By finishing in the middle of the pack in the Southeastern District softball chase this spring, Nansemond River head coach Tim Tarafas was hopeful, but not very optimistic, his star senior catcher, Anna Cain, would be named the district’s player of the year.

Following the last Lady Warrior game of the season, Tarafas said, “without Anna, I don’t know where this team would’ve been.”

The rest of the coaches in the Southeastern agreed about Cain’s importance, voting her the SED Player of the Year as the season honors in the district were announced Wednesday with the final of the district tournament.

Simply put, there was no weakness at all in Cain’s play this season, and that’s with the complexity of playing catcher.

Offensively, Cain hit over .700 with a slugging percentage around 1.260 said Tarafas. It’s telling enough when a 2-for-3 or 3-for-5 game at the plate brings a batting average down, but Tarafas said there were only one or two games in which Cain didn’t get multiple hits.

Finishing with an 8-10 record, there were some points when the Lady Warrior offense struggled to put runs across. Cain’s spot in the order was close to automatic though.

“When you see the runs we scored this season, that‘s (Cain’s RBIs) most of them,” Tarafas said.

Behind the plate, Cain accounted for more RBI in a way, in terms of runs saved by her defense.

Her reputation around the district was already set this season after she was an all-district player last year. This year, opponents didn’t try running against her. District opponents attempted four stolen bases, in 18 games, and Cain threw out three of the four.

“That was all because of the respect she gets all around the district,” Tarafas said.

Even the Lady Warrior coaches will have to pick up their game with Cain graduating. For the last two seasons, Cain’s called all of the pitches for the Lady Warriors.