All-RTC4 softball: Dominant sectional as pitcher, hitter wrap up another Player of Year for Bussard

Val T.
Jul 24
6 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

**RTC4 Softball Player of the Year Dalynne Bussard**

We had a pretty good idea whom we were picking for RTC4 Softball Player of the Year before sectionals week started.

What happened during sectionals week only confirmed what we had already been thinking: Dalynne Bussard deserves it again.

Bussard, a senior from Tippecanoe Valley and a University of Indianapolis recruit, is the first two-time winner in the six-year history of the award. She also won it last year.

This year, she went 12-4 with a 1.35 ERA in the circle with 210 strikeouts in 119 ⅔ innings. Prior to Bussard, no Valley pitcher had ever accumulated 200 career strikeouts. Bussard finished her career with 672.

She also hit .418 with two homers and 26 RBIs and a 1.050 OPS. She went 7 for 11 at the plate in the sectional. She had seven games with multiple RBIs, and her two-run single in the fifth inning of the sectional final against Fairfield might have been the biggest hit of her career. It came in a game that Valley won 3-1.

She pitched a five-hitter with no walks and 15 strikeouts in that game. That was against a Fairfield offense that scored in double digits 15 times on the season and a team that had scored 59 runs in their previous three games. But they had not seen anybody like Dalynne Bussard.

This caps one of the most event-filled and exciting softball seasons in at least the last 25 years, if not longer.

Rochester and Valley won their sectionals, and both hosted and lost regional games less than 15 miles apart at the same time June 2.

Winamac won 20 games, had another perfect run through the Hoosier North and was ranked in the top 10 in Class 2A for most of the season. It was a banner year at Culver, and it took the eventual state runner-up in Class 1A to knock them out. Caston and Pioneer also were ranked during the season.

Yes, the numbers situations at Argos and Pioneer are concerning, but this is a fertile area for softball talent. The kids who play softball love softball.

That does not figure to change any time soon.

Bussard headlines our All-RTC4 softball team. We thank area coaches for their help sending us box scores and statistics and for talking to us after games and sharing their thoughts and opinions.

Having said that, this list is ours and ours alone, and we take full responsibility for it. We went to games in March, and we went to games in June, and we went to games everywhere at all times in between, and we had the opportunity to see a lot of excellence on the diamond.

In a few instances, we moved some players to some positions that might seem unfamiliar a lot in order to fit all the best players on our team.

All-RTC4

Pitchers

Dalynne Bussard (Tippecanoe Valley) (Player of the Year) – When Valley won the sectional in 2023, Bussard was a freshman and the last piece of the puzzle on a senior-dominated group. This year, it was more about her senior leadership instilling confidence in a group to get over its mental hurdles.
Bria Rensberger (Rochester) – Rensberger cut her walks allowed almost in half despite pitching only four fewer innings in 2026 than she did in 2025. And she had another 200-strikeout season even though Rochester faced a tougher schedule. She is over 600 strikeouts with one year to go.
Aiden Molebash (Culver) – Molebash, a junior, went 7-5 with a 2.31 ERA with 138 strikeouts in 85 innings. She surpassed the 300-strikeout mark for her career at season’s end, and she has a year to go. She throws very little down the middle of the plate, and she relies on a wicked curve.

Catchers

Gracie Milam (Culver) – Milam, a senior, was a one-person wrecking crew at the plate – a .517 average with seven homers, 35 RBIs and an insane 1.730 OPS. There is no easy way to defend her. She has an alley-to-alley approach if you pitch her away, and if you try to get in her hands, she just torches pitches down the left field line.
Kylee Logan (Caston) – Logan, a senior and a Manchester University recruit, was the last of the players from the 2023 state runner-up team who started then and also started three years later. She hit .559 with a 1.509 OPS, tied for the team lead in RBIs and nurtured multiple pitchers to an 11-win season for the team.
Kaitlyn Threlkel (Tippecanoe Valley) – Threlkel came out of nowhere to have a hugely impressive season. She had 35 hits as a junior after recording just 22 hits in her freshman and sophomore seasons combined. She raised her batting average from .167 to .461 in one year. She also is a solid defensive catcher with an underrated throwing arm.

Infielders

Lois Layer (Pioneer) – Layer hit .583 with five homers and 41 RBIs, and she finished with 49 hits – about two a game – to go with a 1.523 OPS. She also went 12-5 with a 2.69 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 99 innings in the circle. She was also a key performer at shortstop when she was not pitching.
Maggie Keller (Winamac) – Keller also had 49 hits to go with a .583 average, six homers, 38 RBIs and a 1.570 OPS. She’s a strong, explosive athlete, and she is only going to continue to be more comfortable defensively at shortstop.
Aubrey Wilson (Rochester) – Rochester actually dropped from 232 runs in 2025 to 213 in 2026 in the exact same number of games (26). Part of that had to do with playing a tougher schedule, but regardless, during times when Rochester had trouble scoring, Wilson is seemingly a guaranteed line drive after hitting .452 with 35 RBIs and a 1.219 OPS.
Averi Layer (Pioneer) – Layer, a junior, hit .444 with three homers and 24 RBIs and 1.313 OPS. More than half of 32 hits went for extra bases, and she was often at shortstop when Lois Layer was in the circle.
Grace Roth (Winamac) – We are going to list Roth as an infielder, but we know full well that Roth, a sophomore, is a catcher whose days as an infielder ended in 2025. She hit .462 with four homers and 23 RBIs and a 1.211 OPS. We were wondering if the graduation of Corrin Combs would affect the pitchers, but if anything, Rausch and Hall got better with Roth behind the plate.
Layla Hampton (North Miami) – Hampton is a great athlete who uses her athleticism to unlock her hands and just crush pitches. She hit .383 with a 1.089 OPS.
Brooke Rausch (Winamac) – Rausch just got better and better every year of her career. Her OPS by season: .558, .561, .704, .960. In the circle, she cut her ERA from 4.37 last year down to 2.00 this year. Rausch held down first base whenever Adrianna Hall was in the circle.

Outfielders

Makayla Werner (Winamac) – Werner, a senior, hit .425 with five homers and 25 RBIs and an 1.117 OPS while also playing her typical fantastic defense in center field.
Aubrey Miller (Rochester) – Miller, a senior and a Taylor University recruit, hit .397 with a .964 OPS and had no issues moving from left field as a junior to center field as a senior. She also stole 23 bases, giving players like Adalyn Gonzalez, Aubrey Wilson and Jadyn Field a plethora of RBI opportunities.
Abigayle Zehner (Culver) – A senior, Zehner did not start playing softball until she was an eighth-grader. Had she started earlier, her coaches might have tried to turn her into a slapper, but it is a good thing they did not. Hitting righty, she hit .508 with six homers and 19 RBIs and a 1.610 OPS. Molebash and Milam had Zehner to thank for all of their RBI opportunities.
Adrianna Hall (Winamac) – Hall, a junior who played left field when she did not pitch, hit .415 with two homers, 27 RBIs and an 1.120 OPS. She also went 9-2 with a 2.42 ERA essentially splitting pitching responsibilities evenly with Rausch.
Natalie Warner (Caston) – Warner, a junior, hit .431 with four homers, 25 RBIs and a 1.202 OPS, and she covers a lot of ground in center field with her long strides. She also had a 2.41 ERA in 32 innings as the No. 2 pitcher behind Hadlie Coffing.
Kahlyn Manns (Tippecanoe Valley) – As Manns’ career progressed, she became a player who relied on her speed less and her power more. She finished with a .395 batting average and an .899 OPS.
Hadlie Coffing (Caston) – Coffing hit .364 with two homers and 24 RBI and a .976 OPS, and she also went 6-6 with a 5.12 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 69 ⅔ innings in the circle.