that she named an award after her: Love of the Sport Award.

“This kid just loves to play softball and loves to have other people enjoy softball,” she said.

As Borrazzo steps off the pitcher’s mound as a South Burlington Wolf for the last time, she brings with her everything that the last four years has taught her onto a new adventure: She heads to Williams College in the fall.

She isn’t sure what she plans to study, but one thing is certain, she will be playing softball.

“I’m a little bit nervous but pretty excited,” Borrazzo said. “There’s a lot of people from all over so it’ll be cool to play with them and see how the game is a little bit different over there. They’re all very passionate people. I’m very excited to play with them.”

Reilly said there will be big shoes to fill next year with Borrazzo gone.

“She’s definitely leaving a legacy behind her,” Reilly said.

It’s a legacy Borrazzo hopes will inspire others to play softball. “I just really hope that it makes other little girls want to play softball,” she said.