Votes are in: Patriot Ledger/Enterprise's Softball Preseason Player of the Year

There was an impressive showing of support for the 32 nominees in our softball Preseason Player of the Year poll last week, and the final results are in.

Hingham's Jess Mulrey collected over 53,000 votes to receive the honor. Her total accounted for 36 percent of the poll (147,330 votes).

The senior catcher was named a Patriot League All-Star for the Harborwomen as a junior last spring. Coach Diane Whittaker said Mulrey is "a strong hitter, aggressive baserunner and really has no holes in her physical game."

Last week, Mulrey went 4-for-5 and scored the winning run in a 5-4 extra-innings triumph over Marshfield, and later drove in four RBIs, while throwing out three baserunners, in a 12-7 win over Scituate.

Weymouth's freshman shortstop Bella Pires (35,864 votes) came in second and Stoughton's senior third baseman Alyssa Edwards came in third (25,162 votes).

Also receiving a significant total: Oliver Ames' Devon Morris (6,676 votes), Rockland's Brianna Hewitt (5,037 votes), Quincy/North Quincy's Caroline O'Donnell (4,044 votes), Norwell's Abby Greene (3,011 votes) and Cohasset's Caitlin Simms (2,244 votes).

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Revealing South Shore softball Preseason Player of the Year