The two premier Suffolk softball players with the same first name earned spots on the All-Eastern Region first team — senior Sydney Glover of Nansemond River High School and sophomore Sydney Wash of King’s Fork High School.

Neither Sydney had any clear anticipation that she would be given the honor, because both teams were eliminated during the district tournament and did not continue on to regional- or state-level play.

“I wasn’t really sure what to expect because I didn’t think that I would get it, knowing that we didn’t play in regionals,” Wash said.

“I wasn’t even hoping for it, because I didn’t think I could get it, not being in regionals,” Glover said. “But just the fact that whoever the representative was, I think Coach Gabe said he was from Great Bridge, the fact that he had me represented, and to speak for me, that meant a lot to me. I guess I made an impression on him and I made an impression on other coaches who I didn’t even know really knew me very well.”

Because Great Bridge High School won the Southeastern District, the school’s head softball coach Kirk Clayton represented the district’s top players to a panel of other coaches from the region.

“I was extremely shocked at getting that,” Wash said. “I kind of wanted to, but I wasn’t sure what the percentage was that I would get it, but I was definitely really shocked about it.”

Wash was named as a utility player, but King’s Fork head coach Richard Froemel felt that her impressive numbers on the mound were what earned her the honor.

“I didn’t expect her to get top honors, obviously, because it would help if she were presently still playing, but again, you can’t deny her numbers,” he said. “She was very successful against all of the better teams in our district.”

In 21 games played, Wash pitched 126 innings and threw 177 strikeouts with an earned run average of 1.28.

Nansemond River coach Gabe Rogers was surprised that Glover received a first team honor, but he thought she definitely deserved regional recognition. She was named as an outfielder, but it was on the weight of her offensive statistics — in 19 games she had 35 hits, 10 RBIs and 21 runs scored.

“She’s a very disciplined hitter, stays within herself, as far as hitting goes,” Rogers said. “When she goes into the batter’s box, she has an idea of what she wants to do, and I think she really had a very successful year just because of the fact that being a senior, being a left-handed batter, I gave her the freedom to do whatever she wanted to do when she was in the box.”

“Having the stats that she had, .538 batting average, .600 on-base percentage, I think a lot of that was a tribute to the fact that she did have the freedom to be able to do what she does best,” he said.