South Tama senior Ashlynn Ellenbecker turned in a softball season for the record books this summer. The pitcher and outfielder was a leader among all hitters in Class 3A, setting school records in home runs, RBIs and batting averages en route to an all-state award by the IPSWA.

Postseason accolades have been rolling in for South Tama softball standout Ashlynn Ellenbecker.

Despite another challenging season for the Trojans, Ellenbecker emerged as a silver lining.

The senior pitcher and outfielder turned into an offensive juggernaut in her fifth season with the team. In nearly every hitting statistic, Ellenbecker doubled or tripled her production from the year before.

By the end of the season she was among the leaders in Class 3A in batting average, slugging percentage and home runs. Her 2021 stat line includes 48 hits, 43 RBIs, 17 home runs and a .522 batting average.

Her senior achievements on the field and the reputation she has built throughout five years as a starter for South Tama earned recognition from the Iowa high school softball community.

Her post-season awards included WaMaC West Conference Player of the Year and First Team Outfield, All-District First Team, and Second Team Class 3A All-State by the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association. Ellenbecker also earned an All-Academic award through the WaMaC conference and was named Team MVP and Best Offensive Player by her teammates and coaches.

“There is no one like her and I don’t think there will be anyone as dedicated to South Tama softball as her,” STC Head Coach Chelsea Ahrens said. “I attended a clinic awhile back and Greg Thomas, brother of the late Ed Thomas from Aplington, spoke about the love for the game when you are a coach. He said in your lifetime of coaching you will probably only coach one or two kids that love the game as much as you do as a coach. Well, Ashlynn is that athlete. She loves softball and the Trojans with all her heart. I remember watching her as a 3rd and 4th grader in Rec softball and her coming to a lot of our home games to cheer us. She loves softball just as much, if not more, as she did then. She is a great teammate, great leader, and one of the hardest working kids there is, period.”

Ellenbecker got her start on the softball field in grade school playing in the local rec league. She recalls her dad playing slow pitch softball and once she had the opportunity to start learning the game with her friends and classmates, she was hooked.

She gravitated towards pitching as time went on and less and less of her teammates expressed interest in pitching.

In fourth grade she decided with her parents, Paul and Jackie Ellenbecker, to focus on pitching and began attending weekly lessons in Ankeny.

Lessons and youth league experience continued and by the time Ellenbecker neared the end of middle school, her skills were starting to reach the high school level.

“That offseason I really started working hard knowing I could get moved up,” Ellenbecker said. “I always tried to get Coach Ahrens’ attention and tried showing her the best I could do. I remember the day she asked me to come to their first practice. On the inside I was ecstatic, but I was also trying to play it cool. The girls that year were really amazing and that’s when I really started falling for the game.”

In her underclassmen years, Ellenbecker’s role with South Tama was to pitch. In total, she started 110 games for the Trojans and leveled up her skills with each passing season. By her sophomore season, her hitting started to come around and she ended the season leading the team in hits, extra-base hits and batting average.

After the pandemic suddenly and totally altered the 2020 season, Ellenbecker had one more opportunity to take her game to the next level.

Heading into the fall of her senior year, Ellenbecker had already committed to continue her career at the college level. She was recruited to play at Central College in Pella and was told by the Central coaches their intent was to develop her as an outfielder and as a hitter. Not as a pitcher.

So she recalibrated her focus to zero in on becoming a better hitter and a stronger athlete. While school was in session, Ellenbecker put in three to four workouts a day, attending both P.E. and Strength and Conditioning classes during the day, complementing that with running after school and workouts at Flex Fitness in Tama.

She brought a batting tee home and practiced her swing and spent weekends during the off-season playing with a club team from Williamsburg.

The finishing touches on her senior season preparation came as she made a slight adjustment with her knees in her batting stance and started swinging with a new bat.

The work paid off for Ellenbecker as she was a force to be reckoned with in the batter’s box.

Near the end of the regular season, South Tama took on Vinton-Shellsburg in a double-header for their last regular season conference matchup. Ellenbecker said she had the night marked on her calendar.

“I knew that game would be one we could win,” Ellenbecker said. “It was my last opportunity to ever have a conference win and I really wanted it to be ours. My whole family was there and I was like, ‘Ashlynn you can’t mess up.’ Getting that win was on my mind the entire night, whether it was a split or both games, that’s really what I wanted.”

Through all five seasons Ellenbecker competed with South Tama, their teams hadn’t won a game against a WaMaC conference opponent. The Vikettes were second from last in the standings and posed the best opportunity for the Trojans to overcome that challenge.

Ellenbecker put together a Herculean effort at the plate in an attempt to will her team to victory. Across both games she hit 6-for-8 with four home runs, two singles, one walk and 10 RBIs.

The hill proved too steep though as South Tama’s defense couldn’t contain Vinton-Shellsburg and the Trojans closed out another regular season winless in the WaMaC conference.

Ahrens said she was proud of how resilient Ellenbecker has been in the face of a difficult junior campaign in 2020 and the reality of so often being on the losing end games at South Tama.

“She doesn’t ever give up no matter what the circumstances are,” Ahrens said. “If we’re down by 10 runs, or if the previous night she didn’t pitch like she wanted to, she keeps working hard and with a smile on her face. She didn’t allow herself to quit or give up this past off-season. She dedicated herself to getting better at hitting and the results showed as she set school records for RBIs, home runs, and batting average.”

With the push from her senior season, Ellenbecker cemented her legacy as one of the best softball players to ever wear a South Tama uniform.

Her .522 batting average well surpassed the previous season record of .485 held by Amber (Karkosh) Bolen from 2002. She also captured the single season RBI record (43 in 2021) previously held by Jade Rohach who totalled 32 RBIs in 2013.

The home runs however, is where Ellenbecker stands in a class entirely her own. With 22 career home runs (17 this season), Ellenbecker has more than the next three South Tama players combined.

Looking forward, Ellenbecker is excited at the prospect of joining the Central College softball program.

“When I stepped on campus last year, I absolutely fell in love with it,” Ellenbecker said. “The atmosphere was really welcoming and after getting to shadow some of the players and watch them practice, I could just see the passion that they all have when they play. I could tell they all acted like they wanted to be there and I feel like this is a team I’ve been waiting to play for.”

Once Ellenbecker gets rolling with team practices next year, she’ll have the opportunity to work with specialized coaches like a hitting coach and an outfielders coach who can help develop her skills even further.

Academically, Ellenbecker plans on working toward a Bachelor’s degree in psychology with the hopes of pursuing a career in pediatric psychiatry.

Looking forward, Ahrens and the Trojans will face somewhat of an identity crisis next season as they will begin a new era of their program without Ellenbecker and the leadership and experience she’s brought to the team over the past half decade.

“Ashlynn is South Tama softball,” Ahrens said. “We won’t be able to replace her. She has thrown more innings and pitches over the past five years than anyone else. Each year she dedicated the entire nine months of the off-season to getting better at softball. Whether that is going to a pitching lesson on a Friday night, hitting off the tee in her garage, or playing in the fall and spring with her travel team. She made the game fun and she will be missed.”