Pilgrim’s Alyssa Twomey Named 2022 R.I. Softball Gatorade Player of the Year

CHICAGO (June 9, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Alyssa Twomey of Pilgrim High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Rhode Island Softball Player of the
Year. Twomey is the first Gatorade Rhode Island Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Pilgrim High
School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic
achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Twomey as Rhode
Island’s best high school softball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Softball Player of the
Year award to be announced in June, Twomey joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12
sports, including Cat Osterman (2000-01, Cy Spring High School, Texas), Kelsey Stewart (2009-10, Arkansas City
High School, Kan.), Carley Hoover (2012-13, D.W. Daniel High School, S.C.), Jenna Lilley (2012-13, Hoover High
School, Ohio), Morgan Zerkle (2012-13, Cabell Midland High School, W. Va.), and Rachel Garcia (2014-15,
Highland High School, Calif.).

At the time of her selection, the 5-foot-10 junior right-handed pitcher had led the Patriots to a 17-3-1 record and a
berth in the Division 1 state tournament loser’s bracket semifinals. Twomey compiled a 13-3 record in the circle
with a 0.55 earned run average through 21 games. She struck out 168 batters while walking just 22 walks in 102.2
innings pitched. At the plate, Twomey owned a .373 batting average with seven home runs, 23 runs scored, 23 runs
batted in and a .949 slugging percentage.

Twomey has volunteered locally feeding the homeless during the holiday season, and she has donated her time as a
youth softball coach. “She is the most complete player I’ve seen in my 12 years coaching softball in Rhode Island,”
said Carlos Rodas, head coach of Pilgrim High School. “She’s a five-tool player who can completely change any
game in numerous different ways.”

Twomey has maintained a weighted 4.47 GPA in the classroom. She has made a verbal commitment to play softball
on scholarship at Providence College beginning in the fall of 2023.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of
the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls
basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player
of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection
Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and
determine the state winners in each sport.

Twomey joins recent Gatorade Rhode Island Softball Players of the Year Haley Venturini (2020-21 & 2018-19,
Scituate High School), Kayla Baptista (2019-20, La Salle Academy), and Ali Blanchard (2017-18, Moses Brown
School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable
lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Twomey has the opportunity to
award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the
benefits of playing sports. Twomey is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they
chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date,
Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300
organizations.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of
professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming
coaches, business owners and educators.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.